Lounge Access for guests

Lounge Access for guests

I'm a QF Platinum FF, and have been a member for around 25 years.  I am travelling to the US next week, and my wife and son are following a few days later.  I asked QF if I could get a lounge guest pass for them for the trip over, and got a straight out "No", seems like a paltry ask for someone who's business is around $500k worth of travel per year.  I'm not actually feeling like a valued customer at this point, so would like to know if anyone here has experienced similar dissapointments, and how they have addressed them with Qantas??

And actually they called it “loyalty” scheme. But in fact QF (and all of them for this merit) only expects loyalty from you and never gives anything in return. I understand your frustration if your company spend half a million dollars for you traveling with them.

Australian airlines have been tightening the grip on the "perks". Actually, all the airlines in the world are trying to minimise the benefits of frequent flyers to maximise profits. I'm not surprised that they rejected your request.

If you called the customer service department, keep in mind that they are just hired guns to deal with the customers and they speak according to the official policy as they are not in charge. Maybe send a complaint email to the customer service department explaining your situation. If the person in charge gets a hold of it, they may be able to redeem the situation.

No offence, but the benefits you've earned are exactly that. Your benefits, not you're wife's benefits, not your son's benefits, but yours.

They can certainly share them with you when you fly together, but when you're not even at the airport?

I don't see why Qantas or any airline would or should give somebody else access to a lounge purely because they know or are related to a Platinum member, unless they're travelling with that member. And even then, Qantas normally allows only one guest in an international lounge (unless the kid is very young), so you'd probably be pushing it even if you were flying together.

If your spend is so high, you probably have a platinum or black AmEx card, and hopefully you trust your wife enough to have made her an additional cardholder. Why don't you just have them use that lounge instead, or get them to pay for the Skyteam lounge if having a lounge is so important and they're booked back in economy without lounge access themselves?

You sound a little bitter Dean, and I'm guessing you don't work in a customer service business.  If you sepnt a bit of time in International lounges, you'd see that there's a lot of families in there who have many kids.... and I don't begrudge that one bit.  I'm trying to see where my tone in the original post was expectant or entitled, maybe it came across wrong.  If you think QF's customer service is excellent, good for you.  Finally, I have absolutely no reason to have a Platinum or Black Amex.  As a business traveller AMEX is probably THE worst card to use overseas, and the annual fees strike me as ridiculous.  I do have lounge alternatives for my family however, but it would appear you (and others) miss the original point, which was "Are you really going to be that binary Qantas" 

Not bitter at all, just realistic in that if you were as important to Qantas as you make yourself out to be, you'd have earned enough status credits to give partner gold status to your wife (which would actually give her lounge access even when you're not flying yourself), or even partner platinum if you were a platinum one member.

$500k spend and not even reaching 2400sc just doesn't add up.

Rules are rules, not sure you are under the impression you are exempt just because of a spend level, I'm sure there are plenty of other plats who spend a lot more who are also not entitled to it. Can't really label it a 'disappointment' when it is a clearly stated condition / term of the program.

To be fair to Paul, there are at least 2 airlines in the Oneworld family that offers emerald members a complimentary Sapphire or Emerald status card for their spouse/partner/3rd person; Malaysia Airlines and BA (upon reaching Gold Guest List status).

Paul, if money's no object, get your wife an annual Qantas club membership. It's surely cheaper than flying them in Budiness. 

Paul, you have my sympathy. I'd have thought Qantas would look after it most frequent flyers without this type of cheap bean-counting miserlyness. But it appears that they actually don't really value your custom all that much. I had a similar experience (but with a different issue) back in January and told Qantas clearly that I would abandon them for another airline. They wouldn't address my complaint so I switched my $90,000pa travel budget to AirNZ.  AirNZ also gave me a status match to win my business.  I haven't flown QF at all in 2016 after 12 years straight as a Platinum flyer and  lifetime Gold with them! Walk away.

Agree with the comments - you shouldn't expect something that is not a standard benefit.

However, if you are pleasant to the staff in the lounge, they may put them on the list for the day you need. No guarantees, but may be an option. I wouldn't be upset if they don't though.

As a Platinum FF you might be aware that once you reach a certain number of status credits (2400) there is an entitlement to gift a friend or family member with complimentary Gold status. Because it is a published benefit I can understand their reluctance to do so when you have (presumably) not reached this threshold.

As an aside, if you haven't reached 2400 status credits, will your travel to the US get you there? If so, given your family are travelling a few days later there may be time to have her status changed if you discuss that with the QF call centre.

Qantas are selling Lounge Access passess.  Will that solve your problem?

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-is-now-selling-airport-lounge-passes

Thanks 11sjw.  Checked it out, but only for Bronze and Silver ironically.

Paul, just to flag: Bronze is the entry-level tier in Qantas Frequent Flyer, not an actual elite status tier. In other words, everybody who is a member of QFF is Bronze or higher.