After a recent poor experience with QF on a trip to Houston via LA (and a pretty average response being 20,000 FF points allbeit personalised via phone from a nice lady) I have decided to look at leaving the airline for another and want to see what everyone recommends in terms of an airline I can status match with?
Can I move to another OW airline or would it need to be a competitor alliance? I have only flown with QF the past 6 years so haven't tried anybody else other than CX (pretty good) and BA (pretty average)
I am P1 now based in Singapore and travel to Australia and around Asia alot with the odd trip to UK and USA so obviously thinking SQ or even Emirates (although I am not a huge fan of them)
Any advice appreciated as I really haven't looked outside of QF before
do you fly mostly in premium cabins (J and F) ? because if that was so maybe have a look to see whether you would make PPS solitaire with Singapore even still Singapore would be a good bet espescially with the new refurbishments and that your based there
Thanks - i only fly premium on long hall and flexi economy or Premium Economy on anything below 9 hours
Would i just contact Singapore and ask them then? Sorry i am a bit of a novice as have been a "loyal" customer for so many years!
ah okay, the trouble would be that Singapore only awards PPS credits in J and F flights. So probably have a look at whether you'd be rewarded better with Kris flyer and Cathay. Also might be worth sticking to QF until you get life time gold (if your close to it) which would free up the loyalty side of things
Singapore is known to not status match. It might be a different case with P1, but I would be surprised if they did. You could try and accumlate both PPS Singapore airlines and Virgin Australia at the same time. I know that Chris wrote an article about being able to accumulate for both at the same time. Good luck!
Thanks - i only fly premium on long hall and flexi economy or Premium Economy on anything below 9 hours
Would i just contact Singapore and ask them then? Sorry i am a bit of a novice as have been a "loyal" customer for so many years!
ah okay, the trouble would be that Singapore only awards PPS credits in J and F flights. So probably have a look at whether you'd be rewarded better with Kris flyer and Cathay. Also might be worth sticking to QF until you get life time gold (if your close to it) which would free up the loyalty side of things
[/QUOTE]
Last editedby Jorge_fly at Nov 13, 2017, 12:38 PM.
Singapore is known to not status match. It might be a different case with P1, but I would be surprised if they did. You could try and accumlate both PPS Singapore airlines and Virgin Australia at the same time. I know that Chris wrote an article about being able to accumulate for both at the same time. Good luck!
Whilst SQ doesn't status match, they do offer a fast track to KrisFlyer Gold if you hold Jade or Diamond status with Shangri-La's Golden Circle program (which is a benefit of some AMEX cards).
I had a similar experience at Christmas 2016 as a regular QF Platinum with Qantas. I approached Air NZ and started flying them from Perth to Houston about 4 Times per year. They status matched me to Gold and I only had to get the extra credits to make Elite.
I was a BAEC Gold and switched to Qatar PC because I was flying a lot to Miri (via KL) and Qatar had good fares. I was also disenchanted with BA because I could never find J redemption availability to anywhere I wanted to go to. I didn't get status match but made Qatar Platinum. I regretted my decision to switch to Qatar for a while until I did a Qatar economy trip from London to Sydney. I was given a good economy seat (upper deck adjacent seat free) all the way out and I got upgraded all the way home. The DOH - LHR upgrade was confirmed at time of booking. The SYD - DOH upgrade was processed on departure from Sydney. Qatar miles redemption availability in J is non-existent except at 2x standard rate. I would only recommend Qatar if you want the chance of upgrades (but with no guarantee). They don't have PE so any upgrade is very valuable. I would not recommend BA unless you are UK based. BA do, however, have very good value short haul redemption opportunities. I think this includes Oz code shares for domestic. They also open up short haul redemptions a lot for Gold card holders so, for example, I took my extended family to Nice from London on miles in August saving a fortune. I ended up being caught out in a BA IT SNAFU and, if I had kept my Gold, they would have extended it for 2 years. I was miffed to miss that (but at least I got extended silver). I've now switched to Qantas!
If your company has a relationship with an airline, you may be able to get status matching. CX can often do it, but you have to have a travel agreement with them. If you don't get a match, it's a hard slog during the qualifying period...good luck!
BA won't allow you to join their FF programme unless you have a UK address (try ba.com and select Country and a notice will come up.
That said I agree with a comment above that although BA are lousy for reward flights on their own airline they are great value if used on QF flights. About £12 (20 AUD) business class BNE to SYD and 15,000 points.
PNGRotator
PNGRotator
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 06 Oct 2014
Total posts 19
Hi There,
freshthoughts
freshthoughts
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 08 Aug 2016
Total posts 112
do you fly mostly in premium cabins (J and F) ? because if that was so maybe have a look to see whether you would make PPS solitaire with Singapore even still Singapore would be a good bet espescially with the new refurbishments and that your based there
PNGRotator
PNGRotator
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 06 Oct 2014
Total posts 19
Thanks - i only fly premium on long hall and flexi economy or Premium Economy on anything below 9 hours
freshthoughts
freshthoughts
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 08 Aug 2016
Total posts 112
ah okay, the trouble would be that Singapore only awards PPS credits in J and F flights. So probably have a look at whether you'd be rewarded better with Kris flyer and Cathay. Also might be worth sticking to QF until you get life time gold (if your close to it) which would free up the loyalty side of things
Jorge_fly
Jorge_fly
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 08 Feb 2016
Total posts 83
Singapore is known to not status match. It might be a different case with P1, but I would be surprised if they did. You could try and accumlate both PPS Singapore airlines and Virgin Australia at the same time. I know that Chris wrote an article about being able to accumulate for both at the same time. Good luck!
Jorge_fly
Jorge_fly
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 08 Feb 2016
Total posts 83
Good point regarding life time Gold.
[QUOTE=14269;42265]
Would i just contact Singapore and ask them then? Sorry i am a bit of a novice as have been a "loyal" customer for so many years!
ah okay, the trouble would be that Singapore only awards PPS credits in J and F flights. So probably have a look at whether you'd be rewarded better with Kris flyer and Cathay. Also might be worth sticking to QF until you get life time gold (if your close to it) which would free up the loyalty side of things
PeterLoh
PeterLoh
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 25 May 2012
Total posts 356
Whilst SQ doesn't status match, they do offer a fast track to KrisFlyer Gold if you hold Jade or Diamond status with Shangri-La's Golden Circle program (which is a benefit of some AMEX cards).
PNGRotator
PNGRotator
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 06 Oct 2014
Total posts 19
thanks all - would anyone suggest any of the middle eastern airlines - Emirates, Qatar etc as being worth considering in terms of loyaltly status
drgmarshall
drgmarshall
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2012
Total posts 106
I had a similar experience at Christmas 2016 as a regular QF Platinum with Qantas. I approached Air NZ and started flying them from Perth to Houston about 4 Times per year. They status matched me to Gold and I only had to get the extra credits to make Elite.
Samw
Samw
Member since 20 Sep 2017
Total posts 16
I was a BAEC Gold and switched to Qatar PC because I was flying a lot to Miri (via KL) and Qatar had good fares. I was also disenchanted with BA because I could never find J redemption availability to anywhere I wanted to go to. I didn't get status match but made Qatar Platinum. I regretted my decision to switch to Qatar for a while until I did a Qatar economy trip from London to Sydney. I was given a good economy seat (upper deck adjacent seat free) all the way out and I got upgraded all the way home. The DOH - LHR upgrade was confirmed at time of booking. The SYD - DOH upgrade was processed on departure from Sydney. Qatar miles redemption availability in J is non-existent except at 2x standard rate. I would only recommend Qatar if you want the chance of upgrades (but with no guarantee). They don't have PE so any upgrade is very valuable. I would not recommend BA unless you are UK based. BA do, however, have very good value short haul redemption opportunities. I think this includes Oz code shares for domestic. They also open up short haul redemptions a lot for Gold card holders so, for example, I took my extended family to Nice from London on miles in August saving a fortune. I ended up being caught out in a BA IT SNAFU and, if I had kept my Gold, they would have extended it for 2 years. I was miffed to miss that (but at least I got extended silver). I've now switched to Qantas!
Goban
Goban
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 07 Mar 2015
Total posts 2
If your company has a relationship with an airline, you may be able to get status matching. CX can often do it, but you have to have a travel agreement with them. If you don't get a match, it's a hard slog during the qualifying period...good luck!
Russjking
Russjking
Member since 12 Aug 2017
Total posts 31
BA won't allow you to join their FF programme unless you have a UK address (try ba.com and select Country and a notice will come up.
me_john
me_john
Member since 19 Jan 2017
Total posts 4
I also had a bad experience and poor response of 15K points a couple of months ago. What would 20K or 15K points cost the airline...?
Chris C.
Chris C.
Member since 24 Apr 2012
Total posts 1,116
In the ballpark of $150, depending on how they're redeemed.