The best perks of Qantas Platinum for domestic economy flyers

While Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold status provides many prized perks such as airport lounge access, priority check-in and priority boarding on domestic flights, travellers aiming for Qantas Platinum have even more to enjoy.

Here’s what you can expect when reaching Platinum-grade status and putting your perks to work on domestic Qantas flights, which your company’s travel policy could well mandate.

1. Access to Domestic Business Lounges, with an extra guest

While Gold members can stop by domestic Qantas Club lounges before their flight with one adult guest in tow, Platinum cardholders gain entry to Qantas’ Domestic Business Lounges as well, found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth.

Platinum members can also bring along two adult guests, compared to one guest as with Gold, and in both cases, guests don’t need to be travelling: handy when friends or family are seeing you off at the airport, or even when you’re being joined by colleagues who don’t have lounge access of their own (or, only have access to the Qantas Club).

2. You can now access lounges after your flight

This is a big enough upgrade that we’re counting it as its own perk: with your newly-minted Platinum card, you can now stop by Qantas Domestic Business Lounges and Qantas Clubs after arriving on your flight – great for a quick cup of coffee or a longer time to relax before continuing your day.

As when departing, Platinum members using their ‘on arrivals’ access can also bring two adult guests into the lounge who don’t need to be travelling, with this perk available after arriving on a Qantas or Jetstar flight, or a flight with an Emirates, China Eastern or Oneworld flight number (including codeshares operated by Qantas and Jetstar).

3. You can buy seats on fully-booked flights

Need to make a meeting but can’t find an available flight to get you there in time? As a Platinum member, you can buy up to two tickets on completely sold-out domestic flights – one for yourself, and another for a companion, if you’re willing to stump up the cost of a fully-flexible Y or B class economy airfare.

To make your request, you’ll need to call Qantas via the priority number on the back of your membership card no later than 12pm on the day before your intended flight, but take note: this isn’t available on non-jet QantasLink services, so if the flight you want is served by a Dash 8, for instance, you’re out of luck.

Qantas also notes that it “may occasionally have to restrict this facility without prior notice on some routes or under special circumstances”, and presumably, the 12pm cut-off time on the day before travel gives Qantas the chance to move another passenger to an earlier or later flight, or upgrade them to make space for your booking in economy.

4. You can book more flights using Qantas Points

When spending your hard-earned Qantas Points on a flight booking with Qantas (known as a Classic Flight Reward) and searching for options via the Qantas website, be sure to log into your Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum account before doing your search.

That’s because Qantas often makes extra points-based reward seats available to higher-tier frequent flyers, so in some cases, when a Platinum member and a Bronze member search for the same flights, the Platinum member may have the option to book with points whereas a Bronze member may not.

If you still can’t find anything suitable on the Qantas website, dial that number on the back of your card – it’s known that the staff may be able to help unlock flights for booking using frequent flyer points when you call, on a request-by-request basis.

5. Take home double points on most Qantas flights

As a Platinum member, you now qualify for what Qantas terms a “100% status bonus”, but in plain English, that means you can now earn up to twice as many points on eligible Qantas flights as a Bronze member taking the same trip.

There’s no difference when the Minimum Points Guarantee comes into play – so on short Sydney-Melbourne hops, you’ll still get 800 or 1,200 Qantas Points on your economy ticket – but on longer routes, there can be quite a difference.

Take Sydney-Perth, for example. While a Bronze member would get 4,400 Qantas Points at most from a return trip (and that’s on a flexible economy fare), a Platinum member would score up to 8,800 Qantas Points from the same flights: enough to book a one-way flight from Sydney to Melbourne, from one return journey.

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.