How To Achieve Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer Status
Posted August 21st, 2009 and last modified October 20th, 2011
Are you eligible? Find out the relevant FAQs on how to (re-)qualify for the Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer status.
Are you in a similar position then the Qantas Frequent Flyer member who was on the cusp of achieving Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer status with one week to go but run into some slight problems not knowing whether he would get there eventually? If so, then read on to see what helpful forum members of the FrequentFlyer forum contributed in order to help the guy.
One persons search to achieve Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer status:
Featured Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer Card
The Westpac Earth Gold credit card is a great frequent flyer card, not only will you earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points but it also comes with a great balance transfer option
- $125 annual fee
- 19.99% p.a. on purchases
- 0.99% p.a. for 6 months on balance transfers
- Cash Advance Rate of 21.49% p.a.
- 45 days interest free
The person in question was 180 SC short of achieving Gold status with one week to spare. However, his problem was that Qantas had already – prematurely send out the Silver Card to him with a new reassessment date the following year. His question was whether there was a way to ask for an extension since he already had trips booked to the worth of 100SC, leaving him short of 80SC before the initial cut-off period.
Is it possible to get a short extension from Qantas themselves to rectify this shortcoming in points?
This of course is a question many of us will ask at some stage as we find ourselves to be in a similar position to reach that coveted Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer status. It is also worth mentioning that the person was an existing Silver members, trying to qualify for Gold for the first time. Read on to see the suggestions provided by program members to see whether you can do this after all.
As a rule, Qantas do not grant extensions to their members, because if they did, it would become very complicated as everyone would scramble to get theirs. So to the point of asking and expecting a clear no, don’t even bother.
Solution 1: Book an extra trip to rack up those extra points within the period left to qualify. This is the most obvious but the downside of it is extra cost you don’t really need to spend. Is the return on investment (ROI) worth the expense?
In this instance you need to ask yourself whether it is that important for you to reach Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer status to justify the extra cost in the short-term.
Here are some possible legs to achieve points from the person’s home of Perth:
- PER-MEL fully flex ticket $1500.
- PER-ADL $999.
- PER-SYD on a Friday Night Red eye (20SC), SYD-MEL on the 3pm Sat JQi flight in Starclass 40SC and return to PER that evening (20SC) for around $890! (all up that would give you 80SC’s) as was needed to fulfil the points requirements.
- Do a one day status run BNE-MEL-ADL-SYD-BNE.
- Do an ADL J run with J one-way and red e-deal the other will earn 100 SC’s and cost from $1160.
- ADL Flex e/w will earn 80 SC’s and cost from $1180.
- SIN will earn 50 SC’s and cost $830, you still need to find another 30 SC’s.
- ADL is the least time consuming option – the JQi PER-SYD-MEL-PER option has you departing PER at 5:45am Saturday and arriving back 9pm the same day. (This is great for those who don’t want to fork out extra cash for overnight accommodation.)
Solution 2: For existing Gold members who need to re-qualify, there might be an option to receive a complimentary Gold status if the points are lower than needed come assessment day
- 8 weeks prior to your reassessment date or the offer of returning a please letter with the possibility of extending Gold for another year.
As you can see, the only viable solution to do this is to part with your money and pay for the privilege of getting those extra miles under your belt, just in time for the Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer upgrade. This might well be worth for business travellers who can tax their expenses and enjoy the benefits of free upgrades and lounge access throughout the year on their frequent travels around the planet.
To get a chance at the game yourself, take a look at our Qantas Frequent Flyer credit card selection. You’ve got to start somewhere!
