They really are losing the plot at QF. This is part of an email I received concerning the QF Frequent Flyer 'improvements':
Platinum One - Exclusive extra benefits for our most frequent flyers
Many of our members earn more than triple the Platinum retain level of 1,200 Status credits a year, which equates to many hours in the air. When airports and our aircraft are your second home, we want to do even more to ensure your journey is as smooth as possible. We'll soon introduce extra benefits for members who earn over 3,600 Status credits within their membership year, including a dedicated team to look after your travel needs every step of the way.
Changes to the Loyalty bonus
From December 2011, you will earn a Loyalty bonus of 8,000 points for every 500 Status credits you earn within a single membership year - up to a maximum of four Loyalty bonuses per membership year. This will replace the current bonus of 5,000 points for every 450 Status credits.
Brilliant! Recognising that some people accumulate high numbers of status points, we're going to penalize you when you reach more than 3150. Whereas under the current scheme you'd get 35000 miles, under the new scheme you max out with 32000 miles at 2000 status points. So, any status points gained over 2000 are wasted
Nobody wants a friggin' 'dedicated team'. Most people who earn those sort of points have a dedicated team of their own and don't need one at Qantas. The FF website is easy enough to use that I don't need someone in SYD to tell me the flight isn't available to use my miles and, so far, the 'dedicated team' at Qantas have singularly managed to ignore every one of my emails, so confidence is not running high (and I would like to inflict harm on the idiot in Qantas who thought 'team' would be great to include in every utterance from letters, to emails to safety demonstrations and cabin addresses).
I particularly like the way they've solved the problem of the piss-poor product offered by the PER-NRT flight and the 1970s cabin; yep, they cancelled the service. I'm very glad to have been lied to for so long and held out for the A330, rather than using SQ instead. But you've probably guessed it by now: use up the QF points and Kris Flyer here I come
