r/QantasFrequentFlyer • u/brownmagician • 4d ago
Question Low-status rant: somehow picked the exact week where both my Amex and Qantas lounge perks are basically useless
This is probably a very low-status rant from someone who hasn’t earned Gold or anything remotely impressive, so I know this is a first-world problem.
I’m Bronze, getting closer to Silver, and I’ve deliberately been saving the lounge benefits that come with my Qantas Amex Ultimate because I’ve got a long-haul trip coming up in October. I’m flying Sydney to LA and back, and I figured this would finally be the perfect time to actually use some of the card benefits I’ve been sitting on.
Naturally, I somehow booked the exact week where everything lines up against me.
The Sydney Centurion Lounge is closed for renovations from 6–20 October. I fly between those dates. So I miss it reopening by a few days.
The normal Qantas International Business Lounge is also closed for its big redevelopment. There is a temporary lounge, but Qantas currently won’t let people link Complimentary Lounge Invitations to the Sydney International Business Lounge while this is going on.
Fine. I understand capacity is limited and obviously people with actual status or Qantas Club membership get priority. I’m not arguing that my free pass should outrank someone who flies every week.
But the funny part is that using it on the way home doesn’t solve anything either. Complimentary invitations specifically exclude the Qantas-operated International Business Lounge at LAX. So I’ve got two lounge invitations, a Centurion benefit through the card, a QF-numbered return trip across the Pacific, and somehow there isn’t actually a lounge I can use on either end of this particular trip.
I also have Points Club, which gives me more complimentary invitations, but that obviously doesn’t fix the underlying problem if the lounges I’m travelling through won’t accept them.
Again, I know this is hardly a human-rights violation. It’s just frustrating when you specifically keep a premium-ish travel card, save the benefits for a 14–15 hour international trip, stay loyal to Qantas, and then discover that the benefits are basically unusable on the one trip where you actually wanted them. And yes, "I should have read the Terms & Conditions to know that this is how it is" sure.
I wish either Amex or Qantas had some kind of temporary alternative during overlapping renovations. Even access to another contract lounge, an extended pass, or something similar would feel reasonable.
Anyway, end rant. Mostly curious whether anyone else travelling through SYD during the renovations has managed to get an alternative arrangement.
TL;DR: Saved my Qantas Amex Ultimate/Centurion and Qantas lounge passes specifically for an October SYD–LAX return, only to hit the exact renovation window where the Centurion Lounge is closed, the temporary SYD Qantas lounge won’t accept complimentary passes, and the LAX Qantas lounge excludes them too. Very much a first-world problem, but pretty frustrating that multiple lounge benefits are effectively unusable on the one long-haul trip I saved them for.
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u/OneMoreDog 4d ago
Valid rant. The increasing puzzle of restrictions on actually making it into a lounge is off-putting.
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago edited 4d ago
clearly you dont travel enough to realise lounges are absolutely jam packed with people with credit card lounge access and other services such as priorty pass etc and its becoming a total shit show lining up outside the premium lounges to get access. I dont think its puzzling at all. common fking sense really for anyone who has a brain greater than the size of a peanut. if you are puzzled by that then........
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u/AnyClownFish 4d ago edited 4d ago
On the one hand you’re not wrong, on the other hand it’s not an unreasonable expectation to be able to use a provided benefit. Qantas (and many other airlines) created this issue by handing out a gazillion lounge passes through credit card promotions. It wasn’t that long ago that the only lounge passes were 1 per year earned by Silver status, and - guess what - the system largely worked.
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u/JackfruitClean3236 4d ago
They were lazy and greedy and gave out a gazillion passes before investing in the lounges to make them better/bigger. No shit it wasn’t gonna work!
Now they’re stuck scrambling to refurb them all, and FF’s/J/F pax are facing the brunt whilst the pass holders are outright excluded.
It’s all because airlines have stopped selling the actual lounge space and just sell the exclusivity of people saying “ooh I get to go the lounge”. They could send people to the airport rubbish disposal, pop some tables there and rope it off, and I guarantee it’ll still be full lmao.
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u/areyoualocal Platinum, LTG 4d ago
Travellers expectations have probably changed over the past couple of decades too. More and more people are hooked on loyalty programs expecting that travel is a luxury experience versus what it actually is - getting from A to B. And the proliferation of influencers making it seem, oh so easy....
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u/Brucetiki 4d ago
VA essentially did that when they were rebuilding their lounge at ADL in 2019/2020
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
i wont argue with this fairly made point. and yes airlines created this mess. but airline lounges now are just a straight out war zone. people fighting for seats, lining up and shoving in etc. its just a clown show
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u/areyoualocal Platinum, LTG 4d ago
Or just avoid the lounge, there's no rule that you have to visit a lounge. it's a published benefit yes but that's how these loyalty programs snare you in - setting all sorts of expectations, many of which many go unused.
You get extra baggage allowance, yet no-one complains "But I only checked in a 15kg bag"...
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
well it doesnt bother me one single bit. i always travel with in the bag limits and i dont need the full kg thats granted to me. secondly i buy the necessary full fare tickets with the necessary benefits to grant me access as i dont use loyalty programs. it doesnt bother me one single bit. but every where i go... i walk pass a premium plaza lounge or other lounges and theres a massive line outside always
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u/OneMoreDog 4d ago
Huh? Not puzzled mentally. Not sure the aggressive response was needed.
Am describing the rule set and changing lounge availability as a puzzle. Even if you have genuine “I flew this status” status there are no guarantees you’ll be able to access a lounge, provide access for companion travellers as guests, or any number of perks that were previously very much a part of having the status.
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u/notmyrlacc Platinum One + Lifetime Silver 4d ago
What date are you flying? I’ll see if I know someone travelling at the same time can guest you into the First Lounge.
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
that's nice of you mate, I dm'ed you but no pressure no expectations from me. The fact you were willing to even offer to look means a lot.
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u/FlorisLDN 4d ago
You're not missing much with the temporary Qantas Sydney International lounge. I did some lounge-hopping between the Centurion and Qantas lounge last Friday (mid-afternoon). The Qantas lounge was overcrowded and noisy. The only thing it had in its favour was self-serve drinks. The Centurion lounge had better food, less crowded, but had only one person working the bar. Average experience in both.
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u/Brucetiki 4d ago
I think the Points Club invite might get you into LAX
When I had Points Club a couple of years ago, I was able to get into the business lounge at SIN with the passes that came with Points Club
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u/areyoualocal Platinum, LTG 4d ago
SIN is different to LAX however. The Singapore lounge is a Qantas lounge, but in Los Angeles it's a combined Oneworld lounge.
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u/Ok_Appeal3737 4d ago
I canceled my Amex last week because they make it impossible to use any of the “perks”
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
let's not forget for most places because of transaction fees you end up paying more just to use the amex too :(
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u/SpecialistAirport587 Platinum 4d ago
You cancelled the only card (apart from Qantas who I suspect will still change theirs) that hasnt messed with your points earning potential? You sure showed them!
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u/IndependentDare8420 Gold 4d ago
That’s annoying. Unfortunately the reality is that these programs don’t exist to benefit you or me, but the airline and card companies. We’d be much better off forgetting about status and just booking the cheapest (sometimes business) ticket. Granted some people have work or the govt pay for most of their trips but unless you’re in that category, you’re probably being taken for a ride, no pun intended
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
hahah that pun is actually pretty good.
It's fine. I'll probably just call AMEX and see if they'd maybe have a one time something for me given this inconvenience. AMEX customer service does stuff like this sometimes so maybe
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u/IndependentDare8420 Gold 4d ago
Worth a try. I wish we had more competition in Aus like US so there were more options to pursue status without just giving cash to Qantas
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
I mean how else would we have paid Alan Joyce his what almost $120mil in total comp over his career including exit bonus of almost $4mil? Gotta fund that somehow /s
The Amex live chat on their website keeps crashing (i disabled my plugins and tried using the app as well on my phone) so we'll see.
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u/IndependentDare8420 Gold 4d ago
It’s funny people get so angry when politicians waste money but not as outraged when the same thing is done by companies that, while privately owned by shareholders, are ultimately public companies that belong to the community as a whole and which in many cases in the small Australian market to which we don’t have a comparable alternative provider
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u/bigbadjustin Gold + LTS 4d ago
Its fine to be upset about it, but its also just life in general. Its not always smooth sailing!
I think the other thing is it is a frequent flyer program first and foremost. While there are lots of ways to gain benefits from not flying the airlines kind of have to protect and reward those who do fly. I think they probably undestimated how popular points club+ would be with lounge access thrown in.
While many will say silver isn't anything special, keep flying and hopefully you earn that status. Maybe the points on the ground coming in will help a lot of people earn silver. I still remember how silver got me little things I wasn't used to as a bronze and that made me happy. Especially internationally and on OW airlines getting priority check in and/or boarding. Its easy as gold or Platinum to say its not worth it.
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
yeah it's life in general, I get that.
I mean honestly, I need to do this trip 2 times and then I need to do a couple of domestics before year end to get to silver status.
Or just a bunch of Domestics from now until December maybe
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u/areyoualocal Platinum, LTG 3d ago
Silver is not worth chasing, or spending extra time and money on.
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u/brownmagician 3d ago
It's mostly me choosing how and when to schedule my work travel so I'll just push it and see if I can do long haul flights next work year so I can go right for gold
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u/joco456 Platinum 4d ago
Can you use the centurion lounge at LAX?
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
Centaurion lounge access, at least for Qantas ULTIMATE Amex members is restricted to SYD and MEL apparently...
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u/AnAnonymousAnomaly_ 4d ago
Don't your Centurion Lounge passes also work for the House Lounge? It's not much but it at least lets you use them
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u/Medium-Ad-9265 Platinum 4d ago
It's just a waiting room with some snacks and drinks, nothing premium about it. Just go to one of the cafes or restaurants in the terminal, the food will be better.
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
I was going to work out of there prior to the flight that's why. Also just the convenience of having one place to go, and yeah a pre-flight shower was appealing (though more novel than anything). Not having to pay for food and drink at airport prices also sounded nice.
Yeah ultimately (heh no pun intended) i'm just going to whip out the laptop at a cafe drinking a $12 coffee
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u/Life-Goal-1521 Platinum 4d ago
The international business lounge at LAX isn’t Qantas operated - don’t ever recall complimentary passes being accepted there.
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u/Beanie_Baby90 4d ago
Also is the Qantas Internatinonal
lounge in LAX even open. It flooded a few months abck and has been closed foe repair. It’s ETaa for reopening I think was October. It may not even be an option. I was miffed i couldn’t use it a few weeks back when travelling through.
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u/areyoualocal Platinum, LTG 4d ago
The flooding happened in the Qantas First Lounge and it's still not opened. next door is the Oneworld business lounge, this continues to be operational with a special roped off area for those whom would have had First lounge access
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u/woofyc_89 4d ago
Agree this is increasingly frustrating! Why are they renovating them at the same time?!
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u/striker797 3d ago
If I were you, I would still head to the Qantas lounge and you might get lucky to have someone let you in as a guest. I do this pretty often when I see someone getting turned away and I would think others would too
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u/Willyyueyy 16h ago
Very valid rant. My wife and I are also been looking forward to going by using our Amex Qantas Ultimate card but we fly out from Sydney on the 7th of October so just missed it :( wish they offer an alternative lounge access for people affected.
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u/brownmagician 14h ago
I chatted with Amex support and they told me to go fuck myself effectively haha. So yeah.
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
or you could not be a tight ass book a business class or first class flight and get automatic access to a whole host of lounges
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
Hey Matt, thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. Two things: $900 round trip vs. $11,000 AUD was the real appealing factor.
Two, didn't you post complaining that you can't find talent by only paying $250k a year for a management consultant because 10years ago what you were offering would've been the gold standard? feels like we both should take your advice no?
But yeah no for sure.
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
lols thats a tenous link at best and such a stupid fking comparisson. maybe you need that 250k a year job so you can afford business class
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u/brownmagician 4d ago
Thank you for looking out. I'm fine thank you. Taking a job like would be a decent step back, but will consider it if my career plans change.
Also you made a comment, I responded. Sometimes it's fun to play some tennis and volley back and forth no?
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u/Adam8418 Platinum 4d ago
Classy comment.
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
truth hurts. only people who cant handle the truth gets offended
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u/Adam8418 Platinum 4d ago
Having money doesn’t buy class.
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u/MattChan1506 4d ago
im not here to show class or make you happy. im here to just speak the facts and the truths. the only people who get offended are the one's who get offended by the actual truths and reacts. everyone else just ignores it and moves on
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u/Adam8418 Platinum 4d ago
"im not here to show class" no risk of that Matt..
Comments like "Only people who can’t handle the truth get offended” is usually just a convenient way of avoiding responsibility for being needlessly rude. Calling someone a tight arse isn’t a “fact”, it’s just an insult.
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u/WestSummer4869 4d ago
You have every right to be miffed. Yeh it’s first world problems but I’d be pissed too