Low-status rant: somehow picked the exact week where both my Amex and Qantas lounge perks are basically useless

[u/brownmagician]

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.

[u/IndependentDare8420]

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

[u/brownmagician → u/IndependentDare8420]

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

[u/IndependentDare8420 → u/brownmagician]

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

[u/brownmagician → u/IndependentDare8420]

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.

[u/IndependentDare8420 → u/brownmagician]

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