dsquared37

100K what? Miles, Kyat, THB?

It's refreshing to have drivel again.

BTW: Considering you're responding in the thread discussing the changes to ROP you might want to hold off stating information that is clearly no where near accurate.

yosithezet

What in the world are you talking about?! I don't get your drift and every time I try to act on suggestions you post Thai tells me it doesn't work that way. Can you either clearly explain what you mean or stop spreading false information that is helpful to nobody?

hgp

The above post by BKKROP is completely wrong and misleading.

To qualify for Plat you need to earn 80k Qmiles (accumulated through travel on TG metal in Royal Silk or Royal First class) in two successive years. There is no mention of 100k anywhere. The 100k figure BKKROP cites is a nonsense number.

Flying 80k in a single year is not enough. In Royal First, 80k Qmiles requires 53,334 AIS miles ("A$$ in seat" or actual flight miles). In Royal Silk, 64,000 AIS miles are required.

While BKKROP refers to 100k as being "a lot of money", I'm pretty sure he's referring to 100k miles/Qmiles, not currency.

Btw BKKROP, I have no idea what "your drift" is. Perhaps you would be able to speak plainly so this forum helps people rather than confuses them.

BKKROP

I shall put it clearly so even a Melbourne lad like yourself can understand it. What do you pay for a business class fare to Bangkok, do you pay $3000, maybe you pay $3500, the average Joe walking off the street pays $3895.00. Now what do you think is the average fare paid by the majority of frequent flyers who fly this route, you know the idiots who fly rather than post on the internet, you would assume if someone were flying solely with Thai every week, they would give them a deal, do you think like that, you know "the drift", would you think they would charge them the advertised rate of $3895 that appears on their website, or do you think they may offer them a special price. Maybe you think like the the Singapore chappie who I recommended to a top agent and when told TG would need everything credited to their program they were given an earfull, but that was when everyone on SQ was saying TG was a disaster waiting to happen.. It is beyond belief that you are paying more than $2300 for a return airfare, but the sad part is, I think you are. You PMed me and asked for my contact in Melbourne , do you remember what you wrote, you should check it one day.

hgp

We're all here to help and share, BKKROP, there's no need to be rude, condescending or disrespectful. This is the friendly forum!

I realise you feel you are better than the rest of us, because you have told me you are in your PMs, but let's all try to get along without being arrogant and insulting to others.

A_Lee

I crunched the number and came up with 160,000 Q miles on TG in C (= 128,000 BIS miles) will cost me under 17,000 USD for the tickets. That is flying the routes I would normally be flying anyways, but with some creativity and adding on some additional segments. To fly the equivalent in economy and earn those same Q miles, it would cost me over 10,000 USD, which I will fly regardless of whether I'm striving for TG Platinum or not, though in that case I'd probably not be flying TG, nor crediting the miles to ROP. But that's neither here nor there, being I don't really have any pressing need anymore for status miles upon reaching lifetime *G with OZ. So the thing to zero in on for me is that by spending less than $7,000 USD over and above what I already need to spend, I can fly those routes 100% of the time in business class, and earn TG Platinum. And after making the Platinum qualification levels each year, I can use the PUPs for economy travel on TG with getting upgraded to business, and credit those miles to OZ (which I'm hoping to eventually get Platinum with, but no big hurry being that's an additional 500K miles but won't get me a whole lot other than more op-ups). My numbers are a bit of an over-simplification because it involves trimming down the number of trips I make annually and if I want to make use of the PUPs, then there's an additional cost of the economy class tickets on which to use them. But in only comparing Q-miles as I'm flying now to Q-miles by flying TG in C, the cost is as I mentioned.

Everybody's mileage will naturally vary, but for me Platinum seems to come quite cheap as long as I'm making the proper assumptions about how the program really works.

Previously I contacted TG about Platinum. But they told me initially that there was one criteria for the initial members entering the Platinum tier, but they didn't have any set criteria for the next set. Finally they ended up telling me what the next stage criteria was, but couldn't guarantee it. If they had simply come out initially and announced that they would be creating a new Platinum level in the future and clearly stating what you had to do to qualify, I could have easily shifted my flights and crediting of miles to TG and been Platinum a long time ago, and TG would have earned much more of my business. But nobody at TG told me the initial qualifications, and I only heard after it was too late, and they couldn't tell me in time, nor guarantee it for the next round either. Perhaps it wasn't confusing to those in the know, but it certainly was to me.

Bangkok is not my base, neither actually, nor logically. I'll merely be transiting there, with sometimes having domestic sidetrips to CNX or HKT, but those don't really factor into the equation being they're not many miles and the tickets are purchased separately. I could even shift those flights to Nok or a LCC and it wouldn't affect my plan in the least. But I really don't think TG could do anything for me if I did make Bangkok my base. If anything it would at least double my costs to reach Platinum. Fares ex-BKK are some of the most expensive if you're flying TG. At least that's what I've found. Even if I found someone to shave, let's say, 30% off the cost, it would still be way off from what I'm able to do on my own. If I could get 50% off, then I'm interested. But I don't have the slightest idea of who in the TG organization would be able to do that, nor have any confidence that I would even be close to having enough business to give them to even consider me. I'm just a lowly long-time ROP Gold member that used to fly a lot in business but these days flies mostly economy. They heyday of my flying 600,000 BIS miles a year, mostly in C, have been over with for well over a year. I'm now lucky to do 200,000 BIS a year in economy. So I'm basically a nobody who wants to get some of those benefits I got used to, which is why I'm anxious to get TG Platinum if it doesn't cost me too much.

BKKROP

How much do you pay for your Bangkok fares, I pay $2180, you are the person who made the statement "You have no idea...", strange for a person who travels as much as you, to ask such a question. This is where we are different, I pay my own way, I am interested in getting the lowest fare and the best hotel room and I do not see the point in attacking, I would rather ask, I tell you to have a working relationship with the airline, if you don't like that you can pick one of their pet travel agent, either way it is going to be a lot better than going on line. I have been doing this for a long time, I hope I am better than most. But I am curious now, how much do you pay?

A_Lee

Hmmm. $3895, discounted to $2180 is a 44% discount. While I have no need these days to fly to Australia except perhaps once every year or two, if I could get that kind of a discount off the 7,548.88 AUD J fare from SYD to LAX, and allow me one stopover in BKK and one each way in ICN, then it might make sense. Still a bit more expensive than my planned scheme, but probably a whole lot easier. The thing is I'm only talking about making 2.5 trips per year if on that route, just enough to reach Platinum. No where near someone flying it once a week. Do you think they could give a discount like that in my case? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post anything publicly.

BKKROP

No way, I remember when you were flying your seat off, I was doing the same, I used to read kiwiflyer because he was a new Zealander, then I moved to Bangkok and followed tk and the heavy flyers. I learnt quickly about the programs and in Bangkok it is not what you know but who you know. Go back a year or two, and I told you to give TG everything you're got because the new card is on it's way, they wanted to reward passengers that flew premium class. The general response was too hard from the posters. I am just back from a break and during it I paid for economy tickets around the region, now everyone asks do you get upgraded, the answer is yes, but not as much as I used to. My thoughts are you will not get Plat, but what is wrong with gold, I got 2 upgrades a year when gold, they never allowed me into the First lounge then, but that was alright, I was getting the massages and by manipulating credit cards and banks I was getting the miles.. If travelling 50,000 a year the thai gold card is brilliant, read the rules and play accordingly and don't believe people who say it can't be done, but it is damn hard trying to do the right thing by more than one card. You have to say oz is the way i am going or Tg is, divide the mileage and you lose. I learnt the hard way trying to keep 3 cards working and listening to every new idea, opening FFp as if they were going out of fashion. happy flying

A_Lee

I'm already ROP Gold, and the GUPs are nice, but if that's the only real advantage I'm getting from it, then it's not worth it anymore for me. What I'd really like is a way to avoid the general queues outbound at BKK, and to get access to the F lounge. I get neither of those with just being Gold and flying economy.

Well I was working three FFP's, and all in *A, up until last year. With BD closing down, I was left with two. But in reaching lifetime status with OZ, and not sure to continue with TG or not, I'm left with wondering where to bank my miles from now on. I was pleased in juggling all three FFP's in the past, and loved getting the huge number of miles with BD, that I never could have dreamed of earning with any other FFP. But in the end I couldn't even burn all my miles and was left with having to transfer over a million miles to BA, which I have no idea if or when I'll be able to use. So in hindsight, I got greedy and credited way too many miles to BD than I should of. I falsely assumed that LH would merge BD into their M&M fold, and I'd be left with my miles to burn on *A as I wished.

Burning my miles seems to be one of my problems. And that's where ROP is the weakest of just about any program, with their miles expiring after a measly 3 years. Having booked a bunch of my BMI miles on award travel this year, I don't really have room to book anything with my ROP miles that are expiring this June. I'll basically end up burning them on a meaningless trip, just to be flying in F, but which I wouldn't have booked had the miles not been expiring. I seem to recall that TG Platinum extends the validity somewhat, which would be good, but still not enough. That will be my never-ending dilemma I think, due to my nature of wanting to hoard my miles. Anyways, the point is I'm most certainly glad I didn't credit all those *A C flights to ROP, as I would have wasted a ton of miles with the miles either just expiring or being burnt on somewhat useless trips. They wouldn't have helped me in the slightest with respect to TG Platinum status, being only TG metal flights count. If I could redo the past few years, I probably would have credited enough of those miles to OZ rather than BD, and now be an OZ million-miler.

A few years ago TG didn't fly from ICN to LAX, but rather non-stop BKK-LAX. Now that they have the stopover at ICN, TG suddenly makes much more sense to me. Of course that could all change at a moment's notice if they decide to once again go non-stop, or change and stopover some other place. But I think I'll take my chances with it being around for a while, and shoot for ROP Platinum.

ICN is now my home base. With getting lifetime with OZ, I can use the OZ F lounge 100% of the time when flying *A at ICN, which includes my TG flights. By getting ROP Platinum, I can use the F lounge at BKK for my TG flights. So I can get F lounge on both ends. Great for me if I can get it all. But if I had to choose between just one, I'd definitely choose OZ, being I use ICN way more than I use BKK. ROP Platinum doesn't get me anything at ICN.

Anyways, everyone's situation is different. And for someone who's flying patterns are different than mine, or who isn't based in ICN, etc., maybe what I'm saying doesn't sink in. If I was based in BKK, then quite obviously ROP Platinum would be much more valuable and I would have been foolish to have not made more of an attempt to get it sooner. It would have been nice if TG had given advance public notice about Platinum before launching so I could have prepared, but I have no real regrets about not getting it sooner. And I do recall you posting about it in advance, but there weren't enough details at that point for me to base a decision on, and it turned out TG made some changes along the way anyways before it launched. Now that they seem to be getting ready to finally go public with ROP Platinum, should I decide it's right for me, I'm satisfied to have waited.

Aussie_flyer

it's amazing how ONE POSTER knows everything and the rest of us know nothing. interestingly what that person claims to know never correlates with the reality everyone else experiences I feel sorry for the noobs who actually take that persons advice.

dsquared37

And having claimed a few months back to blocking those of us who point out the idiocies he feels no accountability. In fact he's the village braggart in new clothes ignoring those telling him he's naked.

tommy123

To All, i am very new to posting on this site, but have been reading for many years. This is not directed to one person, but more to Thai. Ive been a previous gold card holder for 8 years, and it seems to me Thai will continue to move the goalposts and make their top 2 tiers harder to obtain. Many years ago, it was simple, 50,000 miles in a year would give you gold, valid for two years. The first year you were elegable for a free upgrade from y-j or j-f (subject to availability). The second year you could fly for 50% less miles, whether y-j- or f. For me it was simple, fly 4 trips a year from the UK and a couple of internal flights, gold card guaranteed. Then 6 years ago they introduced V and W class economy tickets where you would only obtain 50% of the miles flown (now no miles are awarded for v and w class). So for me, i had to buy a Q economy ticket, which was considerably (about 50% or even 70% once) higher than the cheapest V or W... Ok, i am not in the big league, as some of the posters here, but after reading this thread, (and ive read the new rules twice, and still cant understand it fully) it appears Thai are at it again. The airline business is on its knees and should be actracting new customers, not making it harder to obtaining or maintaining tiers... Over the last few years ive been flying back and fourth using Etihad. I found obtaining gold easy and even though their cheap tickets now only offer 50% miles, their 100% miles ticket is still far cheaper than Thai Q class, and you get 50% more miles as well, so its not 100% its 150% and thats ecomomy, (ex LHR-BKK-LHR on Thai 11,868 miles, Etihad on obtaining gold 19,500). In business and first they throw even more miles at you. They have some great partner airlines, Virgin-Australia and Air Berlin being just two of many, where miles could be obtained or spent. Sorry but to me its a no brainer, Thai have been living in the past for too many years, old aircraft, tatty lounges (with the same stale sandwiches and pies for 15 years) , expensive fares and now a frequent flyers program nobody understands (typical Thainess). As i said before, this is not ment to offend anybody on here, but there are other carriers out there what want to do new business. PS on a recent trip out from the UK on 30th Dec, i got upgraded twice LHR-AUH-BKK, something that never happened on Thai, one of the many reasons I DONT FLY THAI anymore

A_Lee

I was thinking again about this, and have a further question if anyone knows the answer. The number of upgrades you get are limited to one per 50K Q miles, so what does the term, "unlimited" mean in this context? Does it mean I can buy any class ticket and upgrade it, so that a V or W fare could be upgraded to business class? If so, I can see that possibly being a distinct advantage to me in some cases.

Oh, and I read that miles never expire as long as you maintain Platinum. That would be useful to me I suppose, except then I might never spend my miles.

For F lounge access, I assume you have to be flying Thai to get it? What about if flying *A, do they let you into the F lounge if you show them your ROP Platinum card?

A_Lee

In actuality, I don't know of any Asian airlines where you'll get upgraded very often for only flying enough with them to get Gold. But if you find an airline that makes you happy, then most FT'ers would probably tell you to stick with the FFP for that airline. It rarely pays to be a member of an airline's FFP that you don't fly frequently. I have an on-and-off-again relationship with TG. In general I'm pleased with them and their prices, but it goes in cycles and at the moment I'm out with them, but looking for something (i.e. Platinum status) to get me back to flying with them again. I think a lot of others also have a sort of love-hate relationship with TG. They are very good at many things, but seem to constantly screw things up on other ends.

In your analysis of how things have changed, haven't the YQ fuel surcharges been a huge change also? I haven't been ROP Gold as long as you, but tend to think that before I joined there probably were no or very little fuel surcharges on award tickets. That and the increase in miles needed for awards has greatly devalued the program. But then again, that's the norm in FFP's these days, so nothing to be surprised at. Still though it doesn't help any in feeling that they don't value your patronage as much as they used to.