My personal perspective is that the SYD/MEL/BNE Qantas Clubs have been found to be under-sized for peak times. The easiest way to provide more space is to build a new lounge to provide additional capacity rather than try to expand the existing lounges. So then they needed a way to determine who uses which lounge, and the decision was taken to make one for business class and OneWorld Emeralds, and one for the rest. I don't think there is any sinister about it, or any plans to downgrade the existing lounges. Just a practical way to expand the overall lounge capacity at their busy airports.

Of course for Qantas this is a good problem to have.

Now it will be interesting to see where the new lounges are located. Will they use the existing Chairmans lounges, or use other space?

In light of the new seats and new products, any guesses on when the next round of 'enhancements' on the QFF program will be? :)

Personally, I suspect something will be announced once they have a firm date for the launch of the Y+ product (how much you earn/burn for it), then another round later...

Just like last time when there were 2 waves of changes...

Sorry my bad. Jumped to a conclusion?

So is it used for F and CL leaving Brisbane to join another flight in F class or just for those people who would qualify for F lounge if there were F class flights out of Brisbane.

All of the above ... Connecting to PAX F ex MEL/SYD, CL's, WP's and oneworld Emeralds.

Note I was there for QF125 a few months ago on a Saturday afternoon the the BNE Int. F lounge was closed ... I had to use the J lounge.

Something I Would Not Get but....
 

Well with my current earning they would need a new "Resthome Cabin";) but what about after 28,000 SC
Lifetime Platinum....you could be a W@nker for life.:eek:

That might be an incentive to keep crediting to QFF after LTG (assuming WP benefits not too "enhanced").

The general thrust of QF's philosophy seems to be that WP's are, indeed, important to them.

One thing that may happen could be that WP becomes harder to earn - e.g. Discounted SC earning for Discounted travel in F and J cabins. :eek:

OKAY, Found it....
 

There is an enormous amount of good feedback in this thread, so much in fact that Qantas should fly all participants to a focus group somewhere tropical for more formal discussions.....

My opinion on travel is that it is the thing that I have to do to go to the place to get my job done. I am 30, so my career is young, and my role is national, so from a career progression point of view I am likely to only take on jobs with more travel in the future, not less.

Which has me endorse Justin_Krustys comments. My current company, like my last, embraces the budget travel opinion in that we have a $160 per night accomodation limit to match our Red-E-Deal booking policy. Therefore to me travel is not a perk, nor glamorous. Every time I am away I am not with my family, in my house nor with my friends. I work a 12 - 14 hour day, then celebrate that with the hotel tradition of an hours workout followed by club sandwich & 3 beers. If for that, I get status and lounge access, with no tangible beneift that cant be purchased well to be perfectly honest I would rather stay at home and be a NB who buys my beer at the bar befor flying out on my annual holiday.

So to the lounge, any move that limits the volume of people in a confined space is a good move. In peak times it is impossible to gain a seat in any of the Australian domestic lounges bar, in reality, Adelaide. In Syd / Melb, if the runways are closed for weather reasons, and we dont have the 300+ people an hour leaving the lounge to fly out, it is a nightmare.

Therefore, though a WP I am not, I embrace this as fantastic. If, however, to refill the QP they start to discount paid memberships, or offer day passes as do Virgin, then I dont know what I will do to be honest. I guess my remarkably verbose point is, I hope in creating a solution to a problem, and rewarding the elite (who deserve the benefit) they dont cheapen the second tier by devaluing it with the masses.

Virgin Blue's Blue Lounge now opens the bar at 11am. I presume Qantas will follow suit in their usual copying style :)

But that would lead me to the question of why do you do 12-14 hour days. If it is a 14 hour day activity, then to me, that is 2 days not 1. I don't see that work travel has to imply long working days

I do travel for my role and I have a policy of doing the travel during company time and doing a reasonable day. e.g. if I finish at 6pm on a thursday, then travel back would be done on friday morning around 9 am and definately no overnight flying unless it cannot be avoided due to no daytime service. I make use of the evenings to catch up with friends et al

Work/Life balance is an important thing and I believe that work is a means to an end rather than the end in its own right

Dave

Dave while I agree with your points, the reality is that many are expected to work long hours.

This is certainly a more acute problem for more junior people or those at the beginning of their careers. I know in my current job if I leave before 6 my manager will make some sort of joking remark about me being on holiday and usually I work 10 or 11 hours and sometimes at the weekend. Now of course this is by choice because I could turn around and say that I will only work the hours in my contract of employment, but aside from the fact I'm on an hourly rate ;) I also know that it wouldn't do my career progression any favours, so I do the overtime and thankfully I get paid for it, but most don't. You are obviously in a more senior position and are able to dictate more what you are willing and unwilling to accept.

In regards to flying, it is nice to be able to work flying into work times and my current employer is fairly accomodating but of course there are times when it is not possible to daytime fly, because of meetings finishing late or starting early the next day.

My only reason to work long hours while travelling is to minimise my time away from my family. My family is more important than work. If that was not an issue, I would embrace Dave's policy. I do, however, try to avoid overnight flights whenever I can practically do so.

Regularly work long hours and people will comment if you leave at a normal time as they come to expect it. Don't give them the expectation and they won't do

I do work extra hours some times if there is a exceptional need for it, just will not do it as a regular activity, nor have I ever done in my career and so never had people think of it as anything other than normal. Im efficient at what I do and embrace the saying "if a job is worth doing, it'll still be worth doing tomorrow"

That comes down to scheduling though doesnt it. Again , I am not saying that there is never a case when I would do an evening flight , but there would have to be a v good reason why something was necessary the next morning and could not be done the day after

Dave

Yes, again I am partly to blame and much of it would be the fact that I am a contractor so usually am pretty happy to work the overtime. But, if I were to leave at 6 I would probably be the first or second person out the door, thats just a function of the industry I work in.

Of course I hear about people who work everynight until 11pm or later, and I wonder what the point is....Unless you have nothing else in your life why on earth would you want to spend so much time working.


Yes, and it is not a regular occurence thankfully.

Well, its just gone midnight and I am doing a last minute check on FT before going to bed. I just finished a work conference call that started at 11pm. So yes, I worked from around 10:30pm (preparing for the call) until midnight. And I am very happy to do so, knowing that I will start again at 6am tomorrow morning on yet another conference call. But come 9:15am I will be with my 2yo daughter at her favourite weekly activity - Gym Tots at the local PCYC- helping her accomplish walking on a beam (forwards and backwards), jumping, dancing, climbing and tumbling over all sorts of obstacles etc. Then its back home while I supervise her and work through though the overnight emails and action items. Then we will share lunch and I will put her to bed for her afternoon sleep. While she is asleep I will work on some project documents that need to be delivered to my USA colleagues before their start of business. At 2:40pm I will get her up from her sleep, ensure she "goes potty" and go and pick-up Mini NM#2 from his school and then collect Mini NM#3 from her school. After returning home, Mini NM#3 will change and scoff down some food and I will drop her at ballet lessons. Then I will join a regular team conference call while driving to collect Mini NM#1 from band practice at school followed by collecting Mini NM#3 from ballet. Thankfully Mini NM#2's soccer training this week is Monday and Friday so not needed to be there on Thursday so I can prepare dinner for the eventual arrival of Mrs NM home from work around 6:15pm. After dinner and clean-up activities, I will help getting mini's #3 and 4 to bed (#1 and #2 are responsible for their own bed times now). Then at 9pm I will start the first of 3 evening conference calls that will again conclude around midnight.

Would I exchange this "routine" for a 9-5 job ... no way. I am more than happy to work until 11pm or midnight, four nights a week, knowing that I can have the flexibility to be "Daddy" to my 2yo and to be there for the other 3 Mini-NM's when they need me.