I wanted to know how Silver, Gold & Platium work.

i.e my membership year is from 1Aug - 31 Jul. And I am taking my family on a round world trip next year from Jul - mid Sept. This trip will be in 1st class. I have worked out that we will do 4 Qantas trips before 31July where we all get Silver status. My points will then go back to zero. By mid August my wife and daughter go to Gold, shortly after I go to Gold, then in Sept we all go to Platium. So how long to we stay on Silver , Gold and Platium levels for? Also as I got to Silver before re-set to I use the requalify levels to more up or only the re-qual for silver then 700 points for Gold, then 1400 for Platium?

Thanks
Route is nan-syd-sin-nrt-hkg-fra-mad-tlv-lhr-jfk-mia-dfw-las-lax-sfo-hnl-nan. with trips lhr-oslo return and syd-nan return in economy.

Your status will be Silver until 31 Jul 2010, and points will be reset to zero. If during this time you achieve enough points to ATTAIN (not retain) gold (ie 700) - you will move up to Gold. If you achieve 1400 points, you will move up to Platinum.

You retain the membership level for a minimum of one membership year, plus any existing time left in the current membership year. For example, if you achieved Platinum on the 5th August 2009, you'd be platinum right up until 31 Jul 2011.

If you don't retain Platinum for 31 Jul 2011 - 31 Jul 2012, you'll be "soft-landed" down to Gold (even if you haven't flown at all).

Hope that's not too confusing!

Also note that on that route you're only going to achieve 1600-1700 status credits. Depending on dates etc, your status credits may reset at say 300-400 status credits, meaning you might not get enough status credits in that one membership year to qualify for WP.

I would suggest moving the trip to 1 August if at all possible

Or if you can't change the trip date, then to sign up for a new Qantas Membership with a start date of 1st July. This way you can be sure to get to WP status and can enjoy the F lounge on your flight to NAN (just make sure you have a QF flight number).
If you use a foreign address then there is no fee to join again and you can then transfer you membership to Australia at a later stage for free (just change the address online).

Didn't know that about the foreign address DownUnderFlyer! Good tip

Note, if you have an AU or NZ address you still get charged the join fee (NZ$50/AUD$50 I believe)

My thanks for your answers.

Just one more thing, so I will do 4 Qantas trips this year and will have about 400 Status credits before my membership year cutoff on the 31 July 2009. So will start 01 Aug 2009 with zero status credits and Silver membership level.

Around 20 Aug 2009 I will have earned 700 staus credits, but as I will be i europe at that time I will not be on Qantas metal, then when USA around 10 Sep 2009 I will then more up to Platium.

So my question is even though I have "platium" I will not get the benifits until 4 Qantas Metal flights are taken or do QF flight no.s qualify me, so book Qf flight no.s on AA of BA while overseas.

My Wife will earn all the points in one membership year, but was going to enrol the little one in Qantas this year on the begining of Sep 2008 so her membership will run out after she has 1400 status credits and then reset to zero then earn 350 status credits for the next membership year.

So me Silver with 4 Qantas flights, reset to zero, Platium but only 2 Qantas flights then remaining 2 after world trip.

Wife straight Silver , Gold then Platium all in one membership year with 4 Qantas flights before trip.

3 Year old Straght Silver, Gold & Platium with 4 Qantas flights, reset to zero, Silver then later 4 Qantas flights.

Also will we all when we get back have a Silver, Gold and Platium card in the mailbox waiting for us?

Many thanks Geoff

QF flight numbers (codeshares) on AA & BA count to the 4 QF flights neeeded.

Depends, I did a RTW then a flight to Fiji when I went from NB-WP. I didn't get the silver card, but I did get the Gold card. My Fiji flight was about 3 weeks after my RTW - I guess they give about 10 days or so before sending out the card.

If you do it all in a row, you'll probably only get the WP card and tags