We are lucky to be able to earn and use “Frequent Flyer” points quite a bit in our travels – which is a huge benefit ! Adrienne is a wizz when it comes to tracking available flights and seats when we are booking – and doesn’t do a bad job in the spending department when it comes to the earning side 😜
Whilst we tend to accumulate and use quite a few “points” – mainly with Qantas, but a few with Virgin – we generally don’t tend to earn many “status credits”. “Points” give you the ability to book or “buy” seats whilst “status credits” give you potential perks when you fly – like seating upgrades, extra baggage allowances or lounge access etc.
One unexpected bonus from our European cruise tour was that we managed to earn quite a few “status” credits from the flights included in our overall cruise package. And an added bonus in the Velocity (Virgin Australia) “frequent flyer” program, is they allow “family pooling” of points and credits. This generally gives you a much greater chance to actually earn enough “credits” – well for one family member anyway – to move to some “higher status” level than the “Lifetime Bronze” 😂 that tends to be the norm for a lot of frequent flyer members !
So with the credits from our cruise flights, a couple of work trips to Coffs Harbour, our “quick tour” for our anniversary to Palm Cove and a bit of shopping at Coles (yes – you can earn status credits from using your Flybuys card at Coles !), we managed to accumulate enough credits and flights to get a “status credit” upgrade on one of our accounts for 12 months to “Silver Membership” !
But that’s not all ! It also put us within striking distance of earning “Gold Membership” for 12 months ! So this little “quick tour” was a “status run” – to boot us up to the next “status” level – lah-dee-dah 😎 – and with the help of a cheap deal from “Luxury Escapes”, we set off for a long weekend in Hobart, Tasmania.
We like Tassie and have had a couple of visits before, however we have not really had a lot of time in and around Hobart. And we couldn’t have been more central this time than at a relatively new (early 2017) hotel right on the docks – MACq01 Hotel.
The concept of the hotel is very quirky – the website saying “the breeze along the waterfront carries a thousand captivating stories of those that were here before us – a cast of remarkable characters, each with an intriguing story to tell”. And this flows throughout the hotel where it has taken the design from the days of the old Hobart docks warehouse area and these stories of the past are shared throughout the hotel, with each room dedicated to telling a different story – from Trucanini, the “last Tasmanian” – to Ricky Ponting, “cricketing legend” – to Jorgen Jorgenson, the King of Iceland !! The rooms all have a great view (better in nice weather I’m sure 🌤) across Constitution Dock toward the city centre and down the river.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play its part for us and our “beginning of summer” visit was actually met by winter temperatures and rain for our stay ! Still, we set about enjoying ourselves anyway – with visits to MONA, The Tasmanian Museum, Salamanca Markets, the historical town of Richmond – to name a few – and generally lots of walking ! A few quiet drinks and some delicious food made for an enjoyable time away. Our “high status” might only last for 12 months but we’ve got some perks from it and had a great time in the process ! ✈🥂🍴🍾
