Qantas and Virgin Australia are locked in an arm wrestle for the other airline's elite flyers, and the winner is Qantas and Virgin's frequent flyers with gold status and above.
Qantas fired the first shot at the end of November when the airline issued an invitation to upper-tier members of 16 other airlines' loyalty programs to switch to Qantas, with a fast track to gold tier status as the bait. Eligible flyers who take up the Qantas Status Fast Track offer before December 18 are being offered 90 days of complimentary access to Qantas lounges. Those flyers who do, and who earn 100 status credits within those three months, qualify for Qantas' Gold membership for one year. For those who make the grade that's a generous offer since achieving Qantas Gold would usually require 700 status credits.