Frequent Flyer Points

[Trader]

Howdy,

Looking for a bit of advice from the more regular travellers in the group.

Qantas Frequent Flyer Points, are they worth the effort?

Historically I haven't travelled all that much, however I've gotten to the stage now where I'm looking to start doing some more regular trips overseas (thinking US and Europe) - thinking 2 or 3 trips per year.

From looking online, it seems like getting a rewards (points) flight in business class to or from the states is near on impossible (I'm bronze as I haven't travelled much and a long way off lifetime silver - so the rewards flights are sold out before they become available to me), and they say using points for economy class isn't getting value for your points.

I noticed for example NAB are offering 70,000 qantas points to sign up to their card at the moment. $150 annual fee and then cancel it once you've got the bonus. But if the points are hard to cash in, have you just spent the $150 for nothing?

The other consideration is if I buy my tickets on the CC, that covers the travel insurance, however if I use points, then I'd need to get insurance another way, and that would wipe out (part of) the benefit of getting the free flight too.

Interested to hear from others re their thoughts on credit card churning for points, chasing status, tips and tricks for grabbing rewards flights, etc.

[Corona Man]

G'day Trader,

I'm no expert, but here is what I have learnt over the, pardon the pun, journey.

It's like anything really, so long as you are not paying extra for purchases, the points benefit, is, or perhaps I should say was worth it. More on that later.

I have been pretty fortunate, in that I have done a lot of business travel, for over 20 years, for which I did not pay for flights, but for which I did earn FF points. I also rose through the classes from Bronze to Gold with Qantas, which gives other benefits, Qantas Club etc. Also on a personal note, we have run a line of credit banking system. Whereby we basically pay all day to day expenses on credit cards (linked to my FF account) then pay the amount of in full every month (so as to not incur extra interest). Have been doing this for probably 25 years. So between the 2 of these I have a balance just short of 1Mill in FF points. We have also used points over the years for a few holidays into Asia as an example. I guess I have been in it for the long haul.

I recently looked up using points to go to the UK and Europe and was very surprised that I could not find any rewards flights at all. I am not sure what has changed in this area, as they were not that hard to find 5 or 10 years ago. So while I am not that concerned right now, I will be in a few years time, when I am planning on cashing in my points for 2 trips (at the pointy end of the plane) if I have 1 Mill of useless FF points. When I get to that point I'd either call up the FF helpline, or lob into a Qantas office to find out how I redeem my points. Otherwise I will have an awful lot of coffee machines on my hands.... what else do you redeem the points for?

The other thing to bear in mind is Qantas are part of the One World group, so I think you can use points on partner airlines, not just Qantas. You would need to check on that though.. It may be you can only earn points on partner airlines, not redeem them. I am sure Jim05 will be able to help here too.

[Jimmy_041]

Qantas are shite
They may be part of One World but try to get a flight with another airline

Dont get a Qantas or Virgin card. Get a card with several airlines that you can transfer to.

Get an AMEX and a visa/mastercard with someone else - look at this one: https://www.pointhacks.com.au/credit-cards/citibank-prestige-card-guide/

Here you go Trader: everything you need in one website although there are plenty of others: https://www.pointhacks.com.au/

Also look at a payment system for those bills that cant use AMEX: pay.com.au or Sniip. Sniip only does BPay accounts though - pay.com.au does all bills other than gambling etc

I am currently doing a comparison spreadsheet which I'll send to you when finalised

Repeat: Qantas are shite - avoid

[Jim05]

I play the points game and are somewhat of an expert at it. I churn and burn CC’s along with any other points promos.
I disagree with some of the comments in regards to Qantas points, yes they have issues but reward flights in business class is very tight across all airlines currently and most airlines only release a small number of seats and these are snatched up very quickly my the millions of frequent flyers around the globe. Some programs like Qantas for instance release reward seats to higher tier members earlier than than other tiers but this is only applicable on their metal, One World and other partners don’t have this.
Business reward seats in and and out of Australia at the moment are like hens teeth because the airlines can charge a pretty penny but if you are flexible and have no schedules airlines will often release batches of reward seats a week or so out of flights aren’t full.
I currently have large point stashes in Qantas, Virgin, Air Canada and Virgin Atlantic which gives me a good spread.
In the last 8 years I’ve managed to redeem the following tickets
- 2x seats Business class seats on Emirates, Melbourne to Dubai to Frankfurt and Paris to Dubai to Melbourne.
- 2x seats Business class seats Melbourne to Hong Kong return on Virgin Australia
- 2x seats Business class Sydney to Singapore return on Qantas
- 2x seats Business class Sydney to Jakarta, Jakarta to Hong Kong on Cathay and Hong Kong to Bangkok on Cathay (First Class)
- 2x seats Business class Adelaide to KL return on Malaysian Airlines
- 2x seats Business class Adelaide to Singapore return on Singapore Airlines.
Last October I took my parents to Vietnam and scored
- 4x seats Business class Brisbane to Singapore to Hanoi with Singapore Airlines then I got my parents 2x Business seats KL to Sydney on Malaysian Airlines to come home and my wife and then got 2x seats Business class KL to Abu Dhabi return on Etihad and then 2x seats Business class KL to Adelaide on Malaysian Airlines.
We were in Bali a couple of weeks ago on a paid Business class flight with Virgin Australia but then went to Jakarta for a couple of days and then flew home on points in Business class from Jakarta to Melbourne.
My wife and I are headed back to Europe in March and I’m piecing together flights and so far I’ve booked with points
- 2x seats Business class Adelaide to Singapore to Bangkok on Singapore Airlines
- 2x seats Business class Paris to Mauritius on Air France
- 2x seats Business class Mauritius to KL to Singapore to Adelaide on Singapore Airlines.
Now I just need to find a way to get from Bangkok to Europe and I scout websites regularly to see if any reward seats are released.
There are lots of tricks and hacks to it but the key is being flexible and be prepared to fly in our out of ports that near by or even take multiple flights if need be. Also need to be aware that some airlines charge exorbitant fees and surcharges on reward seats but happy to help anyone who needs assistance

[Trader]

Thanks for the replies gents, very helpful.

Seems the key is to just grab all the points on all the platforms and then shop around when looking to cash them in.

If you see any really good deals on credit card churning, please post in here, I'll probably follow you!

https://www.pointhacks.com.au/

Thanks, plenty of reading material there, will fill in the afternoon nicely!