Beginner Question: How to start earning miles ?

[Daniel 1982]

Hello everyone,

I am new to Travel Hacking and I am desperately trying to find out how to start.
As far as I understood I should sign up for an Awardsprogram with one of the Big alliances (I signed up for American Airlines within the OneWorld alliance).
The second step is to get a credit card ( I am trying my luck since I am a student and I don't have enough income for most cards ) that allows me to transfre my points to the Awards program that I signed up for. The points I can earn from bonuses and expenses with the card.
The third step would be to use my points and fly with a partner airline that is part of the OneWorld alliance( I read on Chris Guillebeaus Travel Hacking Page that is one of the main things in Travel hacking but I don't know why yet).

Which Award program do most people here sign up for? And which card is most popular in Australia for earning miles?

Thank you, I hope my questions do not imply that I am completely on the wrong track ,

Daniel

 

[RWJ777]

Daniel, hi,

As a student, I would say you need to be a bit careful to make absolutely sure your decisions to earn points don't cost you more than it saves you.

Sometimes -- and this is of course why airlines have loyalty programs -- people make decisions that are not entirely rational to earn points. They spend more than they should, they take flights they don't need to, they buy fares from 'their' airline that are a little more expensive than another airline.

All of this can mean that you distort behaviours to chase the ever elusive points.

As someone earning a salary, this is probably OK -- bit like spending money on gambling right -- but as a student on a fixed income, you'll need to be extra careful not to pay more than you need to for the points. Because at the end of the day, their cash value can be really, really low.

Good luck and spend wisely!

 

[Deleted member]

Daniel, a bit more info on your profile would help.
If you live in Oz ( once again not clear on your profile) a basic start is an EDR card from Woolworths grocery shopping.
Otherwise fly as often as you can ( afford) and accumulate.

 

[Daniel 1982]

Yes I know that I have to be careful. I did some calcdulations and saw that it is not so effective whith low expenses. I know what I normally spend and I don't want to end up spending more just beacause I get mileage crazy of course. Thank you for taking care

 

[Fivesix]

I had a student credit card that was interest free when I was at university. Linked it to my FF. now the best conversion rate, but not bad none-the-less. A friend who is still in Uni does this now! So ask your bank!

 

[mella2007]

Hi Daniel

Chris's ebook that he sells has a lot of information catered for the US market, and while I haven't read it (and have no plans to) I would careful reading those sort of blogs which sometimes try and entice you into trying things that you don't really understand as yet.

How long will you be in Australia for? Have you got any trips planned for when you visit where you're from?

 

[juddles]

...I am a student and I don't have enough income ...

Daniel, as much as it is a hell of a lot of fun to scam things and get great deals etc etc, there is another path. Study hard, work hard, and suddenly you may get to a place where it is not even worth your bother to quote your frequent flyer number on a First Class ticket.

 

[Mwenenzi]

..The second step is to get a credit card ( I am trying my luck since I am a student and I don't have enough income for most cards ) that allows me to transfer my points to the Awards program that I signed up for. The points I can earn from bonuses and expenses with the card.l

Credit cards only transfer to a limited range of freq flyer programs. AA is not good for Aust issued credit card for points transfer.

Freq flyer programs are for the medium to long term. From the info "on a student visa in Hobart in Tasmania" we guess you are not an Australian citizen. What is your home country / where do plan/hope to live for the next decade ?

As above posts above US centric blogs are not that relevant to Aust

fyi "Travel hacking" is a term never used by freq flyers

 

[Heleigh]

Daniel, as much as it is a hell of a lot of fun to scam things and get great deals etc etc, there is another path. Study hard, work hard, and suddenly you may get to a place where it is not even worth your bother to quote your frequent flyer number on a First Class ticket.

Sorry juddles, have to disagree, paid F and J and credit cards have rewarded me two return Xmas pressie SYD-BBK 1 - Classic and 1 - FASA and numerous JASA dom and NZ and gifted 2 lots of 100k to family and friends.

Daniel, hi,

As a student, I would say you need to be a bit careful to make absolutely sure your decisions to earn points don't cost you more than it saves you.

Sometimes -- and this is of course why airlines have loyalty programs -- people make decisions that are not entirely rational to earn points. They spend more than they should, they take flights they don't need to, they buy fares from 'their' airline that are a little more expensive than another airline.

All of this can mean that you distort behaviours to chase the ever elusive points.

As someone earning a salary, this is probably OK -- bit like spending money on gambling right -- but as a student on a fixed income, you'll need to be extra careful not to pay more than you need to for the points. Because at the end of the day, their cash value can be really, really low.

Good luck and spend wisely!

Agree RWJ777 don't go chasing points, for now you've joined AA (asuming you're American? if not find another membership closer to where you intending living once you are a tax payer) I see no problem starting early because your end result will be once you finish school/uni and out working you may have little nest egg of points.

Yes I know that I have to be careful. I did some calcdulations and saw that it is not so effective whith low expenses. I know what I normally spend and I don't want to end up spending more just beacause I get mileage crazy of course. Thank you for taking care

And welcome Daniel

 

[Daniel 1982]

Hi Mella,

Yes I am careful with trying things that I don't understand yet. So I appreciate it to have to the oppportunity to ask in this forum.
I will be here for 3 years and I would like to visit Austria (thats where I am from) in the next few months. In general I would like to travel a lot, thatt's why I am intersted in all these strategies. I would like to go to the Maldives in December for example...

Cheers,

Daniel

 

[Daniel 1982]

Daniel, as much as it is a hell of a lot of fun to scam things and get great deals etc etc, there is another path. Study hard, work hard, and suddenly you may get to a place where it is not even worth your bother to quote your frequent flyer number on a First Class ticket.

I see your point but I want to give it a try and then I'll decide if its worth the effort

 

[Moopere]

Hello Daniel 1982, Welcome to AFF.

When I started thinking seriously about this stuff Virgin Australia (Virgin Blue then) was still essentially a low cost carrier and I tried hard not to fly them. So, being based in Australia, I threw my lot in with QF and One World. Got credit card bonuses and whatnot, and now, some years later, have a bunch of QFF points which I never use as Virgin has now transformed themselves and I fly them domestically almost exclusively and internationally I'm finding myself, without any real directed effort, flying Star Alliance carriers.

My point?

I didn't really have a good enough think about where I was going to be travelling in the next 1-3 years.

Up until joining this forum I didn't even think about any of this stuff. An airfare was just a bus ticket to me and I usually didn't interact with the secretaries at work about this stuff even a little bit, so I had no knowledge at all - none!

My advice, and I'm just a relative newcomer so be cautious, is to do a bunch of dummy bookings or routing/pricing checks with a service like matrix.itasoftware to the places you don't just dream of going to, but you are actually likely to travel to in the next 12-36 months. Have a think about the pricing of the fares you are willing to accept and which airlines appear to be continually popping up as price and availability contenders.

Chances are good that there will be several non-aligned carriers in there, but which of the major alliance carriers seem to be in your top 3 choices on these dummy bookings? This will help guide you to the right major alliance and from there the probable best local (Australia/SE Asia) carrier with which to earn FF points via both flying and credit card use.

Are you likely to do much domestic travel in your three years here?

 

[Daniel 1982]

Credit cards only transfer to a limited range of freq flyer programs. AA is not good for Aust issued credit card for points transfer.

Freq flyer programs are for the medium to long term. From the info "on a student visa in Hobart in Tasmania" we guess you are not an Australian citizen. What is your home country / where do plan/hope to live for the next decade ?

As above posts above US centric blogs are not that relevant to Aust

fyi "Travel hacking" is a term never used by freq flyers

Thanks for the hints (that AA is not the best choice for me). I will live in Australia for the next 3 years and then I have no plans where to go. My home country is Austria...I saw that I have to pay ot become a Qantas FF member. I will choose Emirates. There is a credit card that offers a bonus, I can earn points while spending and I can use Emirates to fly ot Europe. It's getting complicated :shock:
....

 

[Daniel 1982]

My advice, and I'm just a relative newcomer so be cautious, is to do a bunch of dummy bookings or routing/pricing checks with a service like matrix.itasoftware to the places you don't just dream of going to, but you are actually likely to travel to in the next 12-36 months. Have a think about the pricing of the fares you are willing to accept and which airlines appear to be continually popping up as price and availability contenders.

Thanks for the matrixsoftware hint. It is very useful. I will chewck which airlines take me where I want to go. My plan is to go to Vienna/Austria.

Are you likely to do much domestic travel in your three years here?

yes I would like to do much dometsic travel as well in the next three years

 

[Moopere]

I saw that I have to pay ot become a Qantas FF member. I will choose Emirates. There is a credit card that offers a bonus, I can earn points while spending and I can use Emirates to fly ot Europe.

I suspect the Emirates card you have seen is this one: Emirates Citibank Platinum - Citibank Australia

I've looked at this before, $229 per year, capped at 150,000 Skywards miles / year, 25K sign on bonus. If a big part of your future flying will be with Emirates then this is probably the only way to get some skywards miles from normal everyday spending inside Australia. You need to have a taxable income of AUD$35,000 a year or more (you also need to be a permanent Australian resident, which may or may not be a problem).

As for paying to become a Qantas FF member, no-one should do that. As GPH mentioned in an earlier post, have a look at the Woolworth EveryDayRewards shopping card, its not a credit card but will grant you membership to Qantas Frequent Flyer (for free) and will also earn you:

• Earn 1 Qantas Frequent Flyer point per $1 spent over $30* at Woolworths supermarkets and BWS (excluding Tasmania) and BIG W.
• Earn 1 Qantas Frequent Flyer point per $1 over $50* at participating Dick Smith stores.
• Earn 1 Qantas Frequent Flyer point per dollar spent in one transaction at Cellarmasters.
• You can also choose to swap your 4c per litre fuel saving for 2 Qantas Frequent Flyer points per litre^.

http://www.everydayrewards.com.au

Then there is the Woolworths EveryDayRewards Credit Card, another QFF point per dollar spent and 16,000 QFF points bonus at the moment (https://www.woolworthsmoney.com.au/...ey/credit+cards/woolworths+qantas+credit+card), for $89/year. Its a pretty bare bones card, but its cheap and cheerful and is a mastercard so accepted pretty much everywhere.

That would get you up and running in a fairly basic way to earn QFF points.


The alternative, again, if domestic will feature large on your travels over the next few years, is to get an Amex or Velocity card which will gain you points for Virgins Velocity FF program. Velocity is going to be less flexible for international use as Virgin are not part of a large alliance, but they have several useful partners who will allow use of Velocity FF points and it might be worth a look. Velocity membership is free and there are several cards available who will generally offer sign-on bonuses.

I've concentrated on credit cards pretty much in this post as it seems to me to be an easy way to gain some kick-off points, but of course I don't know how much flying you are likely to be doing ... it may well be that you would earn most of your FF points from actual air miles

If earning points via CC spend it likely to be interesting I'd highly recommend having a look at this: Credit Card Loyalty Programs

 

[Mwenenzi]

Thanks for the hints (that AA is not the best choice for me). I will live in Australia for the next 3 years and then I have no plans where to go. My home country is Austria...I saw that I have to pay to become a Qantas FF member. I will choose Emirates. There is a credit card that offers a bonus, I can earn points while spending and I can use Emirates to fly to Europe. It's getting complicated :shock:
....

Yes: Frequent flyer programs are complicated

As above you can join QF freq flyer program for free through the Woolworth Everyday card https://www.everydayrewards.com.au
Spend $31 at Woolies and you get 1 QF point

Still AA may be OK for you. Its just not much use for miles from Aussie credit card spend.
AA has a much better earn to burn ratio compared to QF (cheaper reward & less $ copay fees)
For many (but not all) Qantas flights you get AA miles. Some QF cheapies are non earning with AA

With QF when (if) you leave Aussie you may have some orphan QF points that you will not be able to use effectively later.
So if you are going to leave Aust in 2-3 year AA is way to go in my opinion.

For flights in Australia Virgin is OK, but the points not a lot of use outside of Australia (at this time)

Europe is good for Star alliance

Many people have 2 ffp: AA (for OneWorld) and another in Star

 

[RWJ777]

Daniel, as much as it is a hell of a lot of fun to scam things and get great deals etc etc, there is another path. Study hard, work hard, and suddenly you may get to a place where it is not even worth your bother to quote your frequent flyer number on a First Class ticket.

I think the fact that you're out here studying away from your family and friends proves that you are studying hard and will be successful. So i agree that it's good to think about these little arrangements now that will make your life easier -- and provided they don't distort your behaviour and make you spend more of your doctoral stipend than you otherwise would!

Advice here of trying to identify where you might fly in the future, and therefore which carrier/s to target, is pretty good. For me, because I travel almost exclusively for work on Qantas means that Oneworld was my obvious choice -- although I have also joined the Virgin program and make use of it for other domestic travel.

 

[Daniel 1982]

Then there is the Woolworths EveryDayRewards Credit Card, another QFF point per dollar spent and 16,000 QFF points bonus at the moment (https://www.woolworthsmoney.com.au/...ey/credit+cards/woolworths+qantas+credit+card), for $89/year. Its a pretty bare bones card, but its cheap and cheerful and is a mastercard so accepted pretty much everywhere.

I already applied for the Woolworths Everyday Money Card. I saw that it would give me 2 points per dollar spent (if I shop at Woolis). I just wanted to start somewhere. Since I only spend 660 AUD per month it will not give me a lot of miles unfortunaltely. Having in mind that I have to pay 49 AUD for the annual fee this was probably my first mistake on my way to become a FF...

The other option I would have is with the bonus offered by some card providers. For example the Emirates and Quantas cards you mentioned. I read on Chris Guillebeaus site Get Frequent Flyer Miles Without Flying | Travel Hacking Cartel (sorry for using the "Hacker"-word again) that he signs in for credit cards that offer a bonus but no annual fee in the first year. Once the fee is due the idea is to simpy downgrade the card to a "no fee card" or to cancel it. This sounds quite strange to me. Has anyone ever heard of this? Is this a usual strategy to earn a card bonus from multiple cards?

 

[Daniel 1982]

I think the fact that you're out here studying away from your family and friends proves that you are studying hard and will be successful. So i agree that it's good to think about these little arrangements now that will make your life easier -- and provided they don't distort your behaviour and make you spend more of your doctoral stipend than you otherwise would!

Advice here of trying to identify where you might fly in the future, and therefore which carrier/s to target, is pretty good. For me, because I travel almost exclusively for work on Qantas means that Oneworld was my obvious choice -- although I have also joined the Virgin program and make use of it for other domestic travel.

Thanks for the encouragement and for letting me knwo which ones you chose..

 

[Mwenenzi]

....that he signs in for credit cards that offer a bonus but no annual fee in the first year. Once the fee is due the idea is to simply downgrade the card to a "no fee card" or to cancel it. This sounds quite strange to me. Has anyone ever heard of this? Is this a usual strategy to earn a card bonus from multiple cards?

Yes. Quite common in USA for some people, but less common here. However with a low income applying for a new credit card every year or so will set some alarm bells ringing in the credit checking agencies.
www.veda.com.au
www.mycreditfile.com.au/
www.dnb.com.au/
www.savingsguide.com.au › Debt

Edit:
Be aware that with many ffp's the miles/points expire after a period of no activity. 18 months is a common time.The definition "activity" varies between ffp's