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Well considered answer Nutcase, but working on the assumption that the bulk of the 0.8% Visa/MC interchange fee is to provide the consumer bells and whistles: - 0.6-0.7% of the roughly 2.0% Amex/Diners merchant fee is used to provide the same bells and whistles? - is the +1.0% remaining...

Huh? For consumers and merchants, Amex and Diners are exactly the same, over engineered franken-products that are just payments mechanism with an unsecured debt facility hanging off the back of it with even more insane fees than Visa and MC charge.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if merchants begin to surcharge more for Amex or continue to reduce acceptance to Diners Club levels. That incremental Amex merchant fee will equate to about 1% of their revenue, and a much larger percentage of their actual profit margin...

I know that a few years ago under the old Woolworths Rewards iteration, Woolworths wanted to share their customer purchasing data with Qantas' customer purchasing data but Qantas didn't want to, they thought theirs was way more valuable than Woolworth's data. I think having their own credit card...

If lounge access or status credits were benefits, that would be appealing, BUT: - Seems like I'm not the only who realises that Sh*ttibank can't organise their way out of a wet paper bag - Qantas 'Loyalty' have made clear in the business press that they want to move more to dynamic pricing...

Based on the cash rates for the available hotels, looks like worse redemption value than using Points+Pay on flights.

I don't pay any annual credit card fees and I try to avoid paying surcharges to use them. My cash is more important than loyalty to a program designed by overpaid marketers to extract more money out members.

When 3 to 4 years ago the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program was 'enhanced' to be 'simpler and fairer' (their marketing doublespeak), accruing and using points for anything other than Classic Awards became the equivalent of Flybuys or any other standard 'loyalty' program (i.e. a program designed to...

Just over 8,000 for me, although since joining much flying and hence status has gone to other programs, including Ansett (RIP). My lifetime total will always end on a 1 or a 6 for this reason.

Definitely. I avoid DXB, this is a great alternative.

Not exactly the same situation but after considering: - Diners acceptance is small and rapidly shrinking, - I have insurances on fee free cards - Lounge access when you try to use it can be spotty - SPG is nice but always subject to change, especially as converting to AA for amazing...

Interesting, first time I'd heard this was the case, thanks

To each their own. Other airline economy seating may not be perfect but I don't need my shoulders constantly jostled by neighbouring passengers or trolleys/cabin crew/passengers walking down the tiny aisle on a 10 across. When BA descends to that level, IMO opinion they will have truly descended...

While BA still has 9 seats across in a 777, I'll prefer that to the 10 across which EK squeezes in. Soft product be damned. And it's not just BA heading down the LCC route - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-airline-world-just-added-142354869.html

It's not just short haul where they are penny pinching. The other day, on SIN-LHR which is a 13 hour flight, between the post-departure meal and the landing meal in Economy, there were no snacks to be had. The cabin crew were sterling but said that BA now offered no snacks in economy, the new...

I'm still showing as Local Champion on two vendors, but recent transactions at them aren't showing any sort of bonus.

It's a little clearer why OW no longer uses their old marketing slogan of "Revolves Around You".

Alone the fact that this can now be a serious statement shows how far the FFP game has fallen in the last couple of years. I suspect you will see the same approach - the JV partners BA, IB, AY, JL will probably get better treatment than the rest. It would be a surprise though if they treated...

I was meant to fly MEL-SYD on Sunday night on an award ticket. I'd already been receiving emails and texts from Virgin that flights might be affected by the weather the day before, but the actual cancellation happened at the airport. Easily rebooked on to a flight the next morning (without any...

Totally on point. With the current dining bonus, for a $46 meal for two I earn about 4 x as much as for an upcoming intra-Europe flight on BA. My SMFFF (Self Managed Frequent Flyer Fund) has been looking a lot better since dropping a focus on earning QFF points.