<redacted>
I was responding to an article regarding the use of Qantas points. If you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have told you in no undertain terms that Qantas points are useless and that anyone who focuses on accumulating them is a schmuck. I was simply making the point (as Matt was in his article) that actually the situation is more complex, more nuanced, than that.
And I think that's something a lot of people don't appreciate about using points to redeem award tickets. You need to come into the flight search process thinking of alternatives to get you where you need to go. Maybe you need to travel on an alternate date, or to/from a nearby airport. Maybe Aeroplan has better availability than Qantas does at the moment. Or maybe you just book the economy classic award now so you have a ticket ready to go, but keep searching in the interim, hoping that an award seat pops up between now and when you depart.
I'm with
@Greg555 for much of this. The article is not objective. It reads like apologia. Fundamentally, the message should be less of "your expectations of QFF are misaligned" and more of "you can get value from QFF only if you understand that QF has no intention of serving up what the average punter is led to believe is possible and that you will need to think creatively in a way that only experienced FFs can".
People need to stop treating these frequent flyer programs like WebJet or Expedia. In most programs you cannot generally just specify when you want to go and where and have business or first class awards pop up like that. The fact of the matter is airlines open a limited set of award seats up in any program, and they can be snapped up quickly. What I tell people all the time is your effort and ingenuity will be awarded with heavily discounted business class flights.
I am glad some people get good value out of the QFF program. However the sweet points in the article have very little relevance for us.
Domestically we have switched to VA. much easier to get gold/platinum. Besides we both have OW life time sapphire. The only time I would consider QF would be to PER and AA offers excellent value for J awards.
I think domestic Australia was just one example Matt gave as to where there can be value in those QFF points. However, he does mention other regions where you can often find international long haul availability in Premium Cabin like flights to Asia.
I have found it much easier to get premium awards through VA. those points will be used on SQ,
I also find it easier to see premium awards on QR with either BA or AA than QFF. They will be our preferred way to Europe.
And LM would be whatever we can get.
You do have a point. Different frequent flyer programs will have different availabilities and often times it makes sense to leverage those other programs for certain bookings. With that being said, I think a "balanced diet" of points in various programs will enable you to get the best availability when searching for award seats as they may be some availability that say United has but that Qantas or AA doesn't have, making your Virgin points useful.
Oh one other point, and probably something you already know but thought I'd bring it up: you're aware that your BA Avios points
can be transferred 1 to 1 for free to other Avios point earning programs like Qatar, Iberia and FinnAir via the Avios website right? The reason I bring this up is that Qatar tends to have excellent pricing on business class awards to Europe starting at 90,000 one-way flying with them between Australia and Europe? Iberia by the way can be great because you can find business class awards between Europe and North America for as little as 35,000 Avios IIRC.
Now whilst mine is a nearly unique one there are obviously quite a few people who would prefer their long haul awards on SQ and/or QR rather than what they can find on QFF. Velocity points aren't hard to earn.
That's true. Virgin Australia points are also relatively easy to earn, and there are some tricks my colleague showed me which allow one to earn Virgin points for effectively less than a cent per point. However, I would maintain that there are more ways to earn points on Qantas than there are on Virgin. For instance, Qantas Wine's often excellent bonus point sales. At the same time, Qantas through its points club program does offer perks for high earners like lounge access and status credit rollover.
However, recognising that the QFF program is the biggest for Australians in terms of participation, and that a relatively small airline lacks the capacity to compete with much larger airlines for CRs, then useful tips about how to get around the lack of capacity is useful for those that were not already in the know.
This is really a crucial part. And one of the things I think many Australians, and members of this forum take for granted is the many ways you can earn Qantas Points. Qantas makes it so easy to earn points from wine to gift card purchases at Woolies to even lucrative transfers from hotel loyalty programs as is the case now with the Choice Hotels promotion. And I must say, as someone who has been a Canadian resident earning Aeroplan points, and a UK resident at one point earning BA Avios point, Qantas Points are way more easier to earn. Sure I can point to times where I can buy Aeroplan points outright for cheap during special promotional sales, but those are few and far between. However, as someone in Australia on a student visa, with no ability to get Australian credit cards, I still find plenty of opportunities to earn QF points, particularly with gift cards at Woolies.
)
