Best alternative FF to Qantas

[gavo]

I have been researching FF programs besides Qantas (I'm a member) for international travel, I'm trying to work out best FF program to accumulate points long term as I do not think my wife and I will manage enough to achieve gold etc. We will continue to accumulate Qantas points via credit card spend, wondering if should just continue with Qantas and get points from flying and spend or is there another program that I should look at including those that offer ability to buy on sale points.

Suggestions most appreciated.

 

[encryptededdy]

I think QFF is still the best in terms of earning points from Credit Card churning etc. and redeeming them, provided you do not have issues with Qantas' Award Availability (or lack thereof). This is mainly because historically you would generally get a lot more points from Qantas card sign ups compared to anything else.

Even if you're not churning, you can get Qantas cards that earn 1 point per dollar up to a reasonable limit, whereas any cards that transfer to other currencies will only earn usually 0.5~0.75 ppd.

However, I think a lot of people do have issues with Qantas award availability, so here are some of my thoughts;

• KrisFlyer is pretty good for availability on Singapore Airlines, but pricing on partners is poor. Many Australian cards transfer to them. You can't buy points though. If you're in a pinch, you can often snag an "Advantage" award for a ~50% penalty for better avaliability
• Asia Miles/Cathay - not much experience with them, but pricing on OneWorld partners is good, and is pretty cheap for business class Australia <-> Hong Kong, from which you can connect onto other award flights. You can transfer from many Australian cards.
• AeroPlan is my preferred program for buying miles, when they have sales on anyway. However I've noticed recently that a lot of their partners are withholding award space from them, so be careful.
• LifeMiles is also great for buying miles, but I haven't tried them personally and I'm told their customer service kinda sucks.

I don't have any experience with redeeming VA.

 

[AIRwin]

I do not think my wife and I will manage enough to achieve gold etc

Family pool with Velocity?

 

[levelnine]

Velocity is the program you want. No hard expiry like SQ, easy to accumulate via credit card earn in Australia & plenty of good redemption options both domestically (VA) & internationally (SQ, QR, UA, EY, etc).

 

[gavo]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions

 

[winfred]

I have looked at the same thing time and time again in the past. For someone who travels mainly to HKG, SIN, KUL, SFO, BKK, the conclusion I reached is that Oneworld offers superior benefits to that of the other alliances. QF offers the easiest way to qualify for Oneworld Emerald.

The situation may be different if your travel destination is different.