Can you have too many Frequent Flyer points?

[fersea]

Surely this is a bit like asking, can you have too much money? The simple answer is no but if it is going to run your life accumulating or keeping them then yes you can. And of course you earn them to use. (says he who has probably earned 250k points in his life and as about 200k in balance. Hopefully that will change in a couple of years.

There is a lady who works for me who is Qantas gold with about 500k points but won't use them because she wants to be platinum before she retires. She has no understanding that the points balance makes no difference to the status and refuses to listen to anyone who says otherwise. So she goes and buys business class fares whilst the points sit there.

I wonder how many other people are like that.

 

[simongr]

It is a strange question. It's a balance between risk and opportunity. I think you can have too many points in one carrier due to the Ansett risk. It's also not just about points. I lost not only points but my honeymoon flights when AN collapsed.

I don't think you can have too many points but I think a lack of point use strategy is the real risk. I am sat on 425k points with QF and am saving for three J awards to uk and Europe so for me 800K is too many as it doesn't map to my strategy.

 

[lovestotravel]

Okay this is a little bit of a DYKWIA moment..... so apologies in advance...

Okay I have several million points now, and I think it's too many for my current circumstance....

I have them spread in various accounts/programs to minimise risk, relatively evenly spread..... with about 20% in each..

Qantas
Virgin
Singapore
Amex
Commbank

However, I also have a large credit voucher with Qantas to use soon and that is enough for quite a few flights up the front...

With J flights being devalued so much it makes the points worth ALOT less than previously... J to the USA used to cost $12k and now you can fairly easy get $5k. That being said, points are still worth about 3% based on that....

I really want to burn some up but don't have a huge amount of travel plans in the next 12 months to do so. Everything considered I am not that fussed as my points are spread out over 5 different accounts do my total loss would be less than 1 Million points if something happened.

Worst case I can use all of them pretty much for Gift cards at a coughpy less than 1% return and I am confident that
a) None of the programs/airlines/banks will go belly up
b) There would be enough time to redeem the points for something


So short answer = NO

 

[Deleted member]

article in SMH today.

Maximise your Qantas frequent flyer points

 

[cove]

That newspaper is improving with that article as the writer used helpers.

Lovestotravel has 5 resources running to spread the risk and manage the rewards and that seems pretty sound.
My original fear was the idea of being stuck in New York and having to buy a ticket home which fortunately has not happened.
Of course it could still happen so multiple options makes a lot of sense to get back home in style on points

 

[hummel]

I personally don't see the point in stock-piling points/miles.

I've just come back from a holiday where we redeemed 300,000 US Airways miles. I've got approx 200,000 miles/points between Amex and KF and will be redeeming them in the next 2 years.

I remember as a kid my father being burnt by Ansett.. and I think it was Continental (Early 90s) Around the 1,000,000 mark. I recall he was very pissed off... I don't want that to happen to me

 

[nickfromeastryde]

As I value the points (like many) at about 3c a point, I personally like to utilise them whenever I can get substantially greater value than that, ie recent upgrade J to F SYD - LAX for my wife and me I think was about 15c per point after taking into account the cheap companion J flights we originally purchased

Happy to use cash if I can't get these types of points bargains but like many of the posters above, do have a strategy to use them once I retire in 2 to 3 years, which is to buy one J/F whilst using points for the other ticket (assuming one major trip each year). That way it should be reasonably easy to maintain status at least for one of us whilst also burning points at a reasonable rate - who knows might be able to be point neutral each year. Also I think it will be easier to justify flying in the pointy part of the aircraft if I'm only spending money on one ticket

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I think that if you hoard points to an airline that is Government owned/backed (partly or majority), it 'could' be a 'safer' bet.
EK and SQ come to mind as being 'safer' than QF (in the event of an airline going bust). QF is cutting routes and expanding JQ too, thus limiting choices in the future.

Also, trying to lock in future flights as far out as possible is another step towards minimising downside risk. When AN went belly up, l *think* that QF/VA honoured AN bookings.

Back to the OT by cove, no, l don't think that you can have too many points.
If you get a sniff that things starting to go pair shaped at QF, there is always the frequent flyer store to pig out on. How many plasmas/LCD TV's do you need 'eh?

 

[cove]

We seem to be doing redemptions of points every month so it looks like our bathrooms won't be getting any LED/LCD TVs any time soon. There are just so many places to get to using those points.
i will need a lesson on Virgin redemptions as every time I look it is no good.
Just booked New Year using the 747 J flight with seats in the old first class section for Sydney on QF and that was easy.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Having lost the equivalent of two RTW trips in business when Ansett went under, for me diversification is important, I have ten active accounts and always try and redeem once any get to a redeemable level:

- at least one account for each of the three alliances
- avoid programs like SQ or CX which automatically retire your points 3 years after you earned them
- at least one or two US programs which have more earning options
- NO direct earn credit cards - the flexibility of having Amex or Diners points and then moving them when needed is better than being "forced" into loyalty by a direct earn card
- hotel programs are much less likely to go bankrupt than airline programs

Saving up all my points in one program and hoping I can use them in decades for grand retirement trips is a pipe dream.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

- NO direct earn credit cards - the flexibility of having Amex or Diners points and then moving them when needed is better than being "forced" into loyalty by a direct earn card

Yes, l think that this is a very good point, which has been raised in this thread earlier. (I forgot to include this in my post)

At a 'guess', l would say that AMEX would have a lesser chance of going bankrupt than an airline.


Question for all -

• Who do you use? (Myself - Westpac Earth and WOWEDR which are direct earn on QF)
• Do you warehouse them somewhere else and transfer to airlines as you need them?
• Are there restrictions on transferring points (ie, minimum number, how many times per year, etc, etc...) ???

 

[cove]

Yes I have two sets of points warehoused.
One is on Citi Rewards (non Qantas points) where they can transfer to several places in net 10,000 point chunks for each 15,000 points you transfer. Net,net earning rate is 1.33 points to my favourite Krisflyer miles but can go to others too. That card is Citi Select Visa.
Westpac Platinum Amex Kris Flyer earns a net,net 1.5 points to several airlines including SQ and MH.
We use WOWEDR, Qantas version of Citi Select, BankWest Platinum Visa and finally Amex Ultimate for Qantas points.

Citi and Amex got closer to going bust during the Global Financial Crisis as banks teetered then got bailed out than the airlines I mentioned. They are back doing ok now.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Question for all -

• Who do you use? (Myself - Westpac Earth and WOWEDR which are direct earn on QF)
• Do you warehouse them somewhere else and transfer to airlines as you need them?
• Are there restrictions on transferring points (ie, minimum number, how many times per year, etc, etc...) ???

Amex for work spend (Membership Rewards Ascent, not Spirit locking you into QF) - can transfer to 8 airlines, SPG and HH from there, no maximums, only minimum transfer amounts and I don't think any transfer number restrictions - Membership Rewards

Diners Club DC and Mastercard combo for personal (Personal, not Frequent Flyer which locks you into QF) - more hotel programs, 6 airlines although other than Virgin, the rates are better if you transfer DC to SPG, and then convert from SPG to the airline. Again, no maximums, only minimum transfer amounts and don't think any transfer number restrictions - Welcome to Diners Club Australia - plus lounge access in most overseas airports without having to worry about retaining status in an alliance.

I tend to warehouse some in case partners offer transfer bonuses like Virgin Australia sometimes does, but generally prefer to direct to SPG where you can transfer to 27 different airline programs in lots of 20,000 to get 25,000 miles - https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html

QF's decision some years ago to allow you to only direct earn on cards may be the reason it is the most profitable FF program in the world, but that's from a shareholder perspective, not a FF'ers...

 

[SeatBackForward]

My answer to the OP is: yes *you* can have too many FF points, and I think *you* should immediately transfer them to *me*

 

[Berlin]

My answer to the OP is: yes *you* can have too many FF points, and I think *you* should immediately transfer them to *me*

I'm also happily accepting donations in case anyone has this awful issue!

 

[amaroo]

I'm firmly in the "use them" category.

Once you have a decent number stacked up & you re-deem them for premium travel their value in a monetary sense is quite high. However, FF & CC accounts are not "bank accounts" and therefore, are not guaranteed.

Use them or you risk losing them or at the very least having them de-valued by some bean counter in AMEX or a FF programme.

 

[RWJ777]

I'm firmly in the "use them" category.

Once you have a decent number stacked up & you re-deem them for premium travel their value in a monetary sense is quite high. However, FF & CC accounts are not "bank accounts" and therefore, are not guaranteed.

Use them or you risk losing them or at the very least having them de-valued by some bean counter in AMEX or a FF programme.

Yes. Think that's right. Hung onto, they devalue over time (time value of money concept); but, perhaps more worryingly, providers have a proud tradition of devaluing the coin of these sorts of entitlements over time. A very easy way for providers to do this would be, for example, to increase the number of points required for each segment. This has doubtless done before but I'm all new to this to know whether there has been an inglorious history of devaluation. Bet there has. Betcha!!

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I'm also happily accepting donations in case anyone has this awful issue!

Cove you wouldn't read about it, but l went onto ancestry.com, and it turns out l'm a long, long, long, long lost cousin of yours.

 

[amaroo]

Yes. Think that's right. Hung onto, they devalue over time (time value of money concept); but, perhaps more worryingly, providers have a proud tradition of devaluing the coin of these sorts of entitlements over time. A very easy way for providers to do this would be, for example, to increase the number of points required for each segment. This has doubtless done before but I'm all new to this to know whether there has been an inglorious history of devaluation. Bet there has. Betcha!!

Last one I can remember (pure increase in point cost, not the whacking devaluing through fees, charges etc) was mid 2000's IIRC the point cost to re-deem J SYD-BKK-SYD went up something like 20+%. It's been a while & I'm guessing that the recent resurgence in the VAFF programme has probably put any nasty plans on hold.......

Best to be pro-active - earn & burn with F or J seats re-deemption.

 

[leadman]

my answer is no, i just booked four business class with QF to europe and looking forward to more holidays. Like saying you have too much money in the bank!!!!