Citi Select - New Benefits

[wafliron]

I'm still learning

haven't done any SQ redemptions yet. I need to sit down and learn how to navigate their site. LOL at the same time as following my SPG, HH, AA, Velocity, citi, altitude and QFF points. I'm sure I've forgotten some...oh yeah Diners

Wow, you took on Diners and all the myriad options via SPG before tackling SQ - I'm impressed

Do take the time to learn SQ though - it's easily my all-round favourite program. Easy to earn points with via CC spend (at good earn rates), reasonable burn rates, and comparatively easy to find award seats in premium cabins. Oh, and great airline in general

Their site is OK... not hard to navigate / learn, but a bit limited. Generally fine for point-to-point award bookings with SQ, but you need to call for anything involving *A partners, some SQ redemptions (the booking engine doesn't always show you all options when connections are involved, for example), etc. Their call centre is OK, though.

PS: We're all still learning

 

[Newk]

Wow, you took on Diners and all the myriad options via SPG before tackling SQ - I'm impressed

Do take the time to learn SQ though - it's easily my all-round favourite program. Easy to earn points with via CC spend (at good earn rates), reasonable burn rates, and comparatively easy to find award seats in premium cabins. Oh, and great airline in general

Their site is OK... not hard to navigate / learn, but a bit limited. Generally fine for point-to-point award bookings with SQ, but you need to call for anything involving *A partners, some SQ redemptions (the booking engine doesn't always show you all options when connections are involved, for example), etc. Their call centre is OK, though.

PS: We're all still learning

LOL I had an old free, professional-association Diners gathering dust. Not used for years. Dusted it off when I discovered AFF. The newly attached MasterCard gave me SPG gold so I sort of had to try to understand that ....I didn't really but it's a good excuse
Singapore annoy me because of the points' expiry. Three of us in the family have Singapore points gathered Baff (before AFF). I've had one go at redemption on a partner and waited far too long on hold and gave up. Just yesterday I got an email from my daughter (two rooms away) asking what to do with her expiring Singapore points.
So I have stopped using my Westpac Singapore CCs and started saving points in CC schemes, like Diners and now Citi, until I understand it more. You may have given me a hurry on with your relative valuation.
At the moment I find xASAs so easy to understand and use, and hopefully I'll get as comfortable with other FF, CC and hotel schemes

 

[wafliron]

Singapore annoy me because of the points' expiry. Three of us in the family have Singapore points gathered Baff (before AFF). Just yesterday I got an email from my daughter (two rooms away) asking what to do with her expiring Singapore points.

So I have stopped using my Westpac Singapore CCs and started saving points in CC schemes, like Diners and now Citi, until I understand it more.

Yeah, the points expiry is really annoying. But you're now approaching it the right way (assuming the earn rate on the Westpac SQ cards isn't appreciably better than your other options) - warehousing the points in credit card schemes until you actually need them, at which point you transfer to SQ.

Do be wary of those points transfers taking a few days though (or even longer, as recently happened to me - over two weeks), and the associated risk of missing out on an open award seat. Due to my aforementioned recent two-week-transfer experience I'm now in the habit of keeping enough points in my KrisFlyer account for a return Suites Saver anywhere in the world, as that way I can book without delay when I want to. I'm comfortable doing that given there's essentially no chance I won't use that few (relatively speaking) points sometime before their expiry date - but YMMV, of course.

I've had one go at redemption on a partner and waited far too long on hold and gave up.

I'm surprised to hear that - I haven't called the SQ call centre that many times, but every time I have I've been able to speak to a CSR within a minute or two.

That said, there aren't many situations where I'd recommend using SQ points on *A partners - you'd generally be much better off buying points with US Airways or Avianca LifeMiles and using those for non-SQ *A airlines. If you haven't read up on those two programs - and the amazing value you can get out of buying points from them when they are running points-buying-promos - then I'd highly recommend that you do!

You may have given me a hurry on with your relative valuation.

That said, if you do end up being able to earn a lot of points via Diners, my comment may not end up being as applicable to you. I probably should have said "SQ is my favourite of the programs that it's easy for most Australians to earn points in". Due to the huge range of programs you can earn into at pretty good rates via Diners -> SPG -> other programs you have more options than most. It may well turn out that US Airways, or AA, or something else like that, works out better than SQ for you.

At the moment I find xASAs so easy to understand and use, and hopefully I'll get as comfortable with other FF, CC and hotel schemes

If it's any help, booking KrisFlyer redemptions on SQ metal via their website is just as easy as xASAs via QF's website once you've done it for the first time.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

That said, there aren't many situations where I'd recommend using SQ points on *A partners - you'd generally be much better off buying points with US Airways or Avianca LifeMiles and using those for non-SQ *A airlines. If you haven't read up on those two programs - and the amazing value you can get out of buying points from them when they are running points-buying-promos - then I'd highly recommend that you do!



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I am not sure I follow here.

Even allowing for the higher fuel fines, if one has an ample KF balance why would you buy miles, even at a discount?

Johanneburg to London on SAA is a great value redemption......but with points to burn *A via SQ to Europe is still a good deal if you have points.

 

[Newk]

Do take the time to learn SQ though - it's easily my all-round favourite program. Easy to earn points with via CC spend (at good earn rates), reasonable burn rates, and comparatively easy to find award seats in premium cabins. Oh, and great airline in general



PS: We're all still learning

Thanks for the tip. I am working my way through the saver suites thread over yonder. I can see a use for this knowledge I am educating a mate up to do a JASA for a golf trip to China in 2014. I may just leave him in Qantas business and try a Singapore first flight. One-upmanship is a wonderful thing

 

[wafliron]

Thanks for the tip. I am working my way through the saver suites thread over yonder. I can see a use for this knowledge

Enjoy!

I am educating a mate up to do a JASA for a golf trip to China in 2014. I may just leave him in Qantas business and try a Singapore first flight. One-upmanship is a wonderful thing

Hah. That would be mean - but also awesome

I am not sure I follow here.

Even allowing for the higher fuel fines, if one has an ample KF balance why would you buy miles, even at a discount

Because my KrisFlyer miles are far more valuable to me than the 1.5c / 1.9c per point that you can buy LifeMiles / Dividend Miles for - they let me fly SQ 77W/A380 J/F/R and 773 F when I want/need to. Or, to rephrase, I'd normally rather pay 1.5c / 1.9c per point when flying non-SQ *A carriers and save my KF points for when I want/need to fly SQ premium cabins. Despite having an "ample" KF point balance

Clearly this is a YMMV situation - above is just my personal preference / valuation.