Re: Best Status Run Options - A quick overview!
With the above mentioned quote in mind, VA shafting their regulars in favour of the SMed and my home port now reopened to QF and status run hops, can anyone suggest the cheapest way for me to gain QF gold using short haul int or domestic?
Sorry if this is a tad arrogant, given I haven't had time to digest all the posts on this rather extensive thread, I just want to make a start at gaining QF status over VA while the OOL fare war is on.
Welcome back, our no longer misunderstood friend.
:mrgreen:
Jokes aside, JASAs are definitely the cheapest way to accumulate status if you want to confine it to domestic and short haul international.
gizzard has alluded to a couple; an alternative is to get to TSV (either get to BNE and fly from there, or interleave another OOL-SYD-BNE-TSV run) then TSV-BNE-DRW-BNE-TSV gives a very good return. You do need to budget in a few nights accommodation in TSV due to the timings.
Not sure if the HBA express runs still give a respectable return or not. That said, it's harder to get J at Classic rates on HBA combos.
The key disadvantage of all of the above is.... you obviously need points. This means that at a standing start (and if, like me, you don't have a high credit card and/or Woolworths grocery throughput
), it's really hard to get those JASAs you need (keeping in mind that ASAs effectively "rebate" some points back to you, and a little bit more when your status bonus starts to kick in).
Alternatively, take advantage of the fire sale OOL-SYD at the moment. Although $3500 for SG isn't exceptional value (and would be rather tiring flying all those OOL/SYD flights), it's better than a stick to the eye. (Certainly a few years ago, $4.80 / SC (without considering c/c charges) was not ridiculously bad on domestic only). That said, some JQ domestic flights in New Zealand may be of similar value (perhaps not kick cough) - remember you need to add the Plus pack.
Any other good value SC runs need repositioning to Asia (CX J runs) or America (YUPP runs).
On top of that, perhaps consider saying a prayer every day.... that you could be bestowed with a double SCs promo.
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
