Greetings from London

[adam102]

Evening from London!

Signing up to AFF as I'm coming over in Febuary for work.

Love how friendly and informative you chaps are

Flying over on BA with an upgrade voucher to CW to Sydney (bloody long flight!) and have a Amex 2-4-1 CW to return booked to come back later in the year earned through credit card points/tier point runs.

With the recent BA changes I'm looking to jump ship as that status is likely not going to be renewed

I'll be new to the country and have been eyeing up credit cards / introductory offers - would love to hear your strategy if you were starting afresh collecting points in Aus and which carrier you'd target!

Likely aiming for a trip back home every couple of years and various ones around Aus

Cheers

Adam

 

[Dr Ralph]

Welcome to AFF.

 

[adam102]

Would love to hear if any of you have any card comparison resources - I've found a couple and one which is (slightly) outdated but pretty good is:

Shared Credit Card Compare 2024

docs.google.com

 

[Dmac59]

A warm welcome to AFF @adam102

 

[Jacques Vert]

Welcome

 

[RB001]

Another welcome to AFF, @adam102 !
As you already know, there's plenty here - and multiple folks with lived experience to align with yours.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Another warm welcome to AFF @adam102
Lots of knowledgeable folk here
Happy travels

 

[SYD]

Evening from London!

Signing up to AFF as I'm coming over in Febuary for work.

Love how friendly and informative you chaps are

Flying over on BA with an upgrade voucher to CW to Sydney (bloody long flight!) and have a Amex 2-4-1 CW to return booked to come back later in the year earned through credit card points/tier point runs.

With the recent BA changes I'm looking to jump ship as that status is likely not going to be renewed

I'll be new to the country and have been eyeing up credit cards / introductory offers - would love to hear your strategy if you were starting afresh collecting points in Aus and which carrier you'd target!

Likely aiming for a trip back home every couple of years and various ones around Aus

Cheers

Adam

Welcome also!

Will you be fleeing the train wreck that’s coming for BAEC?

Unfortunately, Virgin Australia (VA) has recently announced similar punitive changes to their FF program. They will still have some sweat spots in redemptions but probably not a program of use - depending on how long you’ll be here and intended work/personal travel patterns?

No surprises that QANTAS FF is the main program in town. It has it’s positives (easy to earn a shed load of points) but redemptions (at Classic Reward levels) have become a lot harder on popular international routes.

If you like wine, QF Wine has incredibly good value bonus points offers!

 

[BenG]

Welcome to AFF @adam102

 

[adam102]

Many thanks to you all for the warm welcome

Welcome also!

Will you be fleeing the train wreck that’s coming for BAEC?

Unfortunately, Virgin Australia (VA) has recently announced similar punitive changes to their FF program. They will still have some sweat spots in redemptions but probably not a program of use - depending on how long you’ll be here and intended work/personal travel patterns?

No surprises that QANTAS FF is the main program in town. It has it’s positives (easy to earn a shed load of points) but redemptions (at Classic Reward levels) have become a lot harder on popular international routes.

If you like wine, QF Wine has incredibly good value bonus points offers!

Definetly looking to flee the BAEC catastrophe, sad to hear that the Aus carriers are headed in the same direction.

Likely staying for 2-3 years initially and will rereview then - will be travelling frequently between UK/AUS mostly for longer haul.

QANTAS it is then - I'm sure redemptions are similarly as difficult when trying to use a BA 2-4-1 on the AMEX BA card - they make it very difficult to get CW due to how popular the routes are. Many an evening waiting till midnight to call the US East Coast BA line.... hopefully it wont be as tedious.

If the points cannot be reedeemed reliably longer haul it may need to be the wine!

Cheers

 

[SYD]

Many thanks to you all for the warm welcome




Definetly looking to flee the BAEC catastrophe, sad to hear that the Aus carriers are headed in the same direction.

So far only Virgin

Likely staying for 2-3 years initially and will rereview then - will be travelling frequently between UK/AUS mostly for longer haul.

You probably should consider something that’s useful here but also after you return? Alas, no onesize fits all there.

QANTAS it is then - I'm sure redemptions are similarly as difficult when trying to use a BA 2-4-1 on the AMEX BA card - they make it very difficult to get CW due to how popular the routes are. Many an evening waiting till midnight to call the US East Coast BA line.... hopefully it wont be as tedious.

QF long haul redemptions are very problematic. Compounded by QR withholding inventory and EK charging a motza for their award seats….

If the points cannot be reedeemed reliably longer haul it may need to be the wine!

No, you buy wine with $ for bonus points. A lot of bonus points!

 

[Steady]

Welcome aboard @adam102

 

[cove]

Qantas won’t get you longhaul in business on points easily. We use Singapore Air Kris Miles. Also Qatar is coming if they buy a chunk of Virgin Australia.

 

[SYD]

Also Qatar is coming if they buy a chunk of Virgin Australia.

They already have (bought a chunk of VA) and they’ve been in Oz for a while.

SQ can be problematic with a hard 3 yr expiry of points. But maybe not an issue if moving on!

 

[cove]

With 5 redemption nominees plus myself I don’t find Kris Miles 3 year expiry to be a problem.
BA new deal is a dud.Qantas points tend to be pretty useless.
Welcome to AFF!

 

[cove]

This afternoon we are flying to Singapore. We stay overnight at Crowne Changi using IHG points then fly the next day to London. It breaks up the journey. We are Perth based so the distance is a bit less than Sydney.

 

[drron]

Another warm welcome to AFF @adam102 .

You will get a lot of folks on here saying that QFF is the program to use. However most of them have high status and fly a lot.
Personally I have just switched my domestic flying to Virgin as the points you earn are much more useful to me. I use them on Singapore airlines and have now also have redeemed awards on QR. You are very unlikely to get a QR premium award through QFF. So if flying to the UK they are as well better airlines flying to the UK than BA and QF IMHO.
They also have been having once a year points sales. Yes not exactly cheap points but last years points got me 2 return tickets on SQ in J at less than half price.

The other program I use is AA for my OW points. It used to be my major program but switched to BAEC a few years back as much easier to get to OWE. My wife was OWE with QFF but I always requalified before she did although flying together.But with the changes at BA it is back to AA. And I did get an F award on QR for DOH-BKK coming back from Europe through AA even though they only release awards at 330 days out. I believe going to the Al Safwa lounge will make me forget that I will no longer get into QF's F lounges.

 

[DejaBrew]

Welcome aboard AFF @adam102