Alas ... years of brand loyalty and tireless points accumulation didn't add up to a hill of beans.
Recently returned from family trip to Singapore. Work commitments meant that our travel dates were pretty much fixed, which does not help when you try to use FF points.
Disappointed to learn that there was not one FF seats to get there, and indeed not one FF seats coming home. Sure it was peak travel season, and we only committed to book 4 months out - and yes I could have used the points + pay option (which is very poor value in point redemption). So in the end I just paid cash -- and even booked one of the legs with a different carrier as it was cheaper.
Went over on Singapore Airlines - even signed up to their Krisfkyer program and back on our friend QANTAS with my million or so FF points tucked away untouched.
Got me to thinking ... is it all worth it??
Sure, if you are a retiree -- or live a life that allows you to be flexible in your travel then maybe FF programs are great. But if you have a familiy and are restricted in your travelling options, then maybe there are other ways?
I've done some maths this morning and this is what I found ...
As a Comm Bank customer on Diamond -- with Optus + Woolworths all feeding QANTAS FF, points accumulation is not too bad. Just that I can't seem to use the points when I really need to.
I toyed around with swapping my Credit Card back to True awards ... you get a 25% uptick in Mastercard points, but on assessment their awards are more expensive. Besides, we've trained ourselves to be masters of the Amex transaction.
As a simple example - a $500 retail voucher on True Awards requires 87,000 points (Coles) whilst in the QANTAS store a $500 Woolies voucher costs only 67,500. Thats makes True Awards 28% more expensive. Yes you do earn an extra .25 of a point on Mastercard transaction - but you don't need to be a maths wizz to know that that is a poor deal.
The thing that peaked my interest in True Awards was the Flight Centre option -- the promise of any flight on any carrier at any time (with their guarantee to match any price). What could be better!? Considering my recent Singapore troubles, this was an attractive proposition.
True Awards offers a $1000 voucher for $184,000 points. My flights to Singapore & return cost me close to $6000 (for family of 4) so that would have equated to a need for 1,104,000 True Award points.
By comparison if you could have jagged the QANTAS FF seats - it would have only cost 240,000 points for 4 people return. But the point being you have to be able to jag these seats! The points are irrelevant, indeed worthless, if you cant use them.
But then ... is there another option? The Woolies deal with QANTAS is interesting. I can claim a $500 woolies card for 67,500 points. But Wollies does not sell travel or airplane tickets. But they do sell Pre-Paid mastercards. Why couldn't I buy pre-paid master cards with woolies vouchers?
I spent the morning looking online and I cant see anything in the product disclosure statements that would prohibit this from happeneing. I expect Woolies would treat their gift cards like cash - which they should.
The maths then gets heaps better. $6000 worth of Pre-paid mastercards from Woolies from the Qantas store would cost only 810,000 points. Thats a massive 36% points saving when compared to True Awards. I could then use the mastercards to buy whatever travel I wanted on whatever aiirline. You do have to pay $2 per card and each card can only hold $1000 -- but to unlock the value a small price to pay.
Still 810,000 points is three times more expensive than the standard FF seats. For the record $6000 in QANTAS Holidays vouchers also totals 810,000 points through the QANTAS Store.
Anyway, my QANTAS FF points seem safe for another year. Hopefully they will be there for my retirement when I can fit my travel into their schedule, and not expect that they fit their loyalty program into mine .... Or, I'll use my points for upgrades and just resign myself to the fact that I'll always have to pay cash for travel until we don't have to be locked in to school holiday travel.
Recently returned from family trip to Singapore. Work commitments meant that our travel dates were pretty much fixed, which does not help when you try to use FF points.
Disappointed to learn that there was not one FF seats to get there, and indeed not one FF seats coming home. Sure it was peak travel season, and we only committed to book 4 months out - and yes I could have used the points + pay option (which is very poor value in point redemption). So in the end I just paid cash -- and even booked one of the legs with a different carrier as it was cheaper.
Went over on Singapore Airlines - even signed up to their Krisfkyer program and back on our friend QANTAS with my million or so FF points tucked away untouched.
Got me to thinking ... is it all worth it??
Sure, if you are a retiree -- or live a life that allows you to be flexible in your travel then maybe FF programs are great. But if you have a familiy and are restricted in your travelling options, then maybe there are other ways?
I've done some maths this morning and this is what I found ...
As a Comm Bank customer on Diamond -- with Optus + Woolworths all feeding QANTAS FF, points accumulation is not too bad. Just that I can't seem to use the points when I really need to.
I toyed around with swapping my Credit Card back to True awards ... you get a 25% uptick in Mastercard points, but on assessment their awards are more expensive. Besides, we've trained ourselves to be masters of the Amex transaction.
As a simple example - a $500 retail voucher on True Awards requires 87,000 points (Coles) whilst in the QANTAS store a $500 Woolies voucher costs only 67,500. Thats makes True Awards 28% more expensive. Yes you do earn an extra .25 of a point on Mastercard transaction - but you don't need to be a maths wizz to know that that is a poor deal.
The thing that peaked my interest in True Awards was the Flight Centre option -- the promise of any flight on any carrier at any time (with their guarantee to match any price). What could be better!? Considering my recent Singapore troubles, this was an attractive proposition.
True Awards offers a $1000 voucher for $184,000 points. My flights to Singapore & return cost me close to $6000 (for family of 4) so that would have equated to a need for 1,104,000 True Award points.
By comparison if you could have jagged the QANTAS FF seats - it would have only cost 240,000 points for 4 people return. But the point being you have to be able to jag these seats! The points are irrelevant, indeed worthless, if you cant use them.
But then ... is there another option? The Woolies deal with QANTAS is interesting. I can claim a $500 woolies card for 67,500 points. But Wollies does not sell travel or airplane tickets. But they do sell Pre-Paid mastercards. Why couldn't I buy pre-paid master cards with woolies vouchers?
I spent the morning looking online and I cant see anything in the product disclosure statements that would prohibit this from happeneing. I expect Woolies would treat their gift cards like cash - which they should.
The maths then gets heaps better. $6000 worth of Pre-paid mastercards from Woolies from the Qantas store would cost only 810,000 points. Thats a massive 36% points saving when compared to True Awards. I could then use the mastercards to buy whatever travel I wanted on whatever aiirline. You do have to pay $2 per card and each card can only hold $1000 -- but to unlock the value a small price to pay.
Still 810,000 points is three times more expensive than the standard FF seats. For the record $6000 in QANTAS Holidays vouchers also totals 810,000 points through the QANTAS Store.
Anyway, my QANTAS FF points seem safe for another year. Hopefully they will be there for my retirement when I can fit my travel into their schedule, and not expect that they fit their loyalty program into mine .... Or, I'll use my points for upgrades and just resign myself to the fact that I'll always have to pay cash for travel until we don't have to be locked in to school holiday travel.
Jan 7
