Keeping all my CC points with Qantas, is it worth it? [other Options?]

[lindyb]

Hubby & I currently have all our ff points automatically accumulate in our Qantas FF accounts, we have 2 credit cards that automatically credit our ff accounts each month + our woolies everyday rewards card & our insurance payments with ING also do the same.
This used to work out really well as I have booked a couple of great J ASA's having all the points sitting in our Qantas ff accounts.

With the change in ASA's ie being able to get the minimal point flights on the day they are released, it looks like we won't be able to get as good a "bargain" as we have done before & wonder if being such a Qantas loyal customer is now such a good idea.

What I would like to know is this what most people do or do you just have the points sitting with your credit card account & then decide which airline carrier you will allocate the points to?

 

[yongkang]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

I tend to keep the points with credit card program. Later, you can decide which airlines you are going to transfer. Sometime, you can get bonus points when you transfer.

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

I tend to keep the points with credit card program. Later, you can decide which airlines you are going to transfer. Sometime, you can get bonus points when you transfer.

There isn't many cards left that allow you to send points when you choose. Amex Platinum charge is one of the main ones. The rest of the cards tend to sweep monthly.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

As the largest airline in Australia (some may question why but that's for another thread), Qantas has a history of devaluing points in its FF program.

The OP's scenario is not available to most of us, but if it was, I'd be tempted to switch to Virgin Australia's Velocity program in lieu. This also is not perfect, but it is a little harder for VA to arbitrarily reduce the 'value' of points given that it is not the 'market leader.'

 

[Foreigner]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

There isn't many cards left that allow you to send points when you choose. Amex Platinum charge is one of the main ones. The rest of the cards tend to sweep monthly.

Citi is another,with my Select card. Transfer to Qantas is 1:1 but to other airline partners (VA, SQ, CX) is not good. See here:

http://www.citibank.com.au/aus/credit_cards/cards_select.htm

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

After several marvelous years, boon years, the wheel has now turned and earning and burning points is now harder than it has been for some time for all FF/CC combinations.

I jumped off QFF to *A several years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

However have said tat, I will repeat...it is now harder with all FF programs (or at least the ones as an Australian tat I have access to.)

 

[asg29e]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Citi is another,with my Select card. Transfer to Qantas is 1:1 but to other airline partners (VA, SQ, CX) is not good. See here:

Citibank Select Credit Card - Citibank Australia

It's not quite as simple as that with Citi Select. If you want to transfer to QF you have to sign for that option (for $49/ year!), in which case ALL points are swept monthly to QF. For other transfers the points can be "warehoused" in the Citi Rewards program and transferred at will. Although there is a perception on this forum that in doing this you risk having Citi negatively enhance the value of your stored points without notice...

As far as value goes, currently 1point/$ for tranfer to QF. For transfer to SQ it works out to 1.33 points/$ which is better value IMHO.

 

[Newk]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Westpac altitude cards earn nicely and the points are stored. There are regular bonus transfer offers it seems. I've had one.
Diners with attached MasterCard has storage and an amazing range of transfer partners.
So with these I store.

 

[Foreigner]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

As far as value goes, currently 1point/$ for tranfer to QF. For transfer to SQ it works out to 1.33 points/$ which is better value IMHO.

This is what the Citi table shows:

Transfer points to any one of our leading airline partner and travel reward programs:

Velocity Frequent Flyer, the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 Velocity point, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 KrisFlyer mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Asia Miles™, Asia's leading travel reward program
2 Citibank reward points = 1 Asia Mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 5,000 Citibank reward points

 

[nlagalle]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Westpac altitude cards earn nicely and the points are stored. There are regular bonus transfer offers it seems. I've had one.
Diners with attached MasterCard has storage and an amazing range of transfer partners.
So with these I store.

But not to Qantas for Westpac though?

 

[Newk]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

But not to Qantas for Westpac though?

No. I THINK if you are a private bank customer there might be they option. But I'm not.

 

[Bazzi]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

We have QF points direct credited from ANZ card and EDR but essentially have this as backup. Our preference is to have the points in Amex - earn through Amex Plat Edge basic card - and with the option to transfer to 8 airline partners. I don't find QF good value when redeeming Classic Awards in J - we get much better value with SQ saver awards, MH and EY points and pay - also find the taxes much lower on these carriers. We really only use QF for PE sectors.

 

[Foreigner]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

It's not quite as simple as that with Citi Select. If you want to transfer to QF you have to sign for that option (for $49/ year!), in which case ALL points are swept monthly to QF. For other transfers the points can be "warehoused" in the Citi Rewards program and transferred at will. Although there is a perception on this forum that in doing this you risk having Citi negatively enhance the value of your stored points without notice...

As far as value goes, currently 1point/$ for tranfer to QF. For transfer to SQ it works out to 1.33 points/$ which is better value IMHO.

Is SQ better value?

 

[Newk]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Is SQ better value?

Piece of string question. Sorry.

 

[asg29e]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

This is what the Citi table shows:

Transfer points to any one of our leading airline partner and travel reward programs:

Velocity Frequent Flyer, the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 Velocity point, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 KrisFlyer mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Asia Miles™, Asia's leading travel reward program
2 Citibank reward points = 1 Asia Mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 5,000 Citibank reward points

Yes, but you must remember that you earn 2 Citi Rewards points per dollar spent in Australia, so it still works out at 1.33 SQ points /$. (And it is 5 Citi Rewards points/$ for overseas spend which makes it my go to card when travelling.)

 

[Swanhaven]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

I am not too sure whether the points are worth very much at all - on a recent thread I speculated that I would blow my 3 million points and my wife's 1 million points on our family (7 adults and 9 kids) on a return flight to LAX using ASA and cash - 3 were to be Business and the balance Premium Economy - all booked on QF12 but could not get all Premium on QF11 so 8 transferred to QF108 - QANTAS current prices for October flights - was not allowed to use a single point and had to pay in cash in 3 days because of new pricing policy so what are the points really worth? I have accumulated 3880 status points in 8 months - 90 o QANTAS metal and the balance ONE WORLD - it appears that loyalty does not count for much - what, at my age, does one want from the QANTAS shop - not much (or really anything) so I think the points are worth nothing and when I finally kick it QANTAS will get back 3 million points - that's life I suppose!!

 

[Foreigner]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Yes, but you must remember that you earn 2 Citi Rewards points per dollar spent in Australia, so it still works out at 1.33 SQ points /$. (And it is 5 Citi Rewards points/$ for overseas spend which makes it my go to card when travelling.)

That helps. Didn't realize you get 2 Citi rewards points per $ spent. Citi doesn't provide details of earned rewards points, the way Amex accounts for points.

 

[Nizar]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Is SQ better value?

For redemptions, definately.
127k miles for return J to Europe.

 

[amaroo]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

Hubby & I currently have all our ff points automatically accumulate in our Qantas FF accounts, we have 2 credit cards that automatically credit our ff accounts each month + our woolies everyday rewards card & our insurance payments with ING also do the same.
This used to work out really well as I have booked a couple of great J ASA's having all the points sitting in our Qantas ff accounts.

With the change in ASA's ie being able to get the minimal point flights on the day they are released, it looks like we won't be able to get as good a "bargain" as we have done before & wonder if being such a Qantas loyal customer is now such a good idea.

What I would like to know is this what most people do or do you just have the points sitting with your credit card account & then decide which airline carrier you will allocate the points to?

If you want status - pick an airline and stay the course

If you're an every now and again passenger......warehouse the points and be promiscuous

 

[legroom]

Re: Keeping all my FF points with Qantas, is it worth it?

This is what the Citi table shows:

Transfer points to any one of our leading airline partner and travel reward programs:

Velocity Frequent Flyer, the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 Velocity point, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program
1.5 Citibank reward points = 1 KrisFlyer mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 15,000 Citibank reward points

Asia Miles™, Asia's leading travel reward program
2 Citibank reward points = 1 Asia Mile, redemptions must be in multiples of 5,000 Citibank reward points

Yes, but....

For every $1 (domestic) spending, you get 2 Citi Rewards Points [for INT, it will be 5 Citi Rewards Points].

Effectively, for every $1 DOM spending, you get 1.33 KrisFlyer / AsiaMiles points whereas for QFF, it is 1 point per $ spending {no conversion via the Citi Rewards Program} - with no INT boost and an extra $49 p.a. QFF transfer fee.

So, just from purely a point-to-point comparison, you already get 33% more points for your bucks over the QFF program.

Value-wise on the redemption front {SQ vs CX vs QF}, that is for you to decide.