My Personal Valuation of Qantas FF and Velocity Points

[cove]

Mrscove cancelled many trips last year due to her parents health so she has been relegated to WP recently. We are both LTG and rarely travel in economy. All this has caused our family frequent flyer points to grow and make our trips short and sweet.

 

[JohnK]

Are you just talking about SYD/BKK being hard to get in J from the outset as a Classic Award or as an Classic points upgrade where you find out the day prior or even at the airport if you 'opt-in'? Have you ever used your WP status to request a "U" class seat be released for a Classic award? How much success did you have with upgrades prior to the changes?

My understanding of davdent's post was that they found it was easier to do a points upgrade prior to the recent changes than it is currently yet I find the opposite to be the case.

It is hard to find QF business class awards on SYD-BKK unless you booked the minute the seats were released. I go 4-5 times a year and cannot commit that early as there are other commitments. I have asked for seats to be released 6-9 months out. Computer says no.

 

[Reggie78]

I believe point accrual valuation should only be compared to point redemption. As an example, I will look at point redemption only for Award tickets in J or above. This will generally be $0.05 and higher per point. If I were to pay a surcharge, I simply use the percentage as cents/pt (1.5% surcharge = $0.015 per point purchased). I usually draw the line at 2%, but as long as I am going to make a profit on the transaction, I could well go as high as 5% (which i wouldn't - why reward the vendor for such a high surcharge!!)

Over and above, the majority of points will be free, so to pay the surcharge here and there is just buying my way to an Award ticket sooner.

YMMV.

Reg.

 

[Buzzard]

No, never "That" hungry, I would rather some street food from Wanchai

Can't go past HKG street food

 

[amaroo]

QF points tend to save me about 5 cents per point on domestic J bookings so that is their worth to me.

Coast to Coast J would have to be very close to being the best ROI (excluding point upgrades) ... we average around 2.5c per point (after deducting the cash component) for our Int classic award bookings. MASA we'd get 3.75c doing F return to London (after deducting cash conponent & point earn).

 

[Renato1]

Can't go past HKG street food

View attachment 51157

Yummy........... I said as I went to find Maccas.

One thing though - I grew very fond of the canned iced coffee drinks they sell in 7/11. We don't have the equivalent here - occasionally Aldis bring something similar in for a week a year.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

Perth to Sydney,Brisbane or Melbourne on QF take 36,000 Points each wayplus some cash to go a Classic J redemption Renato so it has been easy to pick up 5 cents a point. I have my lovely red Virgin loyalty card if there is no availability on QF.
When there is a major event like an AFL grand final you have to plan almost a year ahead or fly to an adjacent city then fly to the real destination on a paid for ticket.
Qantas is not relevant for flights out of Perth for international and you basically have to use one of their "partners" so we don't bother doing that.
My two sons travel to sport events regularly and tend to use AA miles or my Virgin points or sometimes their QF points. I guess that means I don't always get 5 cents for every point used.

Thanks, I hadn't thought about Qantas and Perth international. Your sons must be darn happy too. However, I just can't get the same valuation as you do, unless I go for peak fares.

Take mid week in this coming mid July. One way fares per person range from between $275 to $319 off peak, flying directly to Melbourne (more expensive for some reason if stopping in Adelaide).

Cost for award flight is 18000 points + $88 per person.
So,
$275-$88=18700c 18700c/18000points leads to 1 point = 1.04cents
$319-$88= 23100c 23100c/18000 points leads to 1 point =1.28cents

Regards,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

Mrscove cancelled many trips last year due to her parents health so she has been relegated to WP recently. We are both LTG and rarely travel in economy. All this has caused our family frequent flyer points to grow and make our trips short and sweet.

It sounds good - but I'm new here. What does WP and LTG mean please?
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

I believe point accrual valuation should only be compared to point redemption. As an example, I will look at point redemption only for Award tickets in J or above. This will generally be $0.05 and higher per point. If I were to pay a surcharge, I simply use the percentage as cents/pt (1.5% surcharge = $0.015 per point purchased). I usually draw the line at 2%, but as long as I am going to make a profit on the transaction, I could well go as high as 5% (which i wouldn't - why reward the vendor for such a high surcharge!!)

Over and above, the majority of points will be free, so to pay the surcharge here and there is just buying my way to an Award ticket sooner.

YMMV.

Reg.

Hi Reg,
Does J mean economy? If so, I can't really see how you get 5 cents per point. If you are talking Business class or peak fare economy, then I do see.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

Coast to Coast J would have to be very close to being the best ROI (excluding point upgrades) ... we average around 2.5c per point (after deducting the cash component) for our Int classic award bookings. MASA we'd get 3.75c doing F return to London (after deducting cash conponent & point earn).

Hi again, thanks for your valuations but I must admit I am stuck getting a high valuation for economy for Melbourne to London.

I picked a fare for one midweek late this August to fly there and come back
Cost= $1314 + $1116 = $2430
or
144200 +122400 points = 266600points (inclusive of taxes and charges)

243000cents/ 266600 =0.91 cents/point

But I couldn't find the points value if I choose to pay taxes and charges, without doing an actual booking.

But elsewhere on the Qantas site they had in the Where You can Go, 64,000 points Melbourne to London plus $362 taxes and charges.

So 64,000x2 +$362X2= 128,000points + $724 for a return trip.
Thus using the total fare cost of $2340

(2430-724)x100/128000= 1.333cents per point, which is a higher value than paying the taxes and charges with points, but still not really that high a cent per point value.
Regards,
Renato

 

[cove]

On Qantas redeeming points for economy flights does save points but often gets you under one cent per point value Renato.
At that rate you might go "hello toaster" which is a term for getting goods to a value of about half a cent per point.
LTG is Life Time Gold where 14,000 status credits have been accumulated so you get Qantas lounge entry.
WP is Platinum status where the W means wanker.
I am not suggesting that all of you start heading for Perth in business class as this week our north/ south freeway has been over full and not helped by smoke and crashes.

 

[Renato1]

On Qantas redeeming points for economy flights does save points but often gets you under one cent per point value Renato.
At that rate you might go "hello toaster" which is a term for getting goods to a value of about half a cent per point.
LTG is Life Time Gold where 14,000 status credits have been accumulated so you get Qantas lounge entry.
WP is Platinum status where the W means wanker.
I am not suggesting that all of you start heading for Perth in business class as this week our north/ south freeway has been over full and not helped by smoke and crashes.

Thanks for the explanation. That's a lot of status credits. I have none.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[cove]

My son uses my Velocity points and typically PERTH -SYDNEY-PERTH runs at 67,600 points plus a bit of cash for business class which retails for about $3,800.

 

[smit0847]

My son uses my Velocity points and typically PERTH -SYDNEY-PERTH runs at 67,600 points plus a bit of cash for business class which retails for about $3,800.

Yes but is anyone stupid enough to pay almost $4000 for a domestic flight? You could go CX J to HKG for that price!

 

[Reggie78]

Hi Reg,
Does J mean economy? If so, I can't really see how you get 5 cents per point. If you are talking Business class or peak fare economy, then I do see.
Cheers,
Renato

J means Business.

I only spend my points on International Award fares. To me, flying in a premium cabin (on my own dime) Domestically would only be worth it Coast-to-Coast. I have no need to fly to Perth

Take the full fare, deduct the taxes then divide the points into the fare. e.g. Full price is $6000, taxes is $600, Ticket is $5400. Redemption of 144,000 points into $5,400 = $0.0375 per point.

So, 5c might have been pushing the limit, but i have redeemed for that in the past.

Consider my next planned trip with SQ SYD-xSIN-NRT in Suites (First Class): 80,750 KF points for a ticketed value (minus taxes) of $4,242 equates to $0.053 per point.

Bottom line, when you're earning points from everyday spend, you're getting a (almost) free ticket. Just smile at that and enjoy!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes but is anyone stupid enough to pay almost $4000 for a domestic flight? You could go CX J to HKG for that price!

i agree... it might retail for that price... but it's hardly worth that price.

same as business class fares between SYD and MEL or BNE... you can fly economy all the way to Europe for the same price as a one hour flight between state capitals in 'business' class (more like premium economy these days).

 

[JohnK]

My son uses my Velocity points and typically PERTH -SYDNEY-PERTH runs at 67,600 points plus a bit of cash for business class which retails for about $3,800.

Three seats in economy are half that price and earn almost the same SCs!

 

[cove]

My son missed the lifetime Qantas Club when it was a bargain and the Velocity lifetime club access is a joke price. He just flies Classic business on either so he get lounge entry and does not bother with status credits as they are irrelevant to him.
He was too young to get lifetime Qantas club as he was under 18 at that time. I was going to buy that for his 18th birthday.

 

[burmans]

i agree... it might retail for that price... but it's hardly worth that price.

same as business class fares between SYD and MEL or BNE... you can fly economy all the way to Europe for the same price as a one hour flight between state capitals in 'business' class (more like premium economy these days).

And yet, there are those who insist on valuing flights at the price the airlines charge. Ah well, I shouldn't complain, at the end of the day if everyone was actually smart enough to investigate on a real value basis the airlines would realise they are losing money and stop it. Without trying to sound like a total dick I would suggest maximising value out of FF programs (ie being a "winner" in the game, relies on there being a fair few losers to keep the airlines happy!

 

[Renato1]

And yet, there are those who insist on valuing flights at the price the airlines charge. Ah well, I shouldn't complain, at the end of the day if everyone was actually smart enough to investigate on a real value basis the airlines would realise they are losing money and stop it. Without trying to sound like a total dick I would suggest maximising value out of FF programs (ie being a "winner" in the game, relies on there being a fair few losers to keep the airlines happy!

I think that you are valuing in the same way as me (i.e ignoring the premium expensive stuff). Though valuing flights at the price that airlines charge - be it average prices, or individual prices for business and first class - is the only way of objectively and quantitatively doing it,since that is what market segments will bear (though I'm not in those market segments).

I guess that if I were trying to do it more qualitatively, I'd probably be willing to pay 25% more for Business and 50% more for First class.

Cheers,
Renato