Never Travelled But Want To

[mcfishntackle]

We are a family if four, never travelled. Life changing incident with one of our boys has changed our perspective on life and we want to start. Been looking into Qantas points business credit cards… Its overwhelming quite honestly. But thats why Im here! I want to see England one day. And travel with my boys before they are off in the world (which wont be that far away). Lovely to meet u all.

 

[Steady]

Welcome aboard @mcfishntackle - lots if not all of the info you are looking for can be found on AFF if you spend time reading through the relevant threads

 

[MJ_/\_]

Welcome!

...and yes, it is definitely overwhelming!

Before you jump into Qantas credit cards, you might want to have a good look at the Virgin program. For a family of 4, one of the big advantages of Virgin over Qantas FF programs is family pooling. Virgin allows you to funnel all points and (more importantly) status credits into the one account, which, with 4 of you traveling will get you to gold or platinum class in no time (if that's important to you). You'll be able to redeem and earn those points on Star Alliance airlines such as Singapore, Qatar etc. so plenty of options to get to Europe. Although once you unlock lounge access, I think all 4 of you will get into Virgin lounges ok, but with some of the partner airlines it might only allow two of you in.

With Qantas FF, you'll be able to transfer points to one family member, but each person will keep their own status credits... so you'll all be going up the status chain at the same pace. You can circumvent some of this with Qantas Points Club (churning credit cards will make that easier)... so there are another couple of more things for you to read up about!

 

[snabbu]

Welcome to AFF @mcfishntackle

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We are a family if four, never travelled. Life changing incident with one of our boys has changed our perspective on life and we want to start. Been looking into Qantas points business credit cards… Its overwhelming quite honestly. But thats why Im here! I want to see England one day. And travel with my boys before they are off in the world (which wont be that far away). Lovely to meet u all.

Hi and welcome to AFF.

TBH, the simplest way of achieving what you want would be to buy four tickets, outright, for travel from Australia to the UK… or anywhere else.

Fares to Europe are around $1200 during sales. You’ll be able to get four seats on the same flight. Lock in dates you want. And make all your other arrangements - accommodation, day-trips, meeting family - based on those conformed dates.

Spending money on cards and accruing points is fine, but you then have to find seats, pay taxes and fuel surcharges, and may not be able to find seats on the days or times you want, or even get four seats on one plane. For business class you’d need upwards of 1 million points for the four of your, plus a total of $4000-5000 in fees and charges. And unlikely you’ll get seats on the flights you want, together.

If you don’t already have status, using points to upgrade will likely not be an option. Or if it is, many airlines require you to buy a much more expensive economy class fare to start with.

Of course if you are spending points on business and earning in that range, worth exploring options!

 

[BenG]

Welcome @mcfishntackle, I’m sure you will find plenty of useful information here at AFF to help guide you in your travelling goals.

 

[Human]

We are a family if four, never travelled. Life changing incident with one of our boys has changed our perspective on life and we want to start. Been looking into Qantas points business credit cards… Its overwhelming quite honestly. But thats why Im here! I want to see England one day. And travel with my boys before they are off in the world (which wont be that far away). Lovely to meet u all.

Welcome to AFF!

Whenever I'm asked by a non-traveller about how to get into travelling, my advice is always the same: Go to New Zealand.

There is no easier way for a newbie to learn the ropes of international travel than to go to NZ. It's a magnificent country, easy and cheap to get to, with no language barrier, friendly people, spectacular scenery, great food, and endless things to do. Any time of year is a great time to go.

Given you have a family, it's also very safe and you don't need to worry about things like travel adaptors for power.

Go to NZ for a week or two (or three). Don't worry about points etc yet. When you come back, you'll officially be a traveller! And then you can start planning your dream family Europe/UK trip.

For what it's worth, if you want to go to Europe on points, Qantas points are just about your most difficult option. Focus on flexible points currencies and/or Velocity.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Another welcome to AFF @mcfishntackle
Lots of knowledgeable folk here and plenty of good threads to read for inspiration.
Happy travels

 

[Dr Ralph]

Welcomet o AFF.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Spending money on cards and accruing points is fine, but you then have to find seats, pay taxes and fuel surcharges, and may not be able to find seats on the days or times you want, or even get four seats on one plane. For business class you’d need upwards of 1 million points for the four of your, plus a total of $4000-5000 in fees and charges. And unlikely you’ll get seats on the flights you want, together.

If you don’t already have status, using points to upgrade will likely not be an option. Or if it is, many airlines require you to buy a much more expensive economy class fare to start with.

If only this could be turned into a disclaimer on all QF promotional material (like gambling ads!)

 

[Cloud9]

Welcome on board!

 

[Deno]

We are a family if four, never travelled. Life changing incident with one of our boys has changed our perspective on life and we want to start. Been looking into Qantas points business credit cards… Its overwhelming quite honestly. But thats why Im here! I want to see England one day. And travel with my boys before they are off in the world (which wont be that far away). Lovely to meet u all.

Glad you could join us, enjoy.

 

[Deno]

Welcome to AFF!

Whenever I'm asked by a non-traveller about how to get into travelling, my advice is always the same: Go to New Zealand.

There is no easier way for a newbie to learn the ropes of international travel than to go to NZ. It's a magnificent country, easy and cheap to get to, with no language barrier, friendly people, spectacular scenery, great food, and endless things to do. Any time of year is a great time to go.

Given you have a family, it's also very safe and you don't need to worry about things like travel adaptors for power.

Go to NZ for a week or two (or three). Don't worry about points etc yet. When you come back, you'll officially be a traveller! And then you can start planning your dream family Europe/UK trip.

For what it's worth, if you want to go to Europe on points, Qantas points are just about your most difficult option. Focus on flexible points currencies and/or Velocity.

Our first "Overseas" trip was to New Zealand. Everything you said is spot on.

 

[firechickens]

Okay for a family of four, go for velocity rather than qantas - you'll have to get very lucky to find 4x award tix to europe through qantas. I transfer my velocity points to singapore airlines (krisflyer) which has reliable 4x award availability on a number of flights and a great product. Some indicative velocity points costs for family of four return (through kris):
syd-europe(economy): 725,400
syd-europe(business): 1,618,200
syd-south east asia (economy): 378,200
syd-south east asia (business): 849,400
As you can see, that's a lot of points. You will need to churn credit cards. As a ballpark we have two adults signing up for a new credit card once/year and which takes us on a special international holiday once/4 years. We always fly business because its really special and makes travelling with kids a delight.
And of course, if you can't manage a credit card debt (i.e. pay down to zero every month) forget the whole thing.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF to you aldo, @firechickens

Some good advice there. I also collect velocity points and transfer them to SQ for Int’l redemptions as the availability is so much better than Qantas and its network.

 

[drron]

A warm welcome to AFF @mcfishntackle . Already getting some sound advice but there is a lot of knowledge on here. I wish you and your family many happy years of travel.

 

[Big John]

Welcome aboard @mcfishntackle !