New Amex redemption rates for SQ/EK; adding transfers to QR/HA

[sudoer]

FWIW I have just spoken to AMEZ Biz Plat Card Services over a couple of unrelated matters and agent advised me actual date of change of KF transfer rate for these cards is Oct 4, 2023 and not Jul 31, 2023. Obviously I will clarify this in writing and suggest others holding Biz Plat cards to check your own situation.

4 Oct is what the email already says?

 

[daft009]

FWIW I have just spoken to AMEZ Biz Plat Card Services over a couple of unrelated matters and agent advised me actual date of change of KF transfer rate for these cards is Oct 4, 2023 and not Jul 31, 2023. Obviously I will clarify this in writing and suggest others holding Biz Plat cards to check your own situation.

July 31st is stgeorge deadline

 

[Cruiser Elite]

July 31st is stgeorge deadline

Correct

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2023

4 Oct is what the email already says?

There was an email? I did not see one

 

[sudoer]

Correct

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2023

There was an email? I did not see one

Screenshot in first post.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Screenshot in first post.

Dates do confuse me

 

[billmurray]

Altough a major change - what are your thoughts on the below complete change to Qantas for the new AMEX AVIOS benefit.

Im currently aligned with Virign due to the great SQ benefits. Ive been able to fly exclusively with SQ in business around 12 times now. Im gold status with Virign, with approx 600k VFF + 400K KRIS miles + 500K Amplify miles. I plan to dump all off these and use them for a trip next year, hopefully booking before 31st July.

With this major SQ devaluation accross the board, maybe its time to realign. My thought was - retain my Amex Explorer apply for a new AMEX QANTAS card for the new 2:1 AVIOS partnership. Status match my Virgin Gold with Qantas. Find a good VISA points earning card for Qantas points. I will now rely on B.A/Qantas/Qatar for all international flights (which are at best, once a year - every 2nd year).

 

[uiopui]

Does anyone know whether you need to have sufficient points in your account in order for KrisFlyer to confirm your waitlist.

I waitlisted some flights when I had enough points but I just booked a trip for next year that opened up and used those points. Im just wondering if I quickly top up again or just wait. Ive found velocity transfers to be instant, Amex to take about 2 days, so I'm not concerned about timing.

Ive tried to search other threads on this but can't find the answer - so I thought I would ask the brains trust.

Thanks in advance.

Im going to miss Singapore Airlines but I must admit with mostly Euro trips the Middle East carriers are a lot more suitable moving forward anyway.

 

[Uncharted6264]

The devaluation sucks, but honestly? Someone might be able to prove me wrong but Australian earn rates on Amex cards for foreign airlines partners has been *incredible* value.

The earn on many American AMEX cards is (1 USD = 1 MR) : 1 Airline mile. (SQ for example).

The earn on Aus AMEX cards, (1 AUD = 2.25 MR) : (2MR = 1 Airline mile)

Basically, the way that comes out to me since the AUD is significantly cheaper is that per value, you (used to) get a *huge* amount more miles with the Australian cards - which is partially why I never understood the obsession with American Amex cards by some here (signup bonuses aside).

So whilst annoying, a 3:1 transfer ratio makes much more sense IMO.

 

[alexy23]

Does anyone know whether you need to have sufficient points in your account in order for KrisFlyer to confirm your waitlist.

If a waitlist is approved, they give you a few days to confirm (depending on how soon the flight is). My last SMS from SQ had a deadline of +5 days from the time I received the waitlist approval. If not confirmed in time, they release it back to the pool. You can request an extension but it's much harder these days. Not having points in account is generally not acceptable reasoning for them.

Also Amex to SQ is instant (only the first transfer takes 24+ hours). Just remember to logout and login of SQ to refresh the balance.

 

[Human]

Altough a major change - what are your thoughts on the below complete change to Qantas for the new AMEX AVIOS benefit.

Im currently aligned with Virign due to the great SQ benefits. Ive been able to fly exclusively with SQ in business around 12 times now. Im gold status with Virign, with approx 600k VFF + 400K KRIS miles + 500K Amplify miles. I plan to dump all off these and use them for a trip next year, hopefully booking before 31st July.

With this major SQ devaluation accross the board, maybe its time to realign. My thought was - retain my Amex Explorer apply for a new AMEX QANTAS card for the new 2:1 AVIOS partnership. Status match my Virgin Gold with Qantas. Find a good VISA points earning card for Qantas points. I will now rely on B.A/Qantas/Qatar for all international flights (which are at best, once a year - every 2nd year).

Successful use of frequent flyer points involves two things: points earning capacity, and reward flight availability. It looks like you're focussing on the former while ignoring the latter.

Before you adopt the above strategy, make sure that the flights you're going to want are available using Qantas points. This and other websites are full of stories from frustrated people with bucketloads of Qantas points who have not been able to find flights to redeem them.

And no, an Amex Qantas card will not have an Avios transfer option. To transfer to Avios, you'll need to stick to Amex Membership Rewards points.

 

[alexy23]

Lot's of talk for SQ, what does this mean for EK?

From what I can see it doesn't look like this will effect EK much. EK via QF isn't that much more then the current EK rates. The only thing to consider is if availability is the same booking through QF vs direct through EK.

EK SYD-CDG F:

Old Rate (2:1):
405k MR -> 202k EK

New Rate (3:1)
606k MR -> 202k EK

Via QF:
454k MR -> 227k QF (12% more than old rate)

 

[dajop]

The earn on Aus AMEX cards, (1 AUD = 2.25 MR) : (2MR = 1 Airline mile)

Not all Amex cards, some only earn 1 MR pt per AUD on general spend.

 

[Uncharted6264]

Not all Amex cards, some only earn 1 MR pt per AUD on general spend.

Sure but the takeaway is - The highest value proposition of Australian cards was significantly better than the highest value prop of the USA cards pre-deval and probably still is tbh

 

[levelnine]

(signup bonuses aside).

It's mostly about the sign up bonuses for Amex USA.

In Australia, you can get one sign up bonus every 20 months (assuming 2 months to reach the min spend and 18 months waiting).

In the USA, you can get one sign up bonus every 1.5 months (alternating between NLL Biz Golds & Biz Plats).

But you misconstrue the everyday earn rates as well.

The Amex USA Green earns 3x on travel & restaurants.

$AUD 100 spend in these categories = $66USD = 198 MR = 198 Airline Miles

For the Amex Plat here:

$AUD 100 = 225 MR = 75 Airline Miles (for 3:1 partners)

 

[Uncharted6264]

It's mostly about the sign up bonuses for Amex USA.

In Australia, you can get one sign up bonus every 20 months (assuming 2 months to reach the min spend and 18 months waiting).

In the USA, you can get one sign up bonus every 1.5 months (alternating between NLL Biz Golds & Biz Plats).

But you misconstrue the everyday earn rates as well.

The Amex USA Green earns 3x on travel & restaurants.

$AUD 100 spend in these categories = $66USD = 198 MR = 198 Airline Miles

For the Amex Plat here:

$AUD 100 = 225 MR = 75 Airline Miles (for 3:1 partners)

Yeah I did mention sign up bonuses aside.

The majority of my spend is everyday spend and you only quoted the new devalued amex au rate... So I'd probably say if anyone is miscontruing it may be you can't compare bonus category spend to new deval rate.

My comparison: regular USA amex spend to regular Aus spend.

The Australian cards had *significantly* higher rewarding power so the Deval does not suprise me at all.

 

[levelnine]

My comparison: regular USA amex spend to regular Aus spend.

I'm not sure you understand the USA credit card market.

No one puts every day spend on their Amex Plat, only airline spend for the 5x earn.

Every one puts their every day spend on a combination of the Gold (4x dining/groceries) or Green (3x dining/travel) and the BBP (2x on everything else).

No one in the US earns 1x on spend.

 

[Uncharted6264]

I'm not sure you understand the USA credit card market.

No one puts every day spend on their Amex Plat, only airline spend for the 5x earn.

Every one puts their every day spend on a combination of the Gold (4x dining/groceries) or Green (3x dining/travel) and the BBP (2x on everything else).

No one in the US earns 1x on spend.

I mean yeah I've contextualised the cards to my use case - I'd be getting what I said, 1 USMR per USD (BBP business spend is only up to 50KPA, all my spend is business).

Vs 2.25 AUMR per AUD uncapped, it represents not only better value but *significantly* better value at pre Deval rates.

Can only comment on my use case

 

[levelnine]

(BBP business spend is only up to 50KPA, all my spend is business).

You can get up to 5x BBPs in the USA. So yes if you were spending over $AUD373,000 per year on Amex in the US, you'd be earning 1x. But then you'd switch over to earning 2x on another provider (eg Cap1 Spark), so once again you never earn 1x in the US.

The Australian credit card market has always been trash compared to the USA credit card market. The devaluation has only made that comparison worse.

 

[Uncharted6264]

You can get up to 5x BBPs in the USA. So yes if you were spending over $AUD373,000 per year on Amex in the US, you'd be earning 1x. But then you'd switch over to earning 2x on another provider (eg Cap1 Spark), so once again you never earn 1x in the US.

The Australian credit card market has always been trash compared to the USA credit card market. The devaluation has only made that comparison worse.

Yeah but all I ever said was that the USA Amex earn rates are way worse than the AUS earn rates in my use case, which is still true... But thank you. I will check out the capone spark!

 

[Bringa]

I am caught on what to do.

Have enough points in St George (200,000) and AMEX (800,000) to transfer to SQ and take a J class for 2 return to Europe prior to the devaluation.

I am seeing some positives with the Qatar / Avios arrangement but still haven't got my head around it. Do I set up an Avios account or can I transfer to Qatar directly?

Am I better off transferring all my points to SQ for the next flight (expected booking in 2025 for travel in 2026 as already booked for 2024) or keep the AMEX points with the view of moving to the Avios / Qatar reward seats? and transfer the St George points to Velocity?

Apart from AMEX now are there any credit cards that can be transferred to Qatar / Avios?

All views appreciated.