Hi Dave...
- How much travel will you do after your holiday trip?
I used to be a Platinum in my old Ansett days....but only fly say for work (I changed employers and careers) say 4 to 8 returns per year (mainly east Coast) and say 1 return domestic holiday (FNQ). I am in MEL.
- Will you be able to maintain status in the future?
Even on AA. No. So a challenge taking advantage of a ATW would only give me benfit for the year or so of elevated travel (lounge and elevated earn rates IF the flight qualify.) Most flights will be discount economy reddeals or above.
- What FF status do you hold now with various programs?
I have only just joined AA to keep options open.
In QFF I have 980 lifetime SC (cry that all my Ansett status was lost!!!) and so am a long way from lifetime Silver and so this is not really a factor.
I am currently a Bronze.
I currently have about 40K QFF points (with about 17K in the system coming through) and 75K Altitude points.
I am a QC spouse member using the fact that my wife has cheap QC membership via Telstra and so I get it for about $200 odd before tax and I claim it on my Tax. This was very useful on our just complete trip as it allowed all 5 of us to use the QC lounges.
I have just returned from using 325K QFF for a family of 5 to Bangkok with return From Singapore.
My last 2 redemptions prior were 500K for 5 return Cairo tickets reddemed just 2 weeks prior to ansett ceasing. Luckilly Singapore Airlines honoured the redemptions despite flights beng 6 months later. My Platinum loung access was allowed on Star alliance going over but was cut off on the return, though luckilly the caio Lounge was not computerised so they did not pick up on my card being lapsed. Dubai did though
In 200 redeemed for 5 tickets MEL to Mackay to Alice Springs to MEL for 150,000 points. However ruls have tightened to rule this out now.
So I mainly seek to save points for International Travel only now.
- What do you want out of your FF program?
Well the quick answer is as much as I can get
for a lower cost than it takes to aquire the benefit.
In addition to my moderate flying (including wife who flies only say one work trip per year ) I have reasonable spend on CC.
Say per year
AMEX $40-50K at 1.25
VISA $40-50 but at 0.5
I currently do not pay any carad fees as my AMEX @1 and VISA are free due to mortgage. My extra AMEX @1.25 is free for 12months and then will mostly likely go uness AMEX make me an offer.
I only use VISA in AMEX is not accepted and majority is 2 sets of school fees.
A few points are also obatained from hotels, car hire. But say only several thousand.
If any bonus points are going I grab them.. ie 15K from AMEX and 4K from Etrade at present.
So given the above my current staegy (and remember thaat I mainly try and have my family of 5 flying at once) is:
- To redeem for economy seats to interanational flights (yes I know that business class upgrades are better value, but 1/ it is lonely by myself and 2/ my low staus means that I think that I would often be too far down the status quueue???)
- earning Status is not really an option given my earn rate at that CC spend does not count for status. However I would not rule out a AA Challenge (ie by paying for ATW for 5) to take advantage of a boosted earn rate for the trip and for a year or so, but would understand that this is temporary
Now...after having read the site after having discovered it recently the possible alternatives come into play.
Scenario 1/ would be to from now one seek to use AA as much as possible but the red deals would make the earn rate low (nil plus 500mile booking bonus) I some cases with AMEX being the main earner apart frrom when I pay for a holiday. (alos there are some grat flight deals about ie Best Buys and so in paying it may be better to just save $ up front)
2/ Would be to just stick with stockpiling everything in QFF where rededeals still gain 1000 points per flight BUT to still do say an AA challenge IF i do a ATW depending on what the point comparison would comapred to points for QFF ..
and so hence my original question.
PS I have in the past redeemed say 1.5 to 2 million FF points on Ansett and Qantas with some of it on Business redemptions, but my earn rate is now a lot lower beacuse my work travel is dramtically lest (flights and hotels)
.
