Pay for flight or use QF points

[jkhastings]

Hey all.
Just a quick one as I'm travelling for work and don't have a lot of free time.
I'm looking at booking flights from Calgary to LAX in January next year. The question is, do I use QF points or just pay for the flight? For all four of us, it's 80,000 points plus AUD$477 in taxes (checked luggage not included)
Or, I could go to booking.com and get the same flights for $1000 plus checked baggage. It seems like I'd be burning 80,000 QF points for the value of $523. Seems a better deal to just buy the tickets outright and keep the FF points. Agreed?? Or am I missing something.

 

[tdimdad]

80,000 points for $523 of value makes a bit over 0.6c value per point. That's very poor value for your points, and might be below the cost of obtaining the points. I.e. you'd be effectively losing money. At the same time, if you are swimming in points and don't know where to use them all, and want to minimise the cash outlay, then the reward makes sense.

Only you will know what will be the best option. Financially, paying cash and receiving points & status credits sounds like a better option. But your mileage may vary.

 

[SYD]

Based on what you’ve been quoted, I’d probably lean towards paying. A “no luggage” fare sounds like a base fare and might not earn any points. If you can see the fare class, then it’s easy to check on the partner earn tables. Only AA or AS will give SCs on eligible fares. I believe a CR booking comes with checked luggage (if that’s required).

I would normally pay to fly around North America, there’s usually good options booking a few months out but if not, then points can be a good option.

I would also check the price booking direct. For AA, start with the USA website. It’ll probably quote per person in USD. The AU website usually quotes for all PAX in AUD but may not show all fare types/flight options.

If you have a VA FF account, maybe even look at AC and UA, you should be able to Family pool points and SCs.

 

[aikman]

From a maths perspective, it is better to pay cash.

Things which might change this is, if you are points rich and cash poor, have nothing better planned to use your points on in the future, chances that you might need to change or cancel the flight.

 

[andye]

The maths is even worse as you would be forgoing the points earned on the revenue flight. Still, points are worth nothing if you never use them and they (usually) depreciate over time. Cancellation/change costs are likely to be different too

 

[jkhastings]

Thanks for the input. To put into context, I have just over 200,000 points. The fare for both FF points and paid is with WestJet as they are the only ones who fly direct to LAX.
The Reward tickets don't come with baggage, so have to pay for checked baggage whether I pay for the flight outright or do points. WestJet doesn't recognise my gold Status. So no free baggage there. I think I'll just pay the $1000 and use my points for other trips/upgrades. Thanks again everyone.

 

[adenda]

Based on what you’ve been quoted, I’d probably lean towards paying. A “no luggage” fare sounds like a base fare and might not earn any points. If you can see the fare class, then it’s easy to check on the partner earn tables. Only AA or AS will give SCs on eligible fares. I believe a CR booking comes with checked luggage (if that’s required).

I would normally pay to fly around North America, there’s usually good options booking a few months out but if not, then points can be a good option.

I would also check the price booking direct. For AA, start with the USA website. It’ll probably quote per person in USD. The AU website usually quotes for all PAX in AUD but may not show all fare types/flight options.

If you have a VA FF account, maybe even look at AC and UA, you should be able to Family pool points and SCs.

Recently flew Economy on WestJet as a QF CR. Had to pay for checked luggage and seat selection

 

[SYD]

Recently flew Economy on WestJet as a QF CR. Had to pay for checked luggage and seat selection

Yeah, I’ve seen that before - which is probably WestJet limitation and pretty lousy.

My comment was in relation to CRs on AA and AS (both Oneworld). I could be wrong with them also but they do apply OW status benefits as applicable for luggage allowance.