Planning to start with Credit Card Churning/ collecting miles... Qantas or Velocity?

[RooFlyer]

Velocity makes it a little easier to get to a major Asian hub (Singapore Airlines is a partner of Virgin Australia) and from there you have more choice to spend QFF points.

Experience there!

 

[knagelli]

Hi everybody,

I'm from Germany and my partner is Australian. Currently we live in Australia because we want to spend a few years with her friends and family.

I wanted to get into the whole mile collecting scheme and just can't decide on if I should go with Velocity or Qantas. For us it does not really matter if we fly with Etihad (Velocity) or Qatar (Qantas) and those two air lines will be our main airlines we will fly with to travel between Germany and Australia.

Qantas just seems to have a slight edge over the amount of points I could get? Transferring Qantas to Avios could also potentially be more useful when we go back to Europe in a couple of years due to their partnerships. The turnoff here are the initial signup and annual subscription fees.

Velocity has a smaller network but I saw some posts that Etihad might be easier to book rewards seats with. This seems a bit controversial though...

I'm a bit lost here so maybe there are some people here who have experience with both?

Welcome to the mix @huggers

Probably , what would be your main source of points ? If mainly credit cards , then are you willing to spend AF to earn more points or just content with minimal earning rates with low fee credit card.

Before you decide , where to stash your points , you will need to take into account your shopping into account - where do you shop for groceries , any other regular spending habits which might yield you points and similar criteria.

As others have already pointed , velocity seems to be giving you flexibility with more transfer/booking options.

All the best: )

 

[WilsonM]

@huggers Welcome to AFF! Just keep asking questions, and the thousands of experts here will be able to lend you a hand.

Collecting points and spending them are two very different skills, in a way. I recommend subscribing to the AFF podcast, and looking through the articles on redeeming points

100% recommend both of these, although the AFF podcast is unfortunately on hiatus at the moment, so not as much point subscribing. However, it's fantastic for in the car, while cooking, on a run or even in the shower

In terms of articles, you may want to look at these three:

Beginner's Guide to Virgin Australia Velocity

New to Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer program? Learn how to earn & redeem Velocity points, and all about Velocity status tiers!

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Qantas Frequent Flyer

New to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program? This guide will help get you started on your journey to free flights, upgrades and status!

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/flight-upgrade/

Also, you can sign up for Frequent Flyer Solutions' free membership (Home - Frequent Flyer Solutions), and have a look at the first unit in the courses offered. To access all the courses you have to pay a fee. I can't say if the paid membership is worth it or not as I write for AFF, but for what it's worth Matt (the editor of AFF and writer of the vast majority of articles/courses) is fantastic, and knows a lot of what he's talking about. I'm sure there are others here that have paid the membership fee that can tell you their thoughts.

Basically, before you get started, try and get a feel of how the points game works. Get an idea of what you want to be doing with your points, and how that aligns with the realities of the points game. Honestly, while you might want to start with Velocity (sounds like you're pretty set there) you should always be thinking about how to diversify, as you don't want to get caught out if something changes (which it can at any time!). Although if you don't think you'll spend too long in Australia then don't worry about this too much.