Points Count [How many do you have?]

[offshore171]

Hoard points at your peril.

As mentioned earlier, the best points are the used ones.

 

[ALH]

I'm a bit the opposite. I have lots of plans but not enough points.

If you have heard of the term 'Free to a good home' then I'm happy to provide the good home for anyone's spare points. I assure you they will be well looked after until spent!

Over 2,000,000 QFF between us atm. A few hundred thousand across the others. Around 450,000 with IHG.

I think we should be hoarding them for retirement, but occasionally the numbers dip catastrophically.

GPH is way too generous and we frequently end up shouting our mum’s ....... J & F - to EUROPE

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well I don't accumulate for the sake of it. But I also don't believe in just redeeming points for the sake of it either. I am also a firm believer in grabbing good earn opportunities as they arise and in particular of milking any really good opportunities for all I can (after considering my time and any acquisition cost). Most of the points gain are virtually free, but I will pay surcharges of about 1%. I mainly use them for the wife and I and adult daughters on long-haul J for holidays, with the occasional F trip when it is mainly a day flight.

I will retire in a year or so. Working about 8 months per year now, and so I also see having a bit a balance as a good thing as I expect accumulating will be a lot harder once retired.

Yes there have been some devaluations, bu tI still see the devaluation as a lot more palatable that just wasting points.

Also QFF with their pesky fuel fines are harder to use well. So I am keeping them in the main for some Oneworld RTW once retired. Though have occasional use when the option makes sense.
Amex which has long been healthy is now the lowest it has been for well over a decade due to moving points out to avoid the 50% transfer devaluation.

So currently my wife and I have:
1.8 Million KF
1.9 Million QFF
140 K Velocity
200 K (In terms of KF points) waiting in a bank rewards program.
230 K Bonvoy
14 MR Balance (Which has normally sat at a million+ for many a year and it so feels quite odd at present)
Miscellaneous other points here and there such as in WOW.

 

[Bundy Bear]

My numbers look tiny compared to others on AFF.
Qantas just over 100,000
Virgin just under 80,000

 

[mflyer100]

Just snagged a one way F to europe during christmas/new year period as QF Silver, so currently dropped down to around 6,000 points... Will be first time in F so hoping it'll be worth the extra ~ 65k points over J.

 

[danintas]

Qantas 1.1m
Virgin 950k
Travel fund for retirement within 2 years. As a single traveler, find it easy to get J/F reward seats

 

[Matt_01]

.....GPH is way too generous and we frequently end up shouting our mum’s ....... J & F - to EUROPE

I know that feeling, MrsM thinks points just grow on trees, MrsM and MissM have burnt through the mid 7 figures in points over the years and after shouting my M-in-L J to SIN I now get messages like this:


I have a healthy points balance across a number of programs but have no intention of saving them until I retire. I am using them whilst I have the status to redeem them without too much effort.

MrsM also knows I will most likely cave in and pony up for the trip.

 

[woodyren]

Almost 65 with no plans to retire but a flexible work arrangement that allows us to travel quite a lot. Earn enough to easily qualify for most cards despite only working 6 or 7 months a year by racking up a lot of penalty rate hours when we are home. Mrs Woodyren doesn't qualify for most cards (used to be good when Amex allowed combined income).

Currently have 944 K Velocity and 640 K Qantas. Awaiting around 80K Velocity and 180K Qantas in the next few months after meeting some minimum spend on a few new cards. Cards will go just in time for a new round of offers as 12 month and 18 month exclusions on 4 or so cards end in Sept to Nov this year.

Seeing as though we earn almost zero from flying or business spend I think I am getting as much bang for my buck as I can from CCard churn and other smaller offers. Thanks mostly to great advice here.

Plan to burn about 270 K Qantas points on China Airlines J to Taipei and JAL J from Taipei to Vancouver (cruising Vancouver to Sydney) in August next year and around 600K Velocity on Singapore Airlines Beijing Sydney June 2020, Singapore to Barcelona October 2020 and Virgin Atlantic New York Hong Kong Dec 2020 or Jan 2021. Plenty of current availability so hoping this continues when it comes time to book.

In the past 4 years we have used points earn for the following. So definitely not hoarding.

2 x Business class Beijing-Singapore-Sydney. Singapore Air 218000 pts (made an error and converted used KrisFlyer pts when Velocity was cheaper)
2 x Business class Bangkok - Singapore- Istanbul. Singapore Air 121,500 Vel pts
2 x Business class Beijing-Singapore-Sydney. Singapore Air 184,000 Vel pts
2 X Business class Copenhagen-Helsinki-Beijing Finair 130,000 Qantas points.
2 x Business Singapore-Barcelona 188,000 Vel pts
1 x Business class Beijing-Singapore-Sydney. Singapore Air 92,000 Vel pts

Upcoming already booked.

2 x Business class Brisbane to San Francisco Fiji Air 192,000 Qantas pts
2 x Delta business San Francisco-Vancouver 47,000 Velocity pts

Use most of our flights to get to or from long repositioning cruises which we normally combine with land travel at one or each end.

 

[cove]

There could be a flurry of activity by the rellies if we have a not so good health diagnosis. My rellies have all our log ins so I think they may whoop it up to help us out before we check out.
Have been flying the sons and GFs, the niece , the SIL so our redemptions for business and first class travel have been significant.
Domestically it has been easier to fly on Virgin redemptions so I hold onto my red status firmly and fly in J on their A330s.
I thought I had lucked out with our AA Miles but Qatar has opened up nicely for our family members and they love their first class.
We fly internationally mostly with SQ and we are happy flyers. For the Olympics in 2020 we are flying JAL in business for the first time using QF points.
QF points have been harder to use but I did get SIL and niece a First Class ride in school holidays from LAX.
I had better not say how many points we have as we are not accepting adoptions this month but it is a lot.

 

[DaveB]

Know the feeling about becoming a free travel agent making over 40 bookings a year.
Currently scheduling for next July a bucks party for others in Vegas followed by a wedding in Byblos with more coming direct from Sydney.
Just have to work out where we want to tack on before or after the wedding. A cruise around the islands or down a european river on the cards.

 

[sinophile888]

I have just over 4000 QFF points at present. But I have 6 flights for 2 people booked in J in the coming 12 months.

 

[digpomi]

My current totals
Amex 1.5 million
Qantas 500k
Velocity 500k
KrisFlyer 600k
Hilton 500k
Marriott 280k

I tend to burn through 1.5 to 2 million points on flights for 4 of us for 2 overseas business trips a year and may be another 1 million Marriott points . I have struggled to use Qantas and Hilton points.

 

[get me outta here]

That's too many zeros to be able to follow them.

My current totals
Amex 1400000
Qantas 500000
Velocity 500000
KrisFlyer 600000
Hilton 500000
Marriott 280000

I tend to burn through 1.5 to 2 million points on flights for 4 of us for 2 overseas business trips a year and may be another 1 million Marriott points . I have struggled to use Qantas and Hilton points.

 

[Blinky]

600,000 velocity.
18,000 Kris flyer
Possibly some more hotel points but not many.

I’m 68 and planning on a Europe business class trip with my wife within a year. Fares are good at the moment so I plan to pay cash for this trip, head towards 1,000,000 and take F class with my wife when I retire at 70, hopefully. Not sure if to Europe again or a round the world fare taking in the US as well.

 

[jswong]

I am somewhat of a hoarder. I redeem points infrequently (mostly on hotel nights when the rates are high and on upgrades). Been through multiple devaluations and they don't bother me too much

QF 780K
AA 411K
UA 980K
NZ 10K APD
Bonvoy 478K
IHG 670K
Amex MR 1.5M

 

[coriander]

I’m 68 and planning on a Europe business class trip with my wife within a year. Fares are good at the moment so I plan to pay cash for this trip, head towards 1,000,000 and take F class with my wife when I retire at 70, hopefully.

Just turned 68 yesterday.
Currently have
2.9 million QF points
1.5 million Amex Reward points
800k KF points.

And that's after giving away the maximum 600k QF points in January this year (my three sons are looking forward to their 200k bonus every year).

Like you Blinky, I had a 2 and5 year plan for work and travel until an unexpected dose of multiple myeloma kyboshed my travel plans for this year (three OS trips) and caused me to re-accumulate points spent as I cancelled trips - and the countdown clock is ticking on the KF points - grrr.

My advice - don't put off travel plans too long, you never know what's around the corner!

(And to paraphrase an old saying - "there's no boarding passes in a shroud")

 

[cove]

With Kris Miles you can extend some for a 10% fee for 6 months.

 

[kingzac]

Some of these totals just blow my mind.
I've got 90k QFF and 30k Velocity and I feel like that's a decent start to getting a J or F trip each year.

 

[Dudditz]

With the recent devaluation changes and life plans I've burn 790,000 QF points leaving me a balance of 30k my lowest ever!

 

[knagelli]

Amazing to see the points balance many of you have over there. Compared to the balances mine is paltry 32K velocity points , used 58K recently on a points plus pay thingy for our return flight from MEL to LAX. The whole CCard churn thing sometimes scares me but looking forward to increase my balance in the next couple of years as I plan to book RTW in 2021 and want to do using the reward tickets only. Hopefully I will be able to accumulate enough points then.

Just curious , is it okay to apply for credit cards with bonus offers even if your credit rating dips below 600.

I am a novice , so please be nice

Thanks for reading.