Qantas F/F award tickets – are they really worth it ?

[serfty]

OT Alert!

I have only been a member of this site for a relatively short time, but in that short time I have been absolutely "blown away" by the depth of knowledge of FF programs my fellow members exhibit! My next statement is made with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek --- but I really do believe that if the combined intelligence of AFF members could be diverted from the minute analysis of how to best beat the airlines at their own game, and the extraction of every last dollar of value from impossible-to-follow FF rules --- we could probably deduce the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything! I never ever did believe Douglas Adams when he said the answer was 42!

Ahhh ... so you know the actual question?

 

[danih88]

Not sure what everyone's personal circumstances are but I tend to do a lot of flying for work with the usual Hotel, credit cards and so on to probably get me about 15-20k points each month.

I've probably got about 800k left in the kitty and I generally use my points for my international economy flights but not upgrades as I tend to get the odd free upgrade from Qantas to keep me happy.

My most recent purchase would have been my Economy MEL-LON-MEL trip in Feb 2011 (for A380 flights in August and returning early Sept - Upgraded to Premium Economy on return leg for free). The actual cost to me was the usual 128k points and $455 in taxes. I think there have been two tax surcharge increases since so my cost benefit ratio will be a bit low compared to now but I am a big fan of using points for economy flights and I generally try to use my points for flights in 'peak' seasons to maximise these benefits.

Eg. I would do a classic award booking from MEL-HKG-MEL during the peak December time.

Having both WP and DJ Platinum (thanks to the matching deal) has given me some new and interesting options though and what may happen now is my leisure off peak flights may be via the 'other mob' and my peak (point usage) flights and business will be with Qantas.

Sorry for the rambling. This is just MHO.

Regards
Daniel

 

[jukebox333]

Interesting thread - here is my perspective. I'm not a frequent flyer, but with three kids at school, we accrue a lot of points during the course of running a household. This site has been brilliant for maximising that earn rate - thanks to all of you experts out there.

With close to 600k in the QFF kitty, I looked at Oneworld J RTW awards, but being an NB means the opportunities seem very limiting on certain sectors (and hence my frustration that many JAL transpacific flights do not appear in the QF online booking engine). The other issue for me is being in the West, the opportunity for low cost status runs is zero, so isn't really an option to improve my status situation.

My other half and I talked it over and decided that rather than 2 x RTW (J) we would treat the whole family to a white Christmas in Norway/Finnland. To do that will take 650k points, and cost about $4,500 in taxes, but includes stopovers in Singapore and Hong Kong, and gets us to a regional airport close to the arctic circle (guaranteeing snow). Not sure what the cash cost for that would be but expect it would be circa $25,000 for 4/1 (the older kids are in their teens).

If I were spending money specifically to chase the points, yes, I'd think it was not such a great deal, but by changing how I pay for things, and chasing the Citi/OnePlus/EDR/Woolowrth bonuses, my annual earn rate has easily doubled with no appreciable extra spend. So while it may not be the best way to spend those points, for some of us, it may not be as dire as it seems.

 

[ozmille]

Wirh the points I get from normal spend and normal flying patterns I just booked a JASA/YASA combination to Europe to attend a wedding next year. If I divide the cheapest J and the cheapest Y ticket on these flights the cost for the trip would be AUD5837, I used points and had to pay about 800 in charges and taxes so the way I see it I saved about 5000 in 1 trip.

 

[amaroo]

I'm a huge fan of QFF program.

Been a good customer over the years and they have been good to me. Have re-deemed more than 25 J or F international RT trips. I have never thought about using points for DOM travel however, after reading about F/JASA on this site I might just start.

My only whinge is that only three of the re-deemed flights have been on QF metal - all the rest have been on BA & CX.......but I'm hoping to change that with what I've just learnt re FASA. If I only knew then what I know now. I would easily have qualified for LT gold by now.

IMHO, it's a great program and one that I would recommend.

 

[serfty]

...
IMHO, it's a great program and one that I would recommend.

I would say that QFF is not that good a program when compared with other FF programs.

It's Earn/Burn ration is relatively poor along with hefty taxes charged when when redeeming for award travel.

The most cost effective use really is for upgrades.

With all that in mind, it's really on WP who get the best benefits out of it - through having priority with long-haul upgrades and the status bonus.

e.g. I'll earn 36K+ QFF points as a WP for a DFW journey I have coming up next month; an NB would earn approx 19K.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

I think the cash cost of the Vanuatu trip was going to be around $ 4,500 from memory,

 

[amaroo]

I would say that QFF is not that good a program when compared with other FF programs.

After completing a little research on AFF & FT I can see your point of view.

For someone like me that travels almost extensively domestic for business in conjunction with credit card earn the program has allowed me to get a very acceptable ROI. Also until recently what other option was there?

I may be a little bias as I have been very happy to re-deem for multiply F & J flights to Asia every year for the past 6 years - we have two kids under 11 so the short hops to SIN - BKK - HKG have been a perfect fit for us. Now the kids are older we are keen to push on to Europe and then Nth America. This is where my view may change as attempting to secure 4 x F or J seats at a reasonable points rate appears to be very difficult indeed.

But thanks to the good people here I have learnt new tricks of the trade and may crack this hard nut soon.

Also as I'm WP the benefits have made travelling that little bit more enjoyable.