Qantas FF $82.50 What do you get for the Money?

[tassiedude]

I'm assuming you don't have a laptop then..? Flying SYD-PER last night, I watched 2 movies on mine (Mine has a 12.1" screen, perfect for economy even when the seat comes flying back at you!), even though we had AVOD/IFE in the back of our seats (my first ride on a 747!).

Yeah i have a Laptop, never thought of that actually

Too bad the battery only lasts for 1.5 Hrs

 

[Flashback]

2 options..

• Buy a larger cell battery
• Watch 1 movie, then read a book

 

[Skyring]

Yeah i have a Laptop, never thought of that actually

Too bad the battery only lasts for 1.5 Hrs

My little Dell X1 is small enough that I can use it even on a fully reclined seat (which is why I bought it), but the standard battery only lasts an hour or so. I found the bigger battery pack on ebay and got myself one, so I now have about four and a half hours of life. Not too sure ablout watching movies on it - I think that drains the power something fierce - but it lasts long enough even on a transPacific flight, when many of the hours are spent trying to sleep, having meals, etc.

The biggest problem lies in recharging afterwards. If I have an ongoing flight, then there is rarely enough time to recharge both batteries during transit. And even if I am static for a day or so, I have to remember to shut down and change over the battery packs. Usually the hotel room is a maze of power cords and dongles and rechargers and adaptors as I try to get everything back up to 100%. It's a bugger reaching for the camera to get a shot of the sunset over the Eiffell Tower or something only to find it's died quietly away.

On the FF front, I recently spent $165 to buy my two teenagers QFF memberships. You get a bronze card, a booklet detailing the program, a welcome letter and a whole bunch of advertising for QFF luggage etc. I knew about the overseas address lurk, but really, I didn't think it worth the trouble, not to mention the chance of getting found out if they checked IP addresses.

QFF because Qantas is pretty much it for Canberrans. Yeah, I know Virgin flies out of Canberra, but they don't fly to Sydney from here, and where do most O/S flights leave from, hey?

More to the point, I'll be taking them on a long trip later this year. I'll be flying oneworld (which means that they will as well) and I didn't like to think of all those airmiles and status credits going down the drain, especially when they can transfer them over to me later on. 8^)

 

[acampbel]

.

Skyring makes a good point about family transfers - until Qantas allowed these it was dubious whether the membership was worth it for infrequently travelling dependents.

But the ability to shift points around (albeit with some restrictions) means that they don't need to go to waste. In my case I have twice taken the family to the UK - my wife and I on award tickets and the kids paid for (same points for 75% airfare). Late this year my children will generously transfer around 40K points each to my account, which should set us up for the next trip.

So the membership fee is steep, especially with on-line statements, but I (sorry - they) got the money back by the time they started school.

And the scam with O/S addresses seems a bit tawdry, doesn't it?


Cheers,

Andrew

.

 

[Dave Noble]

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And the scam with O/S addresses seems a bit tawdry, doesn't it?

What's tawdry about saving $82.50

Dave

 

[Soundguy]

What's tawdry about saving $82.50

Yeah, it's fairly steep - I mean they could do it for $30 or something if they wanted to.

This is one of the reasons I entered my daughter into the AA Advantage program instead; no entry fee. She is just 2 years 4 months old and achieved AA Gold status a couple of days ago thanks to sucessfully completing the AA challenge.

 

[Skyring]

What's tawdry about saving $82.50

It's dishonest. That's tawdry in my book, and probably in Qantas's as well. If I were an auditor and I found some discrepancy in an account, I'd go over all the rest of it with a keener eye, looking for instances of cheating, like giving your FF card to someone with a similar name so they could rack up points and access lounges, or generating points on a credit card used for business purposes.

If someone signs up, claiming to live in London, but all of their subsequent oneworld flights originate out of Melbourne, well you don't have to be too bright to figure it out. The IP address alone is a giveaway.

In any case, Qantas has absolute discretion over whether you are in or out, and they might start kicking people out if they break the rules. Sure, you might save $82.50 initially, but potentially you could lose accumulated points worth far more.

Not that I'm averse to saving money, but I prefer to do it within the rules - heaven knows that we get enough pointers on how to save boatloads of money and maximise points and stuff here.

 

[NM]

The IP address alone is a giveaway.

I can make my IP address look like it is not from Australia . In fact, I have to make a few subtle config changes in order to listed to the abc.net.au cricket streaming since they will only stream to an IP address they believe is from Australia. Anyone tracing my IP address right now would probably be lead to believe it it coming from the Washington DC area, but I am a long way from there!

But I recognise that is not you point :!: . Your point is valid.

 

[tassiedude]

Might save my money and wait and see if virgin Velocity bring out any status levels as such. Now it might be wishful thinking to think they may join *Alliance

 

[simongr]

Are any members of Virgin Airlines members of *A?
That might be an answer for you.

What exactly do you want from the QF program and how much do you fly fly? If you fly enough that a FF program is a question then you will have to consider one.

The fact of the membership fee being $82 being enough of a turn off means to me that you dont fly enough to think the returns you will get will be enough...

 

[jakeseven7]

Might save my money and wait and see if virgin Velocity bring out any status levels as such. Now it might be wishful thinking to think they may join *Alliance

lol don't hold your breath! Why don't you just skip one night out with the boys and put it towards being QFF...

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The fact of the membership fee being $82 being enough of a turn off means to me that you dont fly enough to think the returns you will get will be enough...

Though you can be an adult FF with a reasonable or good earn....but have children who have no CC earn and only earn low flying FF earn as they only have holiday travel and no business travel.

FF earn for them in isolation may not amount to much but when tranfersed to another in the family can be handy...particularly if you have several children.

I have 3...2 were joined up long ago...the youngest has only ever flown free on redemptions (Cairo, Thailand, and Qld...(including via Alice spirings when you could still do that cheaply).

I now have her and us on a StarClass promo Flight to Bali....so will join her up as a FF.

She will not have many future paid flights in the near term...so the $82.50 will consume a chunk of her points....

So will have to make sure that I havea QF earning flight for them within the 3 year period...