QFF points - Price and Value

[Flying mermaid]

What a wonderful discussion and thank-you to the OP for such a valuable and lengthy contribution! I have been thinking about what value I put on points and I guess the answer is not very much. I view them more as a bonus - like getting a free gift with a purchase. I then spend them with little thought on domestic JASAs, although I do hunt for bargain ones. My little mini breaks are very flexible and so I can hunt around. When I go overseas I want to book exactly what I want without any hassles, so I don't worry about award flights then. I think I am more focused on status credits as I want to achieve LTG (Not totally sure why - just because it is there!)

 

[paultiffen]

Enjoyed this thread, however to me the harder analysis is determining a value per point rather than assigning one to find the best value. I'm thinking if you had a basket of goods that was all the trips you would want to take and a value assigned to each then x points would be the value of the sum of your most preferred options that you could get with x points after adjusting for fees.

ie 2 trips SYD->MEL and SYD->LAX and then how much you would pay for a flight on an airline of comparable quality to QANTAS. With lower points values you never hit the LAX flight and your points are worth the cost of the melbourne flight that you otherwise would have paid for. Then go adding in more trips and travel classes.

 

[Gold Member]

Enjoyed this thread, however to me the harder analysis is determining a value per point rather than assigning one to find the best value.

The holy grail indeed. But IMHO the equation is so variable based on so many personal subjective factors that even if you did determine a value, it would be for you and you only based on your travel preferences/requirements etc. The point is, it differs for everyone accordingly.

In my original post I referred to 'opportunity cost' several times to ensure that my QFF points valuation was relative and contextual to everything around me (albeit limited by my knowledge of alternatives which I would humbly consider as sound). I deliberately did not go into any detail about which airline had better award availability, business class beds, service, lounges, frequency etc because all of these variables are unique factors that would undoubtedly vary in importance or irrelevance among our community. I noticed this was touched upon in some fashion by lovetravellingoz in his feedback on page 2.

Ultimately, I tried to adopt a quantitative approach so that such subjectivity did not impact my assessment. But in all reality, I too look at all these factors when determining the value of my QFF points. Even down to minute details such as code share partners offering status bonus (or not), likelihood of upgrade on various carriers in OW (eg. CX more upgrade friendly to OWEs than QF), seat pitch/width/angle, lounge facilities and VIP treatment (eg. First class pax transiting BKK or FCT in MUC/FRA with LH), in-flight service quality etc.

 

[Knid]

(OT I will be interested to see xONEx from SEZ prices once MH joins OW or Sri Lankan, or Qatar, or if any QF codeshares on EK to SEZ will open up cheap SEZ xONEx...)

Hmm - Interesting are xONEx fares still offered from SEZ? - I recall seeing some at crazy low prices....

 

[serfty]

Hmm - Interesting are xONEx fares still offered from SEZ? - I recall seeing some at crazy low prices....

It's a legacy from when a oneworld carrier used to fly there. They cased doing so some time ago.

So ex SEZ xONEx's have not been possible.

There may be more oneworld flights to/from SEZ soon enough, but I doubt the price would stay where it is, should that occur.