Should I transfer points / booking etc?

[Johnc]

New at this game, so sorry if this is the wrong area.

1. I have about +300,000 sitting in my credit card and wonder if I should trf these to QFF? (don't trust the banks, but is Qantas better?)

2. If that's the thing to do, should I put all into my QFF acct or split them 50/50 in the wife's acct? ie which is the easier way to manage and use them?

3. Should we join one of the FF clubs etc to handle our bookings, do it alone, or is there a better way

4. Is FF Club worth it? Seems a lot of bucks for $1000 a year - we'll mostky lileky do 2 overseas trips a year


With thanks
John

 

[JohnK]

Hi John,

QFF is not much better than the banks. Not sure whether you have heard about the May 25, 2005 changes but basically points in QFF accounts were devalued by ~20-30% depending on where you wanted to go.

One account may be a better option, easier to manage and you can also book for both people anyway.

It is very easy to book award seats, even a dummy like me has been able to do it, online and if you get into trouble you can book through Qantas at a cost of 2500 qff points per trip per person. There is no way I would be spending $1000 on a ff club. I just can't see the benefit if you are only planning 2 overseas trips a year.

Good luck.

 

[NM]

Be aware that once the points are transferred to your Qantas account, they are stuck there. There is no way to transfer points out of Qantas to another program.

So my recommendation is to leave them where they are where you have the option to send them to Qantas if/when you are ready to redeem an award, or you can choose to use them for an award from the Credit Card loyalty program, or you may choose to transfer them to different program. For example Amex points can be transferred to a number of airline and hotel programs.

For this reason I am holding my Amex points in the Amex account until I need them elsewhere. I may find I can get better value by sending them to Hilton Honours for free accommodation rather than to Qantas for discounted flights (I say discounted since you still have to pay the fuel surcharges, taxes and levies).