Switching from Qantas frequent flyer to Singapore KrisFlyer

[serfty]

Well, when I first saw the length of your post, I thought this will be a hard read, but you have made a lot of very good points which are easy to understand and make a lot of sense. Not all of us will ever do the travel that you do, but you seem to have the ‘systems’ covered to your advantage. In my opinion, you certainly provided some value.

@kangarooflyer88 It is a hard read, so I like most didn't bother.

Put some paragraphs in and I may revisit.

 

[levelnine]

Hope that provides some value

Good post with lots of food for thought. One of the frustrating things about OW in Australia, especially if based in MEL, is that the QF Gold lounges (int and dom) are so much worse than the QF Plat lounges, which really incentivises you to go for Plat. If they didn't have that perk, I think a lot of Melburnians would jump ship after Gold. If I lived in Sydney or Canberra, I would be more inclined to stop at Gold. That, and it is just so much easier to earn QFF points in Australia, which offsets their higher points costs, but not the higher taxes/fees admittedly.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Good post with lots of food for thought. One of the frustrating things about OW in Australia, especially if based in MEL, is that the QF Gold lounges (int and dom) are so much worse than the QF Plat lounges, which really incentivises you to go for Plat. If they didn't have that perk, I think a lot of Melburnians would jump ship after Gold. If I lived in Sydney or Canberra, I would be more inclined to stop at Gold. That, and it is just so much easier to earn QFF points in Australia, which offsets their higher points costs, but not the higher taxes/fees admittedly.

I can't speak specifically for the QF lounges internationally, as I haven't travelled internationally with them... yet but would disagree with your assessment on QF Club vs QF Business lounge having been to both of them in SYD, MEL and BNE. Yes the catering in the Business Lounge is nicer and it tends to be less crowded than the QF Club. Otherwise, they are pretty close. Both feature showers, business centre and a decent selection of food and booze. I suppose the BNE domestic Business also has better runway views than the Pub. But is it worth committing to fly twice as much with QF and OneWorld airlines? I suppose there are other benefits to Platinum status aside from the lounge access including more baggage allowance and slightly better seating. But again, are you getting twice the benefit as Gold, and will you ever use such benefits? Having mid-tier status across the three major airline alliances means you are well covered regardless of who you fly with. You aren't handcuffed to a specific airline or alliance which may or may not suit your travel plans. If you try strictly domestically, then yeah, maybe having QF Platinum makes sense since that's likely all you'll fly with anyway. But internationally things aren't so simple, and towards the second half of this year and certainly next year I plan on flying much more internationally where these distinctions matter.

-RooFlyer88

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I repeat, I would not go with SQ as the KF miles do expire, if not used in 3 years, yes, they have been extending the life of it on going for now, but might stop it sooner or later.
If you are going to fly SQ every 3 months, in a premium class, and will amass enough points by the end of the 2.75 year cycle, and earn enough PPS value, then good, keep on that, but if you are only flying once a year in lowly Y, go UA.
With UA, where their miles do not expire.
You can still fly with *A partners airlines, and enter your UA FF #.
SQ is very good only if you fly premY/J/F a lot.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I repeat, I would not go with SQ as the KF miles do expire, if not used in 3 years, yes, they have been extending the life of it on going for now, but might stop it sooner or later.
If you are going to fly SQ every 3 months, in a premium class, and will amass enough points by the end of the 2.75 year cycle, and earn enough PPS value, then good, keep on that, but if you are only flying once a year in lowly Y, go UA.
With UA, where their miles do not expire.
You can still fly with *A partners airlines, and enter your UA FF #.
SQ is very good only if you fly premY/J/F a lot.

It depends on how you are using those miles. I mean if you see a saver award on KF now that you want to book, I can't see why transferring the miles from AmEx or other such programs and then proceeding to book the award flight wouldn't make sense.

However, if they are actually paying for the fare and earning award miles from those flights, then yes crediting to a program like United or Air Canada where the points don't expire may make sense, although for Singapore, Air Canada and now United I might be more inclined to credit to Virgin AustralIa since you're more likely to use those points with Virgin (esp for domestic trips) than you would with United. Yes the points on Virgin AustralIa can expire after 24 months of inactivity, but I reckon OP shouldn't have much trouble making an eligible transaction once every 2 years. After all a $1 cup of coffee at 7-Eleven is all it takes to generate activity on your Virgin account. The other benefit too with Virgin is you can transfer over to Singapore as you see fit, so that if something pops up on Singapore's network you can move it over when and where you see fit.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Comoman]

I repeat, I would not go with SQ as the KF miles do expire, if not used in 3 years, yes, they have been extending the life of it on going for now, but might stop it sooner or later.
If you are going to fly SQ every 3 months, in a premium class, and will amass enough points by the end of the 2.75 year cycle, and earn enough PPS value, then good, keep on that, but if you are only flying once a year in lowly Y, go UA.
With UA, where their miles do not expire.
You can still fly with *A partners airlines, and enter your UA FF #.
SQ is very good only if you fly premY/J/F a lot.

KF miles don’t expire if you’re PPS.

 

[andye]

I can't speak specifically for the QF lounges internationally, as I haven't travelled internationally with them... yet but would disagree with your assessment on QF Club vs QF Business lounge having been to both of them in SYD, MEL and BNE. Yes the catering in the Business Lounge is nicer and it tends to be less crowded than the QF Club. Otherwise, they are pretty close. Both feature showers, business centre and a decent selection of food and booze. I suppose the BNE domestic Business also has better runway views than the Pub. But is it worth committing to fly twice as much with QF and OneWorld airlines? I suppose there are other benefits to Platinum status aside from the lounge access including more baggage allowance and slightly better seating. But again, are you getting twice the benefit as Gold, and will you ever use such benefits? Having mid-tier status across the three major airline alliances means you are well covered regardless of who you fly with. You aren't handcuffed to a specific airline or alliance which may or may not suit your travel plans. If you try strictly domestically, then yeah, maybe having QF Platinum makes sense since that's likely all you'll fly with anyway. But internationally things aren't so simple, and towards the second half of this year and certainly next year I plan on flying much more internationally where these distinctions matter.

-RooFlyer88

Release of award seats can be one of the most useful benefits of QF Plat and, I agree, certainly more than difference between QP and Dom J lounge

 

[levelnine]

would disagree with your assessment on QF Club vs QF Business lounge having been to both of them in SYD, MEL and BNE.

I agree it is not worth twice the spend, but with DSC, Green tier SC, credit cards with SC, etc the spend required to reach QF levels is often cheaper than equivalent Star Alliance levels.

If you are a MEL-based QF flyer, you are punished as a Gold — both the MEL int & dom lounges are basically dungeons. What value one puts on that differs from person to person, but natural light in a home port is not insignificant.

 

[jakeseven7]

Having mid-tier status across the three major airline alliances means you are well covered regardless of who you fly with.

-RooFlyer88

I think this is a generally true statement. But it’s very general and it is completely personal value linked - according to how much you utilise the perks of the tiers.

For me, having no kids to tow along yet - I have a 90% hit rate getting QF to release international J awards for 1 or 2 ppl and I fly frequently internationally, so enjoy the fun and luxury of the OW F lounges. So QF WP is valuable enough for me to be target retaining it.

But I can also very much appreciate the next poster could be a family of 5 that won’t ever (or frequently enough) be able to leverage this so therefore don’t value it as much, don’t care about F lounges or even local J lounges so their value of the tier is almost incrementally zero to QF gold.

Or the next poster could be an older person who can’t travel internationally at all. So why would they care about the things I place great value on.

So I don’t assume that people care about the things I do, and vice versa.

One thing I am wary of is that Star Alliance mid/high tier isn’t as strongly aligned and organised as OW especially on the lounge benefit front. It’s a ‘looser’ alliance and people thinking about the switch should dig into that and understand before leaping!

 

[Mr H]

I don’t assume that people care about the things I do, and vice versa.

One thing I am wary of is that Star Alliance mid/high tier isn’t as strongly aligned and organised as OW especially on the lounge benefit front. It’s a ‘looser’ alliance and people thinking about the switch should dig into that and understand before leaping!

This is very sensible. What works for one person does not work for another. I always wince a bit when I read comments from people chasing status that they basically will never use. I am unlikely to ever fly for work again. My travel is all international, either in premium cabins on redemption or on deep discount revenue flights (think Air Asia). I have never had QF status and would not derive any real benefit from it.

Star Alliance airlines often operate two tiers of lounges - one for partner status holders and one for their own status holders. SQ even has two forms of status. Access to these lounges varies by airline - as long as there is a badged business class lounge, that is what partner status holders will get into, even if better lounges exist. But this is not really different to what Al Qataria does in Doha.

 

[RichardMEL]

Enjoyed the post KangarooFlyer88 - as others have said some great thinking points, well covered (and no where near as rambling as my usual efforts ).

A core takeaway apart from your salient points is how individual this game is. Both in terms of benefits that are of value and to be used as well as how individual flying patterns and options can be.

And our individual priorities and situations in terms of our spend, travel patterns and requirements.

For example someone flying revenue J or F really has no need of status, and probably of points(unless for purpose to redeem for personal or family benefit) while someone whoose budget limits to lower fares are looking for best bang for buck, and probably are far more interested in award and upgrade availability on their prime routes and thus status would be of interest(plus for lounge access, priority or extra bag allowance etc - things all thrown in at the higher cabin levels).

it is definitely a worthwhile exercise to take time to sit down and list persona priorities, and expected plans for the short, medium and even possibly long term (ie: destinations, travel routes, even preference of service/carrier) then consider pros and cons of various programs to try to find a best fit for one's own requirements and projected uses.

Of course all of this needs to be taken with the understanding that programs WILL change (at the very least devalue points value let alone bigger changes), potentially change partners or even alliances (eg: VA dropping DL for UA) and obviously one's own situation probably won't stay static.

of course one can only make the best decisions they can at a point in time based on known factors, not what ifs of course.

 

[jakeseven7]

For example someone flying revenue J or F really has no need of status, and probably of points(unless for purpose to redeem for personal or family benefit) while someone whoose budget limits to lower fares are looking for best bang for buck, and probably are far more interested in award and upgrade availability on their prime routes and thus status would be of interest(plus for lounge access, priority or extra bag allowance etc - things all thrown in at the higher cabin levels).

Exactly this - my boss flies no lower than J, anywhere and gets confused when he is on a Q400 to regional Tassie , tries to turn left and meets the pilot

But do you know what he values? - domestic premium lounges (CL and J lounges, even QP when the other two aren't available). But maybe not the reason most would value a lounge.

The value for him is that all the big hitters he networks with and does business with all fly Qantas. They all travel together, they meet and mingle in the lounges. A huge M&A deal has even been signed in the QF MEL CL lounge (I got to carry the bag!). When the boards he sits on travel, they all fly QF and work/socialise together in the lounges pre-flight. So the value for him is that - the people that are drawn to the same space. He doesn't care about the squid and cheese in the CL lounge (sigh - I do), or what noodle is on in the Spice Lounge, he uses it for high level business networking and meeting.

And internationally he flies F, so he doesn't really care who he flies because he has access to everything anyway.

So its so so so personal - AND even if people value the same thing (like a physical lounge) it is for very different reasons they value it sometimes!

 

[Mr H]

The value for him is that all the big hitters he networks with and does business with all fly Qantas. They all travel together, they meet and mingle in the lounges.

A long time ago, I flew frequently between Belfast and London. This was exactly the value that the big hitters attached to the Belfast British Midland Diamond Club - anyone who was anyone in business or government flew that route frequently and that lounge was the opportunity for water cooler discussions. The London end was too big and public for the same level of interaction.

 

[jakeseven7]

A long time ago, I flew frequently between Belfast and London. This was exactly the value that the big hitters attached to the Belfast British Midland Diamond Club - anyone who was anyone in business or government flew that route frequently and that lounge was the opportunity for water cooler discussions. The London end was too big and public for the same level of interaction.

How interesting I bet there were some interesting water cooler chats on that route.... - though my boss likes it when there are people around and its loud = can't be overheard .

Same is here with the government departments, my boss is always with department officials in the QF lounges. Always. More business gets done there than in Canberra I'm sure

 

[Mr H]

How interesting I bet there were some interesting water cooler chats on that route.... - though my boss likes it when there are people around and its loud = can't be overheard .

Yes, the issue was more that the London Diamond Club had people flying all over the UK so it was harder for the Belfast players to pick one another out and congregate. It was easier to bump into people at the Belfast end.