big_RED
Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2015
- Posts
- 422
With the latest QFF program changes, it got me deeply considering my heavy loyalty to Qantas (for flights and credit card usage).
My wife and I have been very fortunate to be able to book Classic Rewards Sydney to LAX or Sydney to DFW in Business class 1-2 times a year for the last ~8 years due to us churning Qantas credit cards. (typically the classic rewards Qantas redemption have cost us ~200k points and $800 in taxes each). Achievable with credit card sign-up bonuses vs having to spend heavily on the cards.
With the new changes on Qantas though, it's roughly 436,000 points and $1,200 in taxes (return, 1 passenger) via "Classic Rewards +" around the Thanks Giving period. Double the points, and a much higher cash rate than CR as we're all aware of. Looking for CR seats across the whole of November and December 2025 returns 0 business class seats so I'm forced to purchase the CR+ fare.
I've been doing a fair bit of research and decided to explore:
- USA Credit Card with a different airline (to be able to book that airline, e.g. AA or Delta)
- Amex Explorer Aussie card (transfer to Singapore Airlines who have plenty of Business award availability for Thanks Giving e.g: 339,000 points and $228 in fees per person return).
- Amex Virgin Australia card
The challenges I have come up against (keen for other's feedback/experience):
- USA credit card = sign-up capabilities are limited re churning and so would need to rely on spend to accumulate points (which would mean points accumulate slower, meaning having enough points for Business award seats would take much longer to achieve)
- The Amex Explorer = earns 2ppd but transfers to Singapore at 3:1. Meaning you'd need to spend roughly $450,000 on the card to earn 900k Amex MR points to transfer to Singapore to have 300k miles. (once again, requiring high spend to earn enough KrisMiles which will take much longer to achieve = same issue as the USA credit card)
- Amex Virgin Australia card = similar issues I feel to Qantas in that award availability is limited as it's the 2nd "easiest" airline for Aussies to use to fly the route in question
- Amex Virgin card = could transfer from Virgin to Singapore at 1.55:1 but this would still require ~$500k spent on the card to have enough Singapore points
My unfortunate assessment is that as Qantas has many credit cards that can be churned, earning enough points for the new QFF CR+ seats will still be easier to achieve vs the above other strategies. However with the credit card yearly fee and higher CR+ taxes, the award seats will be just that much more costly cash wise.
Has anyone else done any comparisons like the above to see if they can release the shackles of Qantas? Would be very keen to hear how others are looking to approach this/have approached this.
My wife and I have been very fortunate to be able to book Classic Rewards Sydney to LAX or Sydney to DFW in Business class 1-2 times a year for the last ~8 years due to us churning Qantas credit cards. (typically the classic rewards Qantas redemption have cost us ~200k points and $800 in taxes each). Achievable with credit card sign-up bonuses vs having to spend heavily on the cards.
With the new changes on Qantas though, it's roughly 436,000 points and $1,200 in taxes (return, 1 passenger) via "Classic Rewards +" around the Thanks Giving period. Double the points, and a much higher cash rate than CR as we're all aware of. Looking for CR seats across the whole of November and December 2025 returns 0 business class seats so I'm forced to purchase the CR+ fare.
I've been doing a fair bit of research and decided to explore:
- USA Credit Card with a different airline (to be able to book that airline, e.g. AA or Delta)
- Amex Explorer Aussie card (transfer to Singapore Airlines who have plenty of Business award availability for Thanks Giving e.g: 339,000 points and $228 in fees per person return).
- Amex Virgin Australia card
The challenges I have come up against (keen for other's feedback/experience):
- USA credit card = sign-up capabilities are limited re churning and so would need to rely on spend to accumulate points (which would mean points accumulate slower, meaning having enough points for Business award seats would take much longer to achieve)
- The Amex Explorer = earns 2ppd but transfers to Singapore at 3:1. Meaning you'd need to spend roughly $450,000 on the card to earn 900k Amex MR points to transfer to Singapore to have 300k miles. (once again, requiring high spend to earn enough KrisMiles which will take much longer to achieve = same issue as the USA credit card)
- Amex Virgin Australia card = similar issues I feel to Qantas in that award availability is limited as it's the 2nd "easiest" airline for Aussies to use to fly the route in question
- Amex Virgin card = could transfer from Virgin to Singapore at 1.55:1 but this would still require ~$500k spent on the card to have enough Singapore points
My unfortunate assessment is that as Qantas has many credit cards that can be churned, earning enough points for the new QFF CR+ seats will still be easier to achieve vs the above other strategies. However with the credit card yearly fee and higher CR+ taxes, the award seats will be just that much more costly cash wise.
Has anyone else done any comparisons like the above to see if they can release the shackles of Qantas? Would be very keen to hear how others are looking to approach this/have approached this.
