What do you value your VFF points at?

[hummel]

Hi All,

Curious to know what members value their Velocity points at? I spoke to Velocity about the Platinum benefit of economy reward seats for an international destination on their network and they got back to me today.

MEL-PPT-MEL Return in Y for 2 passengers.

Quoted 100,000 points plus $140 tax Per Person. :shock:

 

[Mak404matt]

Hi All,

Curious to know what members value their Velocity points at? I spoke to Velocity about the Platinum benefit of economy reward seats for an international destination on their network and they got back to me today.

MEL-PPT-MEL Return in Y for 2 passengers.

Quoted 100,000 points plus $140 tax Per Person. :shock:

Virgin don't fly to Papeete and are not allowed to codeshare on the NZ flights.

You would either have been quoted for the Hawaiian Airlines flight to HNL and then back to PPT, or you would have been quoted on their 'Any seat, any airline' redemption rates, which would have probably been on VA to AKL, then TN to PPT.

If you redeem points to RAR you can book cash fares on to PPT which may come out better value?

 

[hummel]

Virgin don't fly to Papeete and are not allowed to codeshare on the NZ flights.

You would either have been quoted for the Hawaiian Airlines flight to HNL and then back to PPT, or you would have been quoted on their 'Any seat, any airline' redemption rates, which would have probably been on VA to AKL, then TN to PPT.

If you redeem points to RAR you can book cash fares on to PPT which may come out better value?

Problem is getting availability. AirNZ has very limited seat available across *A, VA etc I would say what I've been quoted wass AirNZ to AKL and then TN to PPT.

 

[smit0847]

I value my VFF points at between 1 and 2 cents per point.

 

[moa999]

Is that higher or lower than QFF points.

 

[serfty]

Compare Sale fares:

MEL-LAX-MEL in Business is from $6700 or 160,000 points & $120 = values them at ~4¼¢ each.

MEL-LAX-MEL in Premium is from $3000 or 120,000 points & $120 = values them at ~2½¢ each.

MEL-LAX-MEL in Economy is from $1150 or 80,000 points & $120 = values them at ~1½¢ each.

 

[phantompharter]

Throwing my 2c in... (pun intended)

I value my VFF points mostly based on the cc sign up I got them on. So they work out at 0.7c per point.
But I try to redeem for above 2c per point if I can. I have recently found last minute redemptions work a treat.
Iif your situation is that you cannot book further out - and given there is award availability on the flights you want then the c per point redemption value is quite high.

 

[cove]

Serfty your Premium Economy figure looks high. Did you mean $3500 rather than $7500 ?

 

[serfty]

TA for the heads up - I am thinking $3000 for the 2.5¢.

 

[cove]

Thanks for that Serfty. I switched some Westpac Black Altitude points into VFF as a just in case situation seeing they were offering a 15% uplift.
My son may be the guinea pig for a LAX to MEL hop back from Brazil on the basis of why test it yourself concept.

 

[Clivem]

Compare Sale fares:

MEL-LAX-MEL in Business is from $6700 or 160,000 points & $120 = values them at ~4¼¢ each.

MEL-LAX-MEL in Premium is from $3000 or 120,000 points & $120 = values them at ~2½¢ each.

MEL-LAX-MEL in Economy is from $1150 or 80,000 points & $120 = values them at ~1½¢ each.

Errrr point of order to all concerned ......... agree your points do / did have a value at the point you cashed them in and them you actual secured/ enjoy either an item (toaster for argument sake), a service (meal / hotel / room or car rental etc) or completed flight etc.

While we can pontificate day in day out about want the value of points are in someone's account ... ( lets say 0.5 cents top + 4.0 cents per point as noted above) ......NEVER loose sight of the fact that until you actually claim them and obtain a tangible benefit for same they are not really worth ONE BRASS RAZOO .......

As any of us who have been coming to this rodeo for long enough will tell you ......... E.G. any Golden Wing member with a substantial points bank the night it all went pear shaped .......... If you are holding / storing / banking VFF points and you are not burning them you want to be watching their cash burn rate like a hawk .................... because your points value is nil until you actual derive the benefit.

Never forget the classic warning sign to look out for ........ if you walking up to a departure gate and you see pallet / container loads of aviation spare parts being 'prep-ed' for loading with a destination tag 'Auckland N.Z.' on them the game is probably over and the best thing to do is just collapse on the ground in the foetal position and wait for the kicking to start ......You're just kidding yourselves if you think it can't and wont happen again........ The golden rule you need to keep in the back of your mind is that your points are not really worth one red cent until you have cashed them in and actually received the benefit ...... I'm sure more than a few of us here can lift up our shirts to expose the burses and battle scars to prove the point ......

 

[serfty]

Errrr point of order to all concerned ......... agree your points do / did have a value at the point you cashed them in and them you actual secured/ enjoy either an item (toaster for argument sake), a service (meal / hotel / room or car rental etc) or completed flight etc. ...

True that, but there is a happy medium.

To get the best value out of points you generally need to burn in the tens of thousands at a time, so some saving/hoarding is necessary.

However, I am certainly not a hoarder - I have a target to aim for and then burn 'em. I rarely have more than 150K unless my target is higher.

(FWIW, last year Qantas.com tells me I garnered over 250K points, my current balance is about 15% of that.)

 

[samh004]

I value my VFF points at very little, as I recently bought an iTunes voucher with them

 

[quokka77]

Just redeemed for bne hba economy in Jan. Got around 1.5cpm. Regarding the hoard vs burn thing - accepted wisdom seems to be to aggregate with a plan and burn accordingly. If you're going to hoard do it in flexible programs like MR, altitude or citi (although citi have devalued some programs recently without prior warning).

 

[Pumbaa]

VFF points have been quite handy for me as of late as I used them to upgrade my Perth - Syd/Bne/Mel sectors from flexi to business class. Combined with the 2 for 1 offer Virgin card, it can't be beat.

After the changes, and the high price of flexis it appears that I will now move my business back to Qantas ...

$399 + 9900 VFF points Vs $199 + 18 000 QFF points

Looks like Qantas is back in front!

 

[serfty]

Maybe not ... I value a QFF point at ~3.5¢.

 

[greenfish]

Maybe not ... I value a QFF point at ~3.5¢.

Is that based on acquisition cost or redemption value? Personally I find them more or less on a par to earn...

 

[serfty]

Redemption value, but minimum.

My last big QFF award redemption/purchase was a JASA from AKL to LAX. 168k points and NZD820.

At the time, Qantas were selling business class AKL via east coast Oz to LAX return for ~NZD8500.

As a WP, the JASA earns ~50k, so a nett 120k or thereabouts.

That's a redemption value of over 5¢ per point.

As for earn, the best way is to simply fly - a $500 .br MEL/SYD/BNE to SIN can easily earn a WP 15k points.

Anyhoo, this is about VA, so see the comparison above.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Errrr point of order to all concerned .........

Perhaps a point of warning rather than a point of order! If we all accept your position unreservedly, we'd all be dead from a stress related disorder . Let's not forget that many, many, many more people have lost much more with poor real estate choices, poor stock market choices and poor choices on the part of their chosen wealth advisors, than the relative few who lost relative small amounts with failed FF schemes (and yes I did lose a considerable amount of points with Ansett).

As for the worth of a point????????? I got lost when I started to hear all the macro-conceptualisations about worth not being the straight up approach offered earlier by serfty, but some kind of formula based on how much you'd pay as a very maximum for a particular seat rather than how much that seat is currently offered for. That makes some degree of sense but I just look at something and say do I buy it or do I redeem for it. Regardless of point value, I think everyone agrees the best "value" is to redeem for comfort (ie F/J/W seating). That has been my chosen method so far......earn on zoo, redeem for J and to be honest, I don't even look at the value per point (although I do look at the price for the upgrade seat, just to be sure)........