What is an acceptable cost for SC's?

[gizzard]

This may be discussed elsewhere as I know there are plenty of threads on SC's in the forum.

Living in Melbourne I often travel to Sydney mid-week in the middle of the day so can get cheap fares especially using Jetstar's Price Guarantee. It's very hard to accumulate SC's.

For such a flight in a couple of weeks from now I worked out the following cost per SC earned (sorry for the lack of acronyms but I don't know them):

Jetstar Starter - 0 SC's earned
Jetstar Starter Plus - $10.20 per SC
Jetstar Starter Max - $16.85
Jetstar Business Plus - $9.23

Qantas Red-e - $11.70
Qantas Flex-Save - $11.60
Qantas Fully-Flex - $25.60 (!!)
Qantas Business - $15.68

So, it looks as though anything under $10 per SC is a good deal. Having said that I wouldn't intend to pay $7000 to attain Gold status.

With that in mind, what is the target that people set themselves as an acceptable cost per SC? Not necessarily this route, just generally?

 

[medhead]

For a regular commute ADL-SYD I have ranged from $6.85 up to $12.19. For me acceptable is <$9-ish

It I possible to do even better, $5.50 for sales on qantaslink routes. Or some cases $1-$4-ish

 

[AdamR]

This may be discussed elsewhere as I know there are plenty of threads on SC's in the forum.

Living in Melbourne I often travel to Sydney mid-week in the middle of the day so can get cheap fares especially using Jetstar's Price Guarantee. It's very hard to accumulate SC's.

For such a flight in a couple of weeks from now I worked out the following cost per SC earned (sorry for the lack of acronyms but I don't know them):

Jetstar Starter - 0 SC's earned
Jetstar Starter Plus - $10.20 per SC
Jetstar Starter Max - $16.85
Jetstar Business Plus - $9.23

Qantas Red-e - $11.70
Qantas Flex-Save - $11.60
Qantas Fully-Flex - $25.60 (!!)
Qantas Business - $15.68

So, it looks as though anything under $10 per SC is a good deal. Having said that I wouldn't intend to pay $7000 to attain Gold status.

With that in mind, what is the target that people set themselves as an acceptable cost per SC? Not necessarily this route, just generally?

If I am targeting SC, I would look at fares under $10 per SC. Cheapest Australian options are probably Jestar Business Max to Asia, short-hop Qantas specials for about $60, and JASA (where under $1 per SC is achievable if FF points are easy for you to build up from CC spend.

 

[anat0l]

Acceptability depends on the person, their 'disposable' points balance and their 'disposable' income.

The 'disposable' points balance has only become more prevalent now that Any Seat Awards (ASAs) earn status credits. If you don't have a way of raking in QFF points easily in the first place, ASAs may not be the best way for you to earn status (simply because you won't have enough of them).

In saying that, assuming you don't put a huge value on the points consumed in ASAs and only consider the cash contribution, you can get some very low $/SC rates.

Generally for most other things, working on around $5.50 - $10.00 per SC is about sale Red e-Deal domestic (more expensive routes excepted, e.g. SYD-MEL). Business is not typically hot value at all, with some notable exceptions (which are scattered about the board), although I tend to hold Business class deals which are $10/SC or less as being rather good value (i.e. a good price, again depends on a few things).

In general if you're not after status credits and just wanting to determine whether you're getting a good deal (price) on a route, rating it with status credit rate is not usually the best idea. It all depends on what you can get, when you want it and who you can get it from. Part of knowing whether you're getting a good deal also relies a little bit on experience, e.g. what is the "rack rate" that you've experienced when there is no sale on, or typical sale rates of the past (factoring in some notes, e.g. more fuel charges).

For status runners, I figure a good rate is under $5/SC - and that value would probably be a 'ceiling' value (i.e. bordering on not so good value if your aim is just status credits). Under $4/SC is doing good, and $3.50/SC is doing very well.

I usually calculate rates for status runs inclusive of credit card charges, but excluding ancillary costs, e.g. positioning flights, layover accommodation, transfer costs, etc., but sometimes if they are considerable it may be worth evaluating.

 

[JohnK]

For my regular SYD-BNE commute I try to get the cheapest flights but still earn SCs. The SC earning ratio does not bother me but at the end of the year the flights average out to ~$85 per flight, or $8.5/SC, which is more than acceptable for domestic flights.

If you get a chance to go to the USA then that is the place to earn the SCs needed for status.

 

[Verde]

It depends a lot on factors.

For example, if it is a trip I need to do anyway, then that is different to a SC run.

January this year I had the double SC promo but only had time for 4 days to go to Fiji, so did the NAN run and scored a lot of SC at a pretty low rate.

I'm off to the USA in July, but already am safely to gold, so matched my plans to make Plat for the first time (so YUP from DFW to SEA via ORD - but it isn't a great run - 210SC for $650 or so, while SEA-LAX-LAS is a much better run - 150SC for only $350). I'll actually fly Delta from LAS to SLC though as I'll make Plat with my other flights and so my willingness to pay $ for Lifetime status is quite different to my willingness to maintain/increase status.

Domestically I have little dilemmas. So is it worth paying $165 for a Qantaslink flight ABX-SYD instead of a $125 Rex flight? Is $40 worth 10SC and 1000 points (plus lounge access when I get there once I reach Plat in July) - I guess so, but then it is better to try and avoid that last Fri flight if I can get the day off and fly Thu night for $55 like the current sale enabled me to book (only once though).

Last year I was going to be 10SC short making it to gold for the first time, so I booked a weekend to Adelaide. That cost $365 for a CBR-SYD-ADL trip which earned the 50SC needed to make it over the line safely (plus meant I would get lounge access for my last flight) - that was very poor (and would normally be unacceptable), but valuable in getting me over the line to Gold (plus convinced me it was worth having a five day trip to Adelaide in April which was very nice). Thus when it comes to getting over the line even poor SC earns can be attractive even if you'd never normally consider them.

Once I've made Plat I plan on having an international trip or two to try out the Sydney and Melbourne first lounges (I'm thinking NZ for one and somewhere in asia for the other), but otherwise will parachute down to gold and hopefully maintain that until I reach LTS (so for a year I will ignore SC as I am counting on the parachute to Gold level) - since I've got the impression that Plat probably isn't worth the effort of keeping when it is 95% paid for by me (though the system is too much like a game and I want to make the top level even if it isn't worth staying there).

Getting back to the value of a SC, under $5 is good IMO but over $8 is poor. Since I aim to have an annual trip to the USA (last year I got to do the LAX-ORD-FLL run) it is where I look to have the SC runs. Since there are so many places worth visiting (or revisiting - when I go to LAS it will have been almost 15 years since my first trip there) it isn't hard to make my plans fit high scoring SC flights (only catching up with my sister/nieces/nephews is mandatory). I had hoped to spend time in SFO, but the LAS SC were attractive and I could combine that with PointBreak nights in LAS so it was swapped in (same flight cost and SC as SEA-LAX-SFO but dirt cheap accommodation).

For some flights it is entirely coincidental - the Qantaslink sale means I will end up running about 50SC over what is required for Plat now, but getting tickets for $55 means the SC are pure bonus that will go towards LTS (if I value the points at $20 per thousand then the flights are really only $35 which is very cheap).

It is just as well Virgin Australia doesn't have lifetime status or I'd be doing some serious number crunching to determine if I should switch to them (especially once reaching LTS with Qantas, that will be when I re-evaluate things seriously unless a game changer comes along).