What is the best way to spend QFF on travel?

[SOPOOR]

I am currently busy and trying my best in collecting QFF points via my credit card,

I like holidays to Asia eg Thailand, Bali, Japan, and I want to go to malaysia soon,

ive used a trip a few years ago, economy is 72,000 return from Melbourne,

so what can others recommend, what is the best way/value in spending existing points,

ive noticed that economy is 72,000, business is double at 144,000 and first class is triple 216,000 points.

someone told me the best way is to buy an economy with cash and then spend another 72,000 points to upgrade to business class. in terms of $ cost (ie what I would pay via a travel agent, is a business class ticket worth more then double the $ cost of a economy.

assuming that I don't need any electronics, furniture etc, and I want to spend my points on travel, what is the best way to do this?????

Ive also noticed premium economy class and was wondering how many points that would require, I did searches for various destinations, however, none had different classes available so I could compare.

is there any other ways that I could spend my points on travel.

or would going to europe or USA be a far better value to points ratio. eg Melb to LA is 96,000 points! which on paper seems better value since airfares to USA are far more expensive then the 96,000 vs 72,000 points ratio when comparing USA to Asia

 

[Dave Noble]

The best way to spend them is the way that most appeals to you. If you want to take advantage of being able to travel business class on the cheap , then business class tickets are great

upgrades are good value if you are upgrading J-F or full economy up to business/PE , but not that good value from discount economy imo given that the upgrade cost is so high

Dave

 

[JohnK]

For me the best way to spend QFF points would be on the economy Oneworld award requiring 140,000 QFF points (business class is 280,000 QFF points and First class is 420,000 QFF points).

 

[SOPOOR]

For me the best way to spend QFF points would be on the economy Oneworld award requiring 140,000 QFF points (business class is 280,000 QFF points and First class is 420,000 QFF points).

sorry but what is oneworld. google did nothing for me....

 

[PineappleSkip]

Hi SOPOOR

To each their own. If I wanted to go business I'd book business. If you had the points and the seats were available I'd say plump for First. Then you'd feel SORICH for a few hours!

No availability of W (premium) could be because seats aren't available (there aren't lots of them, and QF seems to have filled quite a few with a sale) Alternatively no availablility because W isn't available on the route you're looking at.

buy an economy with cash and then spend another 72,000 points to upgrade to business class

More realistically you mean buy an economy with quite a bit of cash, hope theres seats available to upgrade into, and hope others with higher QFF status don't snaffle the seats. See Qantas' fine print

Flight Upgrade Awards are subject to capacity controls and availability is limited. Flight upgrades are not available on Award flights and international airfares booked in E, N, O, P, Q, U, X and Z class, which includes some Red e-Deal fares.

And upgrading from discount Y to J uses 60% more points than upgrading from expensive full Y fares

We have tried the "ask for an upgrade" button a couple of times (from W, rather than Y) without success for 2 travelling, with success for 1 travelling. We are gold, which puts us behind Platinum in the queue. And easier to fit a single traveller in that last seat.

 

[Lonely Flyer]

sorry but what is oneworld. google did nothing for me....

Are you still using Google V 1.001 Beta

 

[serfty]

sorry but what is oneworld. google did nothing for me....

Important points:

• The booking must include travel on two oneworld airlines other than Qantas.
  
• These awards can have up to 16 sectors.
  
• They are limited to 5 stopovers.
  
• Maximum distance of 35,000 miles.
  
• No all carriers can be booed online - in fact one is gernally better off spending and additional 2½K QFF points on an "assisted award fee" and telephone QFF to make the booking.

For more, please see these threads:

• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...lyer-program/140-000-pts-rtw-award-16582.html
• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...rogram/around-the-world-19700.html#post268071
• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...0-000-award-flight-help-20140.html#post276454

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

I know QF don't have the best burn rate these days, but their 1 way fares with points does add a lot of flexibility.

I tend to try and get a cheap JQ flight out and then usually use some QF points to get back. It's also good to be able to use points to get out to say BKK and then return from SIN. Most other airlines don't offer this flexibility - 1 O/W fare costs the same as a return.

I think the best conversion of points for me was using 20,000 to get me from Shanghai to Saigon - via HK on CX. To buy the fare was going to cost me about $800 US.

Upgrades offer a good $ value for the points, and if I was doing a night flight I'd be temped. PE seats an be booked for 50% more than standard economy, which is sort of what it's worth. Shame QF seam to want to charge double or more for them when you pay with $.

 

[Homer]

Are you still using Google V 1.001 Beta

Love your work.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

A few points:

• Upgrades are great value. However if you do not have status you may not get them. With low or nil status redeeming for Busness or PE up front is best in general
• As already mentioned by others, look at where you want to fly. Every FF programs has it pro & cons and this includes presenting different opportunities to maxmise the burning of points. The optimum answer for earn and burn is different for each of us.
• Not knowing waht you yearly point "earn" is on CC but consider swapping to a different card and FF program that what you have, and possibly earning points in more than one FF program. you might find that different card/FF program combination wil generate more J flights for you. When the transfer rtaes to SQ changeda little bit back it lead to me swapping to them as for my circumstances they give me the best eran to burn ratio.
• In my case and I mainly aquire points through CC and other earns with some flying etc I now run SQ Krisfyler as my preferred program, QF (because there are various earns that can only go to it) and BMI (as aquiring free points is hard to beat and am upto 80K now for free!!!)
• Krisflyer makes sense for me as I am happy using the J savers (you cannot fly everywhere) but for many places I can fly in J for less than what I can reddem for in Y on QF.
• Yes Oneworld RTW is great value...but to use a RTW ticket for a proper holiday you need a long leave break which does not suit me at present (though I am saving my QF points up with this in mind)
• In the meantime I will redeem on SQ for holidays of 1 to 3 weeks duration and have several trips per year.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Ditto what a lot of others have said..

Without an extensive search I would say the best $$ per point is J upgrade from economy on AUS-LAX
J MEL-LAX can be ~10000 while K is ~2000 so at 72000 points to upgrade gives you ~11c per point (pretty good when a red-e-deal Syd-Mel earns you 1000 points = $110 of value... ) Yes... it seems it almost cheaper to use red-e bargains to earn the points than to pay for J MEL-LAX...

 

[SOPOOR]

A few points:

• Upgrades are great value. However if you do not have status you may not get them. With low or nil status redeeming for Busness or PE up front is best in general
• As already mentioned by others, look at where you want to fly. Every FF programs has it pro & cons and this includes presenting different opportunities to maxmise the burning of points. The optimum answer for earn and burn is different for each of us.
• Not knowing waht you yearly point "earn" is on CC but consider swapping to a different card and FF program that what you have, and possibly earning points in more than one FF program. you might find that different card/FF program combination wil generate more J flights for you. When the transfer rtaes to SQ changeda little bit back it lead to me swapping to them as for my circumstances they give me the best eran to burn ratio.
• In my case and I mainly aquire points through CC and other earns with some flying etc I now run SQ Krisfyler as my preferred program, QF (because there are various earns that can only go to it) and BMI (as aquiring free points is hard to beat and am upto 80K now for free!!!)
• Krisflyer makes sense for me as I am happy using the J savers (you cannot fly everywhere) but for many places I can fly in J for less than what I can reddem for in Y on QF.
• Yes Oneworld RTW is great value...but to use a RTW ticket for a proper holiday you need a long leave break which does not suit me at present (though I am saving my QF points up with this in mind)
• In the meantime I will redeem on SQ for holidays of 1 to 3 weeks duration and have several trips per year.

Thank you for your help everybody,
I will quickly explain my situation, hopefully the fellow helpful members here will be able to assist easier,
I currently have about 400,000 points, currently earning about 50,000 per year, this will drop to about 30,000 per year due to circumstances,
I currently have the CBA amex+MC that has 3 points per $1 until Feb for AMex and 1:1 for Platinum, this will be changing (YUCKY) to 1.5 points for Amex and 0.5 points for Plat.
I don't travel at all so status would be negative

when I redeem the points, I will either do Asia or round the world or Europe or USA, so I am quite flexible. I would rather do 2 economy trips instead of 1 business class trip for double the points, unless there was some promotion that you could upgrade to business for 50% or similar.

I hope this makes sense.

Once again much appreciated,

PS am I accumulating my points the most effective way, some have mentioned that I look at different CC/FF combination programs.

 

[serfty]

Two Qantas oneworld awards (booked over the 'phone) will cost 285,000 QFF points and

will be from around $1200 to $1800* in total.

*Depends upon routing.

 

[bnroz]

just out of interest if i paid for a return syd-lax airfare on discounted economy (sale fare), what would it cost me to upgrade to PE or Business class using qff frequent flyer points?

 

[SOPOOR]

Two Qantas oneworld awards (booked over the 'phone) will cost 285,000 QFF points and

will be from around $1200 to $1800* in total.

*Depends upon routing.

so thats about 140,000 points per flight, seems reasonable,

but does it really only cost $1200 to $1800 via qantas??? (are we talking about calling up a travel agent and just booking a flight say from Mel-HK-Paris-UK or something like that) $1800 seems awfully cheap, a trip to Japan might cost $1200-$1400 alone depending on what season.

OR

is $1200-$1800 what I must pay in addition in taxes?

 

[Dave Noble]

just out of interest if i paid for a return syd-lax airfare on discounted economy (sale fare), what would it cost me to upgrade to PE or Business class using qff frequent flyer points?

If it is a sale fare, then there is a good chance that it is booked in one of the classes which is ineligable for doing points upgrades ( such as N,O or Q classes ); if it is eligable for upgrading, the cost would be 72,000 points each way

 

[serfty]

so thats about 140,000 points per flight, seems reasonable,

but does it really only cost $1200 to $1800 via qantas??? (are we talking about calling up a travel agent and just booking a flight say from Mel-HK-Paris-UK or something like that) $1800 seems awfully cheap, a trip to Japan might cost $1200-$1400 alone depending on what season.

OR

is $1200-$1800 what I must pay in addition in taxes?

That was not "per flight"; the 285K is for two passengers on the one itinerary (of up to 16 Flights each). i.e. 140K + 2½K assisted award booking fee, each.

These can only be booked with Qantas, either on www.Qantas.com/frequentflyer or by calling Qantas Frequent Flyer.

The

referred to the "Taxes Levies and Charges" that QFF may charge over and above any points cost. The figures mentioned were estimates for two passengers - so $600 to $900 each. Depending on your routing the dollar amount may be lower or higher than even these.

 

[SOPOOR]

That was not "per flight"; the 285K is for two passengers on the one itinerary (of up to 16 Flights each). i.e. 140K + 2½K assisted award booking fee, each.

These can only be booked with Qantas, either on www.Qantas.com/frequentflyer or by calling Qantas Frequent Flyer.

The

referred to the "Taxes Levies and Charges" that QFF may charge over and above any points cost. The figures mentioned were estimates for two passengers - so $600 to $900 each. Depending on your routing the dollar amount may be lower or higher than even these.

gotcha! as you can see I am not a very experienced qantas traveller!

 

[bushtuckerman]

Hi SOPOOR

I think Jeffery O'Neill is spot on the money when he says that...QF don't have the best burn rate these days, but their 1 way fares with points does add a lot of flexibility.

Like me, SOPOOR's flights take are mostly to Asia.

Actually, I'll go a bit further than Jeffery and say that Qantas is the airline equivalent of the buscuit manufacturer that gouges its customers by charging more for less product.

Currently I'm looking to fly SYD-BKK return in July 2010, which is 6mths away. I can't fly on my preferred days due to poor seat availability, it will 20% points than usual, I'm forced to fly Jetcrap* on indirect flights that take 12 - 17hrs instead of the usual 9.5hrs.

Its pretty disappointing, and I suspect that there are much better alternatives to QFF out there, and I would welcome input from other members on better alternatives to Qantas F.F. membership for mostly Asia travel.

I'm sure there are members who can cite routes that are really good value, but from my end QFF looks pretty poor. Especially taking into account the previous arrangements.

SOPOOR, I haven't helped you much, but I feel better after dumping an bloody Qantas.

Cheers
Bush

 

[SOPOOR]

Hi SOPOOR

I think Jeffery O'Neill is spot on the money when he says that...QF don't have the best burn rate these days, but their 1 way fares with points does add a lot of flexibility.

Like me, SOPOOR's flights take are mostly to Asia.

Actually, I'll go a bit further than Jeffery and say that Qantas is the airline equivalent of the buscuit manufacturer that gouges its customers by charging more for less product.

Currently I'm looking to fly SYD-BKK return in July 2010, which is 6mths away. I can't fly on my preferred days due to poor seat availability, it will 20% points than usual, I'm forced to fly Jetcrap* on indirect flights that take 12 - 17hrs instead of the usual 9.5hrs.

Its pretty disappointing, and I suspect that there are much better alternatives to QFF out there, and I would welcome input from other members on better alternatives to Qantas F.F. membership for mostly Asia travel.

I'm sure there are members who can cite routes that are really good value, but from my end QFF looks pretty poor. Especially taking into account the previous arrangements.

SOPOOR, I haven't helped you much, but I feel better after dumping an bloody Qantas.

Cheers
Bush

great post!!,
I do have the energy to look up alternatives to QFF, however, I don't have the resources to be constantly looking at what is best,

I know for a fact that eg I am with CBA, the CBA awards program is no good at all for travel, they will only give you a $500 travel voucher for 100,000 points (just a guess) so hence why I opted into the QFF direct program.
I don't know whether I can (in terms of time off) whether I can do a oneworld thing visiting 5 countries for 140,000 points return, I might just take 10 day holidays to Thailand/bali/malaysia/japan etc, every 12 months or so with my points that ive accumulated....