Which ff program is best for using miles in Y?

[k3nnis]

Hi, the subject says it all. I know most ppl redeem in J for best value but let's say you only have enough for miles.....

say for syd to asia, USA and Europe.

Cheers,
k.

 

[moa999]

depends on which program you have the miles in !!.

It's the combination of the earn/ burn and extra charges

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hi, the subject says it all. I know most ppl redeem in J for best value but let's say you only have enough for miles.....

say for syd to asia, USA and Europe.

Cheers,
k.

Well with Malaysian one can fly Business Class return to Europe for less than Qantas charges for economy.

 

[Duffa]

Well with Malaysian one can fly Business Class return to Europe for less than Qantas charges for economy.

Just run that one past me again?! Would like to know more as I've looked at Malaysian many times and never found the burn rates to stack up.

D

p.s. In response to OP, the best way to use miles in Y; is to stay home until you have enough for J!

 

[casanovawa]

It probably depends on how far you want to travel, as the further you can travel the better the value, but did you want to travel that far in the first place...

I think for me, without doing any in-depth analysis, the USDM program would have to be close to the best seeing that you could fly from Australia to the US (via Europe) for a stop, then fly back to Europe for another stop and then back to Oz for 80,000 miles or so, which if purchased during a 100% bonus promo equates to about $1535 inc sales tax and admin fee... I think if you went to buy a Y return fair to Europe and then bought another Y fair from Europe to the US you would be struggling to get that for $1500 + maybe a couple of hundred in airport taxes?? But to get that value you needed to be thinking of doing both stops and that will include quite a bit of flying in Y... This might also stack up for other continental combos... That is part of the advantage of the USDM program, as opposed to AA, with its multi continental redemption which tends to mean you can fly further...

Some of USDMs and AAs redemptions around OZ/NZ and maybe to the Pacific Islands can also look good value without the big fuel fines...

 

[dajop]

Well with Malaysian one can fly Business Class return to Europe for less than Qantas charges for economy.

True. But it does depend on how you earn the miles. For credit card earn at $1=1 pt in both programs, MH is vastly superior. But If you are a gold tier on MH flying around in a heavily discounted Y fare you will only get 0.625 pts per mile. A QF gold will get 1.75 pts per mile, so the 52,000 MH pts for a 1 way J to Europe is like 145,000 QF pts in this scenario.

 

[k3nnis]

Thx for the info. My earn is mainly on credit cards. I have the westpac black cards and the plat edge and charge. If I had to travel in Y furthest I will go is asia. Maybe to the US direct but won't be travelling until my 2 year old is like 7 lol.

 

[legroom]

Well with Malaysian one can fly Business Class return to Europe for less than Qantas charges for economy.

The things that you can learn !!

Open your mind even before you leave home.

 

[k3nnis]

Does anyone here travel in Y to USA/Europe? I may have to as I have a growing family and won't earn enough points to travel in J for the whole family

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Thx for the info. My earn is mainly on credit cards. I have the westpac black cards and the plat edge and charge. If I had to travel in Y furthest I will go is asia. Maybe to the US direct but won't be travelling until my 2 year old is like 7 lol.

Must be some growth hormones there to get from 2 to 7 in 5 hours.

Does anyone here travel in Y to USA/Europe? I may have to as I have a growing family and won't earn enough points to travel in J for the whole family

 

[harvyk]

I typically travel in Y even long haul (as does the majority of people in this world). Despite what others say, there is nothing wrong with traveling long haul in Y.

That said, I tend to agree with the others, burning points on Y seats is a very inefficient use of points, as most airlines consistently offer paid discount Y seats which are very good value. Plus it's not uncommon for an airline to still charge taxes on top of the points which don't typically go up by choosing a higher class.

So you have a choice, spend for example 12,000 points + $50 on a seat which if you where to purchase directly it would have only cost $100 anyway (thanks to discount Y), or pay 24,000 points + $50 for a J seat which would have otherwise cost say $500.

 

[k3nnis]

Thanks for the info
Yeah I usually burn points on domestic Y. For international I try to burn it on J but of course difficult to accumulate for 3 international J seats As I normally get a return from the ATO so no big ATO transactions for me.

 

[dajop]

Does anyone here travel in Y to USA/Europe? I may have to as I have a growing family and won't earn enough points to travel in J for the whole family

I have travelled in Y to Europe a number of times. Get up head to the airport, depart at 9am, in London by 3pm, very hospitable particularly if paying for exit row Of course its a lot closer from SIN than Australia though :!: More seriously, from an Australian perspective, I do know people who have flown up to SIN (or elsewhere in Asia) in the afternoon/evening, overnight here and continue on a day flight next day, and find it easier than doing the long overnight journey arriving into Europe at 5am. Worth considering if you have the time.

 

[k3nnis]

Thanks for the info. Yeah I usually layover in asia first before going to Europe. I've done Tokyo, HKG and KUL for the layovers before heading to LHR

 

[markis10]

I dont think there is an answer to the question, with the exception being its best not to use them for Y redemption unless there are no options. Time and time again people assign a point a value be it burn or earn as if its the same across all programs, when you can spend under $1000 in car hire and get a J redemption to HKG and back with one program clearly the value varies, the real question is how to grow the points to a level where the real value is.

 

[casanovawa]

Up until the last trip i had always flown Y long and short haul throughout my life... With USDM my last trip i travelled in J long haul and I have another J long haul booked for July (got to check this booking is still good) and after that have most of the points needed for another 2 J redmeptions... And then i was reading up on everyone else jumping on the bandwagon and thinking of doing one as an F redemption or buying AA miles for an F redemption and just the other day i thought what's with all these premium cabin redmeptions i'm starting to focus on??? I used to be pretty alright with Y and always went for pretty cheap deals, kept costs down... With the premium cabins they are certainly cheaper redeeming as an award than paying full cash, but they are usually still more expensive than a good, cheap Y cash fares...

So i don't know... Buying a house soon and if money gets a little tight for a while i might go back to Y fares, but will enjoy these J redemptions for a bit (without hopefully becoming so stuck on it that Y seems hard) and maybe squeeze in an F now and then just to enjoy and show off and tick off bucket list...

 

[paultiffen]

Maybe you could confine it to just burn rates for now. Pick LAX, NY, Paris/London, HKG, SIN and KL for example and build a table of the prices to each in each program. For these from what I know the cheapest return is (unchecked)

London/Paris - 75K MH miles
LAX - Asia Miles 60K
NY - Lifemiles 80K, AA 75K

I'm unsure for Asia, you probably should consider fuel surcharges although for all besides MH I don't think those programs charge it. To redeem on AA you can transfer your AMEX points to Etihad guest as they are a partner. Most of the others you can do buy miles promos. But I agree that they are generally a poor use of points and I don't place much of a premium on J or F personally. Try expedia.com.br for economy fares and you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

[paultiffen]

Up until the last trip i had always flown Y long and short haul throughout my life... With USDM my last trip i travelled in J long haul and I have another J long haul booked for July (got to check this booking is still good) and after that have most of the points needed for another 2 J redmeptions... And then i was reading up on everyone else jumping on the bandwagon and thinking of doing one as an F redemption or buying AA miles for an F redemption and just the other day i thought what's with all these premium cabin redmeptions i'm starting to focus on??? I used to be pretty alright with Y and always went for pretty cheap deals, kept costs down... With the premium cabins they are certainly cheaper redeeming as an award than paying full cash, but they are usually still more expensive than a good, cheap Y cash fares...

So i don't know... Buying a house soon and if money gets a little tight for a while i might go back to Y fares, but will enjoy these J redemptions for a bit (without hopefully becoming so stuck on it that Y seems hard) and maybe squeeze in an F now and then just to enjoy and show off and tick off bucket list...

I've become a bit the same way but I think part of it is a framing bias as I've found some good ways to get miles cheaply so as long as I'm still redeeming in J for less than the price I would pay in Y as a fare then I'm happy, well at least more happy than I would be for getting an equivalent Y fare at half the price.

 

[Valerie Moffat]

I know this sounds simplistic but...all my points are with Qantas..is Malaysian part of the the airline "family' ?

 

[paultiffen]

I know this sounds simplistic but...all my points are with Qantas..is Malaysian part of the the airline "family' ?

Yes, look up oneworld - you can use Qantas points on any of these plus some others listed on their website. If you search on Qantas however it will not show the award flights - you need to ring them for this.