cove

I to have been trying to make every $$ count.. With Citibank Plat for QF pts / Amex for Kris & NAB (QF) for when I reach my capping. Unfortunately my husband won't let me travel as much as I would like to

Originally Posted by lmere12

I to have been trying to make every $$ count.. With Citibank Plat for QF pts / Amex for Kris & NAB (QF) for when I reach my capping. Unfortunately my husband won't let me travel as much as I would like to

CitiSelect is expensive but works at a point a dollar on Visa uncapped.

Have just started using my Woolworths everyday rewards card ($89 cost for 12 months) and with their special promotion have been credited wtih 16000 ff Q pts. Have been using Amex Ultimate for several years receiving 1.5 pts per $ and have all utility a/cs tied to Citibank Visa. Always on lookout for specials and promotions. Since 2004 wife and I have traveled TWR 1st class twice and are almost ready to book another RTW J class (too many sectors now do not have F) Of these redeemed trips 200000 points have been transferred from rels, otherwise all other points acumulated thru flights, promotions and credit cards.

Really pleased to see you are out there.
Yes this site really got me going.
I am thinking of trying CitiSelect for SQ Kris points as Westpac Kris Visa changes on 15th March.
Can I deal with Citi call centre?
Yes I can if it's more than a point a dollar on Visa for SQ redemptions as I am fine for QF points.
As you can see "once a Fiend always a Fiend ".

Originally Posted by Champo

Have just started using my Woolworths everyday rewards card ($89 cost for 12 months) and with their special promotion have been credited wtih 16000 ff Q pts. Have been using Amex Ultimate for several years receiving 1.5 pts per $ and have all utility a/cs tied to Citibank Visa. Always on lookout for specials and promotions. Since 2004 wife and I have traveled TWR 1st class twice and are almost ready to book another RTW J class (too many sectors now do not have F) Of these redeemed trips 200000 points have been transferred from rels, otherwise all other points acumulated thru flights, promotions and credit cards.

Good point raised that it does take some time to administer. I use one card personal and one card 'business' to make reconciling easier.

Mrscove has just had her credit limit raised on Amex Ultimate to $100k so that will make re-loading her card worthwhile for QF points.
Just started thinking about a credit card to get points on DJ Velocity because the words on this forum indicate that their product update is more than cosmetic and that J is really going to happen.

Ok using my Frequent Flyer Fiendish mind I added up the 7 family accounts we hold points in for QF,SQ and DJ plans to get a starting point for the New Year.
I decided I must start early on a DJ points plan before their J product gets legs.This is a January 2011 project.
Then I worked on 3 credit card limits and got 2 big increases thru in the last fortnight so making zillions of points for QF,DJ and SQ will be easier as there will be less need to re-load the cards to pay a humongous credit cardable bill.
Thank you Westpac and Amex for the helping hand with limit fixes.
I now see that it is possible to develop a points total with two numbers in front of those 2 commas which did not seem possible previously.
Happy redeeming everyone!

My DJ Virgin credit card plan will be delayed based on a rumour from a good source that a better points earning credit card will be launched in about 90 days or less.
I would think Virgin must have noticed the success of the Woolworths Everyday Qantas Mastercard and will want to be competitive with a fresh Visa or Mastercard offering.
They need to be equal to or better than QF in J or PE seating , lounges and luggage handling.
It must be exciting and also frustrating at Virgin getting everything lined up pretty much simultaneously.
I was going to run up a chunky total but it should only get better and I have enough points for a couple of east west J redemptions.

i sued to be happy with frequent flyer but lately they give horrible service and wont help you (according to their policies) when you have issues whatever your excuses - been told by multiple senior customer relaitonship managers policies state not to help. so yes, be VERY CAREFUL OF QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER POINTS AND PROGRAM IN GENERAL. if they can screw you they will

Well I think about the systems quite a bit and with both SQ and QF running your comment has not applied to us.
If my final destination has been NEW YORK points flights have been there in my either/or redemption methods. If AA business is not available I would resort to a big brand and go there using Expedia to get across from LAX and SFO.
The only problem is QF JASA flights since 24th December have not been posting in properly but there is a thread running on this. Mrscove will be Gold once it is fixed.

I use QF special handling and they are super helpful with my sleep machine. I get a massage or special service when travelling in First out of MEL or SYD long haul so we actually leave our homes a bit early to get that plus a meal prior to boarding.
The only thing I have been aware of is to not die while you have a zillion points in your account. In that use by date issue make sure your partner knows to how to use your account and uses it all up prior to the Final Departure.
When you die so do your points and they are the rules!

There are some terrific posts from members on "Indispensable Web Sites for travelling" that any Frequent Flyer Fiend should read to get the best travel results overall. You should read our smart members posts to round out your thinking as I am way short of the finesse used by the travel gurus who make posts.

January,April,July and October are the 4 months in a year where we get to pay Quarterly Personal Taxes as well as the usual monthly BAS and other expenses for a month.
Now if you are a true Frequent Flyer Fiend and put the lot on credit cards that suit you for earning points in various programs you will gleefully pay up and be happy about it by thinking where are we going next?

The biggest downside to being a frequent flyer Fiend is you will have completely tubed your modest chance of pulling a QF invite to be a Chairmans Lounge member.
When you travel in J or First you gain access to the nice lounges but no you won't rub shoulders with the QF perceived elite.

The last SQ redemption PER-LAX return cost between $2k and $2.5k for the J trip on points and that is pretty good for a flyer with zero status. The variation comes about when your sourced points come from the paying of taxes with different credit cards.
Now that cost is what I think is the wholesale price when you are not a travel agent.

Had the pleasure of looking at the 2 main redemption systems this morning for Mrscove and she still prefers QF if it is available but will travel SQ.
Today QF LAX to PER would remove 900k points in July on Any Seat (yes you get a few SCs and points back so lets call it about 850k net).
I then booked SQ KRIS for 114,750 in J on the 98 seat all business class in Standard on the A345 and then J to PER on Saver on the A330.

The only reason I didn't take up the SQ First Class from LAX-SIN is because it lands at 3am and our connecting flight is 6 hours later to get down to PER. That SQ FIRST flight was available but a pass on the layover time in the Changi lounge. Goodbye Krug champagne and it is hello Bollinger on our selected SQ flights.
QF on the other hand have come up trumps for Australian domestic travel in J ANY SEAT at a gross 42k each way but with status kickers and kick back points out of PER to the east coast. We will probably hit Platinum just after the QF "improvements" wake at the end of January.

My kids did a last minute trip to Manchester and London for English Premier League this month so that involved accessing SQ points out of my account.
After 4 international phone calls (as I was in America) I finally told my son to call SQ as the web would not process the very short notice and heavily booked flights to MAN or LHR ex PER.
The SQ call centre got them to MAN in J and then one came home from LHR and the other from MAN in J.
520k points was pretty fair when you consider the boys were trying "mission impossible" but I have told them to be better planners in future as that was about 100k more points than if they had booked earlier on the web.
I remain totally impressed that SQ have been able to wave their magic wand for the kids and they have a lifetime of memories and more travel knowledge.

Having done quite a few trips to SYD and MEL from PER the month of January was a good month to re-load our QF accounts as it is between 72 k and 80 k in points for each J return flight per passenger. It depends on whether you book Classic or Any Seat.
To run up those points on QF we have cards with 250k of limits that can be quickly reloaded.
12 tickets can burn almost a million points so that relentless quest continues for QF domestic travel points.
We will both be Gold status in February thru some Any Seat J flights on QF so all is progressing ok.

Now Mrscove is a Qantas first pick girl but faced with SQ at 114,750 points versus QF at 1,096,052 the choice of which J flight to go LAX-PER was a simple affair for September 30th departure.
On QF Classic there were not even Y seats for classic points redemption on September 30th!
Again First was available on SQ but that 6 hour lounge layover in Changi is not for us no matter how nice that lounge is......and it is really nice.
Having 2 loyalty programs is working great.....We go out on QF and back on SQ.
The Singapore taxes are a little high at 360.20 Singapore dollars but I would have been scrambling without the KRIS program.

We just booked 8 J flights on QF domestic in less than 20 minutes all for coast to coast flights for this month.
I chose Any Seat at 42,990 J travel as it moves us closer to lifetime Gold Status pretty quickly.
There were a couple of "HURRY less than 5 seats available" messages but the dates and times were what we wanted as well as the seats we wanted.
I also converted a voucher from a flight I deferred into a J seat for 10K points and $110 of real money over the phone so I beat the expiry of the voucher by 5 days .
Let me say I was very impressed with QF today on how easy they have made the web work for us so close to the flying dates and also with the call centre assistance.
Well done Qantas we are impressed.