Hello: Finally getting the courage to post

[guymc]

Hi All,

I’ve been flying for irregularly on business for the past 10 years but usually average about 6-8 international flights per annum. I’ve been a paid AFF member for a few years, lurking among various postings without a real need to optimise my travel knowledge and arrangements.

Having just returned from a short visit to Asia, I’m recovering from the double ignominy of having to travel Y class, due to a GFC austerity initiative of my company and a related downgrade from QF SG to PS due to a limited travel schedule. So I’m keen to learn from fellow travellers to optimise the drudgery of my travel and perhaps contribute something valuable myself.

One issue that is top-of-mind now is whether to re-build my QF status, of move on over to DJ/VA, so I’ll be searching through comparisons for guidance. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[straitman]

Hi All,

I’ve been flying for irregularly on business for the past 10 years but usually average about 6-8 international flights per annum. I’ve been a paid AFF member for a few years, lurking among various postings without a real need to optimise my travel knowledge and arrangements.

Having just returned from a short visit to Asia, I’m recovering from the double ignominy of having to travel Y class, due to a GFC austerity initiative of my company and a related downgrade from QF SG to PS due to a limited travel schedule. So I’m keen to learn from fellow travellers to optimise the drudgery of my travel and perhaps contribute something valuable myself.

One issue that is top-of-mind now is whether to re-build my QF status, of move on over to DJ/VA, so I’ll be searching through comparisons for guidance. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi guymc,

Welcome to AFF.

Staying with QF or swapping to DJ is a dilemma that quite a few are facing. It's not much help but all I can suggest is you need to look at your own travel patterns and select what works for you.

[Moopere]

Welcome to AFF as a posting member GuyMC.

The collective knowledge here, as you know being a long time lurker, is tremendous - the more folks who post the more conversations there are and the more knowledge is shared, better for all of us.

As for the DJ / QF thing ... goodness me yes, its the question of the moment for domestic flyers isn't it? I probably won't ever fly enough to get into the top tier of more than one program, and DJ / Velocity is seriously competitive right now. Even though most of my flying is domestic, I'm trying to take a wider view, and its here that QF / Oneworld is keeping me slightly slanted towards them, particularly as MH joining OW still seems likely which will open up Asia to me without being forced to use JQ/3K (hopefully).

If DJ were to find a way to join *A then I'd have a very serious dilemma to solve.

[Fantic125]

And another welcome!

With your international travel you need to look at where you fly to and who the most frequent carriers are. There's no point aligning yourself with a company that only flies infrequently to where you need to be.

[cove]

Welcome to AFF!
This site has changed our lives quite profoundly because even though I had been on the frequent flyer treadmill for many years all it took was one particular post in 2009 and it moved our whole family to the front of the plane.
Good luck in finding the life changer in this forum and no we don't bite even if we wear T shirts from Bigdogs.com
GFC austerity might go on for a decade if we were to let it so enjoy this site for all the savings tips and go to the occasional drinks/ meals night with a moderator.

[stomplad]

Hi and welcome to AFF. AustBT have some great articles comparing FF programs. I find them a good starting point then AFF is great for questions and detailed research. News - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF guymc!

Interesting question and one that many on here with a foot in both camps so to speak will ask themselves in the next 12 months or so.

The answer for me lies in where I need to travel, schedules, airfares, alliance etc. At the moment I am choosing the lesser of 2 evils....

[guymc]

Thank you to for all of your welcome notes and responses.

For the moment I guess I’ll stay with QFF - already booked next week’s short flight across the Tasman with them. Most of my travel is to Asia, so with MH and IT joining OW, the benefits become a little more apparent.

Still, for travel to Asia though, SQ does seem to have better schedules with more connections. As my infrequent domestic travel is with Virgin (company policy), I’m still intrigued as to whether I should look to use DJ or SQ FF for discount travel once the Virgin/Singapore agreement comes into effect. From my reading, attaining Gold status using DJ discount economy would take a little over 13 SYD/SIN travel sectors, whereas SQ requires just under 18 sectors. (Though QF requires just over 23 discount economy sectors).

<sigh> Will watch from the sidelines, for now and continue to accrue QF status to use for upgrades, when I can and hope for a relaxation of corporate cabin class rules in the future

[d3funct]

Hi, welcome