We all paid the annual fee
I called them re the 60,000 points and was transferred through to Qantas...I called St George back and was transferred everywhere, finally I was able to speak to someone vaguely reasonable who said the points would be posted exactly 3 months after you make your first purchase, not 3 months after you receive or activate the card...and she gave me some numbers to call if necessary: call 1300 30 40 40, press option 1, then option 3. The other two numbers are 1300 489 586 and 1300 851 324. I havent called any of these numbers yet as I have to wait a bit longer for my 3 months to pass. Hope this helps.
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I'll be heading there a week after you, rooms in central Manhattan are indeed pricy! I had the same issues looking for a place that was within our budget, yet not beng dodgy for my family to get around.
From what I've read, I perceived your key criteria to be (in order of importance)
a) price is within budget
b) "strategic" location
c) safety
Some of the previous posts have mentioned very good tips which I've used myself. As a summary, I could recommend these places which may fit within your requirements:
Hilton Garden Inn New York Long Island City/Manhattan View from hilton.com
2 QUEEN BEDS,
Without getting into the airbnb debate we've chosen to go standard hotels for various reasons (2am arrival being one of them!). Hilton (AAA rate), SPG (AAA) and hotels.com were the websites that I used. Overall, I've found the Hotels.com iOS app an awesome tool to use, and here's how you can use it to search for other locations meeting your criteria (adjust accordingly if I got it wrong):
a) Enter New York as destination, dates (check in 24 Aug, check out 28 Aug) and 2 adults, and search
b) From the ginormous list, click on the "Sort and filter" button below. Here's where it gets interesting...
c) Click 3+ for "Guest rating" = no dodgy locations hopefully?
and Neighbourhoods = just tick off "Broadway - Times Square", "Central Park", "Madison Sq Garden", "Midtown West", "SoHo - TriBeCa" just to limit the search radius slightly
d) Click Done
e) Voila you now have "YOTEL New York at Times Square, AUD1250", "Staybridge Suites AUD1504" among others.
f) These are sorted by Best Sellers (good option to start from here), then you can sort by Price Low -> High and expand search accordingly.
Hope my simple tips are of use
Have you requested this be escalated to their Internal Disputes Resolution (IDR) team and made the threat you will be escalating to FOS. In my experience this gets amazing results in very short time!
A friend is having the same drama, was told the QFF points will be credited on the 5th month and that's after a dozen of phone calls! He was offered a significant discount on the annual fee.
After several calls and emails, and involving the FOS, got an apology, double the amount of points and full refund of annual fee. Persistence pays greatly.
Gave them a call over the weekend, and they said my points will be credited with my next statement (17 June). If not, "call again". I applied, got approved and made my first purchase in early Feb.
Will see what happens.