Help - wanting to maximise points, amex/visa/gold qff

[ValueForMoney]

Hi all,

Enjoying a wait in SYD thanks to industrial action so thought I would put the time to good use.

I have an ANZ Qantas Visa (directly linked to QFF), AMEX Qantas Ultimate and an AMEX platinum card. Am a Qantas gold FF (majority of flights are short haul). Was wanting some advice on who is the best card provider? Should I stick with Qantas locked into their rewards program?

Doing some research on first class flight redemptions to the UK (where I use my points to travel), the following has come up:

Qantas Economy 128,000 points
First 384,000 points

Air NZ relates to how cheap the fare is at any given time to hard to judge

Singapore Economy 95,000 points
First 410,000 points

Cathay Pacific - couldn't find details

Malaysia Economy 100,000 points (but 4 membership rewards points = 3 Enrich points)
First 200,000 points

Virgin Altantic Economy 105,000 points
First 180,000 points

Thai Economy 90,000 (but 4 membership rewards points = 3 Enrich points)
First 230,000

Does this mean that Virgin is the best option? It looks as if it takes the only a few more points in Virgin upper as it does in Qantas economy?

Should I then stay with Amex instead of locking in with QFF? I have around 200,000 points sitting in QFF at the moment.

Any help would be gratefully received!

Also, does anyone know of any great bonus points deals?

Cheers,

 

[futaris]

Cathay Pacific - couldn't find details

Asia Miles - Redeem Miles>Flight Award Finder

SYD-HKG-LHR return on Cathay in Economy is:
110k CX Asia Miles

4 MR = 3 CX Asia Miles

147k MR

You may find that CX Oneworld awards are slightly cheaper than QF Oneworld awards, particularly in Business or First.

 

[JohnK]

Does this mean that Virgin is the best option? It looks as if it takes the only a few more points in Virgin upper as it does in Qantas economy?

I don't quite understand why people continue to praise VS Flying Club! I have been crediting all my car hire into this FF program and have been looking at award availability SYD-HKG return in Feb 2010. Guess what? No availability but there is plenty of availability of miles + pay where you earn no miles, lose 2,000 miles and save ~$60 off the airfare. The taxes and surcharges appear to be quite high as well.

Who knows maybe one day I will be able to find the availability I want.