Pollies Lose their Flight Perks

[serfty]

MPs' wings clipped in frequent flyer overhaul | Herald Sun

FEDERAL MPs and their staff will no longer earn frequent flyer points for taxpayer-funded flights, under a plan to slash $160 million from their travel budget.

Politicians received about 31 million frequent flyer points last year, but only 26 of the 226 MPs used points to buy work-related flights.

Meh ... big deal - what's 31M QFF points really worth? If you ask Qantas, around $300K, if you ask me, then around $700K.

It's a tiddler drop in the ocean when you consider the size of planned savings, let alone the government's total budget.

(Note the $160M figure mentioned relates to total estimated savings over 4 years due to revised travel policies - the Frequent Flyer part is rather insignificant.)

 

[Dee Thom]

The sooner they are gone the better we will be.
ejb

Have you noticed how our "Fearless Leader", K.R, has perfected being a Gunna ?
He's Gunna do this and Gunna do that, but to date has completed nothing positive, only costly negatives.................

Cheers Dee

 

[ejb]

Have you noticed how our "Fearless Leader", K.R, has perfected being a Gunna ?
He's Gunna do this and Gunna do that, but to date has completed nothing positive, only costly negatives.................

Cheers Dee

Although he is from QLD he is playing from the NSW Labor book.

Anounce lots, do little, reannounce a bigger plan, do nothing then go to the electorate with big plans for next term.

NBN was to be 4B, couldn't work it out reannounce $40B+. Now it needs Telstra to roll over and play dead for it to work and KRudd is trying to blame Telstra for blocking the path.

He has no real world experience and as such brings nothing to the top job.

ejb

 

[markis10]

I am impressed that 26 of them used the points for work!

 

[ejb]

I am impressed that 26 of them used the points for work!

The list would be interesting

ejb

 

[significance]

I work for a govt agency and I hope this doesn't flow on to us. We accumulate points, but we're required to use them for work. I usually save them for upgrades from Y to J on international flights. That saves me a day of recovery time at the other end, and saves my employer a day's salary and travel expenses. Nonetheless, there is no way they'd be willing to pay J fares outright.

 

[Smackbum]

Although he is from QLD he is playing from the NSW Labor book.

Anounce lots, do little, reannounce a bigger plan, do nothing then go to the electorate with big plans for next term.

NBN was to be 4B, couldn't work it out reannounce $40B+. Now it needs Telstra to roll over and play dead for it to work and KRudd is trying to blame Telstra for blocking the path.

He has no real world experience and as such brings nothing to the top job.

ejb

Time to write your column for the SMH, Miranda, and leave this thread on topic.

Most politicians can (and subsequently do) earn a lot more money outside politics. They are either in it for the good of the common people or are megalomaniacs .... probably a mixture of both in varying degrees. They also work very hard - even the really, really bad ones who still believe that a greed-based society is the best model.

I would not begrudge any of them some payback for putting up with the public, lobbyists, PR hacks, spin-doctors, journalists, etc. etc. in their quest to make Australia a better place to live. Of course I would like to have better politicians but democracy is a flawed model, so if the anti-christ manages to avoid being exposed and rides to victory on his horse of hypocracy then good on him. If George W can do it then why can't Tony A.

Of course I'd rather he took his FF points and went away.

 

[JohnK]

Meh ... big deal - what's 31M QFF points really worth? If you ask Qantas, around $30K, if you ask me, then around $70K.

Have you forgotten to put an extra 0 on the end? Surely 30,000,000 QFF points would be worth at least $300,000.

It's a tiddler drop in the ocean when you consider the size of the government's total budget.

Still only a drop in the ocean though unless they change their policies.

 

[serfty]

Oops ...

I've edited that post.

Meh ... big deal - what's 31M QFF points really worth? If you ask Qantas, around $300K, if you ask me, then around $700K.

It's a tiddler drop in the ocean when you consider the size of planned savings, let alone the government's total budget.

(Note the $160M figure mentioned relates to total estimated savings over 4 years due to revised travel policies - the Frequent Flyer part is rather insignificant.)

Still, yes, all this who-ha about pollies losing FF points is something representing less than 1% of the total expected saving.

 

[ejb]

Oops ...

I've edited that post.Still, yes, all this who-ha about pollies losing FF points is something representing less than 1% of the total expected saving.

It has a lot to do with the old "not to be seen rorting the system".

In all reality dropping all but the very top people to Y would save millions more but cause a lot more pain so the dropping of FF points is the govt way of spinning a good news story in a year of bad stories.

ejb

 

[drron]

I read a comment on US politicians today which I liked.So have just inserted the word Canberra,
"Politicians go to Canberra to do good............and they are doing very well."

 

[cove]

Right now I think that politicians could do with talking with economy class passengers so that they could get a dose of reality.
They spent it...and they could help us start pulling back the debt to zero.

 

[anchew]

I work for a govt agency and I hope this doesn't flow on to us. We accumulate points, but we're required to use them for work. I usually save them for upgrades from Y to J on international flights. That saves me a day of recovery time at the other end, and saves my employer a day's salary and travel expenses. Nonetheless, there is no way they'd be willing to pay J fares outright.

Y for international work related travel? What gov agency do you work for with such poor conditions? For international trips, we are entitled to J plus 24 hours rest for recovery - it's part of our basic CA conditions. If you work for a C'wealth agency, you're workers are really getting ripped off. Most C'weath agencies I know have similar basic travel conditions.

 

[medhead]

NBN was to be 4B, couldn't work it out reannounce $40B+. Now it needs Telstra to roll over and play dead for it to work

ejb

I guess you missed the news in the last week the numbers are in and Telstra is not needed

 

[drron]

I guess you missed the news in the last week the numbers are in and Telstra is not needed

If you believe the committe that was paid millions to come up with that conclusion.
First rule of politics-if you have an enquiry first pick your committee,judge,consultant.

 

[Princess Fiona]

especially now the FF points have gone or at least proposed to be gone......[/QUOTE]
Couldn't have put it better myself. Personally I suspect the pollies will do what every other public employee does who is not supposed to claim FF points : use the booking reference number provided by Government appointed travel agent and add their frequent flyer number via manage my booking on QF website.

 

[ejb]

... Personally I suspect the pollies will do what every other public employee does who is not supposed to claim FF points : use the booking reference number provided by Government appointed travel agent and add their frequent flyer number via manage my booking on QF website.

and risk everything for FF points, I don't think so.

ejb

 

[ejb]

I guess you missed the news in the last week the numbers are in and Telstra is not needed

If you believe that rubbish I have a great bridge for sale, going cheap.

It is just a ploy to save face.

NBN v's Telstra in broadband war=Telstra win.

VividWireless is getting faster speeds than the NBN in Perth currently for less money so imagine what it will be like in 5 years when the NBN is ready, the govt is building yesterdays network with tomorrows money.

ejb

 

[Danger]

Firstly, I don't think it's been stated outright but is it safe to assume MPs' staffers also won't earn FF points?

Secondly, I find the last paragraph of this article Politicians refuse to use frequent flyer points for official travel | Herald Sun interesting:

"And despite having accrued more than 46,500 frequent flyer points, Mr Howard slugged taxpayers more than $15,600 in domestic air fares."
​

We all now 46k frequent flyer points is next to nothing when it comes to redeeming. It's not even three return trips SYD/MEL - in Y!

Numbers aren't my strong point but a quick calculation of the 17 million frequent flyer points over 226 members is an average of 75k FF points each. That's barely enough for a return J flight SYD/MEL/CBR-PER. Say the monetary cost of the fare is $3500 then multiply that by 226 and you get less than $800k. Hardly a substantial saving.

I understand the savings are being generated from negotiated rates, I'm merely adding a view on just how 'tight' the pollies are being by not using their points.

 

[drron]

Firstly, I don't think it's been stated outright but is it safe to assume MPs' staffers also won't earn FF points?

Secondly, I find the last paragraph of this article Politicians refuse to use frequent flyer points for official travel | Herald Sun interesting:

"And despite having accrued more than 46,500 frequent flyer points, Mr Howard slugged taxpayers more than $15,600 in domestic air fares."
​

We all now 46k frequent flyer points is next to nothing when it comes to redeeming. It's not even three return trips SYD/MEL - in Y!

Numbers aren't my strong point but a quick calculation of the 17 million frequent flyer points over 226 members is an average of 75k FF points each. That's barely enough for a return J flight SYD/MEL/CBR-PER. Say the monetary cost of the fare is $3500 then multiply that by 226 and you get less than $800k. Hardly a substantial saving.

I understand the savings are being generated from negotiated rates, I'm merely adding a view on just how 'tight' the pollies are being by not using their points.

The savings from not accruing FF points are obviously a very tiny part of the projected $40 million per year savings on travel.Most I would think will be from savings on PS service.The Pollies FF hit though makes the obvious headline for its political spin.