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In January I flew MEL-SIN-MAN-IAH in Business. About 32 hours in the air, and as far as I could tell we had 32 hours of normal (excellent) service.

... as I acknowledged in Post #23 above. In fact, I would say that in all my years of playing the points game, the AmEx devaluation was far and away the worst thing that has ever happened as far as points and points programmes are concerned. Every setback that has happened since then has been a...

But if the points per dollar earned is higher, it all comes out in the wash. Take the example of AmEx Membership Rewards points. Yes, generally the transfer ratio is 2:1 for most programmes including Velocity and Qatar. This ratio is not "very poor" if you consider that with my AmEx Platinum...

I’ve been seriously in the points game since about 2016 and in my opinion the three most significant setbacks that have happened in that time, probably in this order, have been the following: The massive AmEx MR devaluation in 2019, where they went from 1 MR point per FF point to 2 MR points...

I'm intrigued. I've known about the advantages of AA (no pun intended!) for a while but I've never really known how to accumulate AA points easily. What strategies do you use for accumulating AA points?

It's hard (especially if you're looking to travel in the peak northern Summer, June-Sept), but having access to Avios makes it a whole lot easier. Case in point: I'm looking to book MEL-IST. 360 days out, Qatar has plenty of availability to Privilege Club members using Avios: But if I try...

My points strategy changes continually, but this is it at the moment: Accumulate Qantas points for Australian domestic and trans-Tasman travel and for travel overseas between origin and destination cities that are not in Australia (via Oneworld and Qantas' other partner airlines). Accumulate...

I think I would change that sentence to "...the days of FF seats in the pointy end using Qantas or Velocity points are just about gone", especially when it comes to booking 11 months out. There's plenty of availability still via Asia Miles, Qatar Avios, KrisFlyer etc. One thing hasn't changed...

It really is a dilemma when flying out of IST … do you fill yourself up with some of the delicious food in the Lounge, or hold off until the flight? I do have one question relating to the fact that I’m intending to book a Turkish Airlines flight from IST to CDG (about a 3-hour flight). The...

Isn’t it simple economics to state that that’s what’s beneficial for Australian travellers? More seats out of Oz = downward pressure on prices (ie. prices either go down or they don’t go up by as much as otherwise would have been the case)?

I fly MEL-SYD return every 4 weeks and almost always book during the Happy Hour sales. More often than not the Lite fare is reduced to $99 and the Choice fare to $119 (every now and then it's $89/$109) -- about $20 to $30 cheaper each way than during non-sales. But the only route I generally...

Huge thick doonas in warm climates, and air-conditioners that don't make the room cool enough to sleep under the doona.

Looks perfectly good to me. I know from experience that April is a great time to visit Europe: the weather is warming up, daylight saving has started so sunset is 8pm-ish, and it’s not yet peak season so the crowds are manageable. Also, because it’s not yet peak (Summer) season, reward flights...

... and no doubt discovering that I don't necessarily have a skill for brevity and succinctness in my writing! Hope you can make it all the way through to the plot twists at the end!

Welcome to AFF! The abbreviations used on AFF can be confusing! PE=Premium Economy J = Business The article below might help: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/aff-abbreviations/

Finding reward seats on two flights is not necessarily twice as difficult as finding reward seats on one flight. Airlines have something called "married segments" which means that at times they will reserve reward seats for people flying a certain route. So, for example, if you don't find PE...

Well, there’s nothing stopping you from flying to Singapore in PE if you can find availability (and/or pay).

Interesting dilemma! Of course, the soccer World Cup is a huge event and there's no guarantee that airlines will make reward seats available at that time (witness what happened with reward seats into Europe for the Paris Olympics last year). But here's hoping. A complicating factor is that you...

That's a shame. My wife and I did an Avalon Waterways cruise in 2023 which we just happened to book during a 4x points promotion -- we ended up getting something like 30,000 Qantas points each. We have another cruise booked for next year so at least we'll be getting some points for that.

You are absolutely correct in saying that if the flights are more expensive via AmEx, you should not book them via AmEx! When I've used my travel credits to book flights, I've generally used them for Virgin Australia domestic flights, for which there is no mark-up (in fact via the Platinum card...