Advice needed: Velocity VS Amex Membership Rewards

[SRod]

(Not sure if this is the appropriate place in the forum so admins, feel free to move.)

Hi all, hoping you can give me some advice. To be upfront, my question boils down to whether I should continue to accrue Velocity points or change to accruing Amex Membership Rewards. So if you have some knowledge of these, details are below…

I currently have about 160k Velocity points and my primary card is a NAB-issued Velocity Amex that gets me 1.5 Velocity points per $1 spent. It’s free as part of my mortgage package.

A friend has referred me to the Amex-issued Platinum Edge with a free return domestic flight each year and no annual fee for the first year. He tells me there is a benefit of being able to transfer to a range of airlines and SPG (which gives me access to even more FF programs) especially when there is a transfer special but I’m wondering whether this flexibility will be worth the annual fee in subsequent years.

It’s worth noting that my wife, toddler son and I travel nearly every year to KL and Jakarta from Sydney (in a loop). While we are happy to fly to/from KL cheaply on AirAsia, only Qantas and Garuda offer direct flights to/from Jakarta so my Velocity points aren’t useful for this regular route. By the same token, I can’t transfer MR points to either Qantas or Garuda directly (although if I can somehow book through an alliance partner at good points value that would be a big reason to move to MR).

So now that you’re armed with possibly too many facts, what’s your opinion? Should I continue building points in Velocity or make the change to MR?

I think my decision boils down to this:
Good earn rate (1.5:1) on Velocity and no annual fee VS Flexibility and transfer specials with possibly lower earn rate (4/3/1 points per $1 depending on merchant) and an annual fee.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Reggie78]

Firstly, welcome aboard.

My advice is to put your points where their use will make sense - target them. If your loop goes SYD-KUL-CGK-SYD, there's a few different airlines to get you to KUL, Malaysia for one. MR points can be transfered to MH. MH likely will get you to Jakarta too. That leaves QF or Garuda to get you back to SYD. In this case, I would look at earning your AMEX MR points to transfer to Enrich, and you could probably get a codeshare on QF back to SYD. If that doesn't work, then go pure QF with a dedicated QF earning Card.

I personally am aiming for specific flights on SQ (Suites ), so my current strategy is AMEX Plat Edge and Citibank Signature Visa (fee-free-for-life), although I do have access to a St George Amplify Signature card too, but earns less than the Citibank card.

End result, put your points where they will be of most benefit to you.

 

[SRod]

Thanks, Reggie78.

I should add that I have a Citibank Signature Visa (fee-free) too which I use as a secondary card. I thought it wasn’t worth adding to the length of my original post since I plan to keep using it as a secondary (I don’t know of another free Visa or MC that has a better earn rate). Would be interested in how you use the two cards in your strategy since it would be the same two for me if I go for the Plat Edge.

My issue with QFF is the scarcity of award flights. Case in point, on my recent attempt to fly my wife from Jakarta to Sydney there was only availability on one day in a one-month window. When it comes to Velocity vs QFF, the former wins out because any seat can be had on points.

(I ended up burning 112k Citibank Reward points to book that flight via Citibank’s “Any Seat on Any Airline” redemption option. Not the best use of points (they were worth $765 of a $800 fare) when I could have instead transferred them for ~75k Velocity points which are more than I need for an economy flight to LA on Virgin. But I figured I should use the points on a flight that was definitely needed instead of one that is just a plan in my head.)

Maybe I should just resign myself to paying for these trips to Asia and save up points for that "someday" trip to the States. That still begs the question of Amex MR vs Velocity though...

 

[Reggie78]

I'd still say MR. More choice of airlines. And in saying that, when using points I always plan the full year out. You do this, you increase your chances of landing the seats massively. If you can't, you just have to get what you can.

And, if you're using your points for Y class redemption's, I'd suggest this is not an economical use of your points. But if you are only earning points to alleviate the dollar cost of seats, then you're fine.

 

[SRod]

So if faced with the question of accruing points for non-supermarket/petrol spending, you would still choose to earn MR points at the 1:1 rate rather than Velocity points at 1.5:1?

What's Y class?

And what's the alternative to alleviating the dollar cost? Is it to travel in a premium class?

 

[Reggie78]

People earn points to burn in their own way - I earn purely for Premium cabins. You need to work out the cents per mile benefit of the fare you are buying with points. (you can learn about this throughout the forum)

To earn an MR point at 1:1 or a VA point at 1.5:1 depends on which points you value more, or which you are intending to use. This is purely your decision.

In saying this, I would highly advise you to do a little more research on this forum. It is full of lots and lots of information posted by very knowledgeable and savvy people. It helped me in a number of ways, as it will help you i'm sure.

 

[robd]

Also note that Velocity points can now be transferred to Singapore Airlines and vv.

 

[andye]

(Not sure if this is the appropriate place in the forum so admins, feel free to move.)

Hi all, hoping you can give me some advice. To be upfront, my question boils down to whether I should continue to accrue Velocity points or change to accruing Amex Membership Rewards. So if you have some knowledge of these, details are below…

I currently have about 160k Velocity points and my primary card is a NAB-issued Velocity Amex that gets me 1.5 Velocity points per $1 spent. It’s free as part of my mortgage package.

A friend has referred me to the Amex-issued Platinum Edge with a free return domestic flight each year and no annual fee for the first year. He tells me there is a benefit of being able to transfer to a range of airlines and SPG (which gives me access to even more FF programs) especially when there is a transfer special but I’m wondering whether this flexibility will be worth the annual fee in subsequent years.

It’s worth noting that my wife, toddler son and I travel nearly every year to KL and Jakarta from Sydney (in a loop). While we are happy to fly to/from KL cheaply on AirAsia, only Qantas and Garuda offer direct flights to/from Jakarta so my Velocity points aren’t useful for this regular route. By the same token, I can’t transfer MR points to either Qantas or Garuda directly (although if I can somehow book through an alliance partner at good points value that would be a big reason to move to MR).

So now that you’re armed with possibly too many facts, what’s your opinion? Should I continue building points in Velocity or make the change to MR?

I think my decision boils down to this:
Good earn rate (1.5:1) on Velocity and no annual fee VS Flexibility and transfer specials with possibly lower earn rate (4/3/1 points per $1 depending on merchant) and an annual fee.

Thanks in advance!

I would be very tempted to keep them both.

1. The NAB card is free so use it in circumstances where the Amex Edge earns significantly less (eg utilities & insurances (via paypal if they take that but not Amex directly)
2. Although the Platinum Edge has a fee, there are frequently cashback offers (statement credits) on spend that (in my experience more than) offset the fee even before you take into account the free flight
2. Use the Edge at supermarkets (and buy giftcards there for some other shopping including petrol) to earn 3 points/$
3. For other Amex spend it's trickier-the flexibilty of the Edge is a significant advantage over the Velocity card in your situation. For example: Malaysia airlines (although they have just had a major devaluation) often have sales where the points needed to redeem is reduced significantly. With Velocity you have very limited routing (Singapore, Bali) options
4. Even if you wanted to stick with Velocity points they frequently have a transfer bonus so even if you transferred your MR points over to Velocity you could still effectively be getting 1.1 to 1.2 per/$

As far as I know there is no way of transferring points to Garuda via SPG. However, Garuda is in an Alliance called Skyteam; many of the airlines in Skyteam are SPG partners but I have very little idea how their schemes work and where the best value is-I'm sure there are some posts on here (and elsewhere) that could point you in the right direction. (I have heard Aeromexico allow you to pool family points). Etihad is also a Garuda partner.

The other thing to think about is changing from the NAB Velocity to the NAB Qantas card (which would still be free with your account). Howver, taxes on Qantas are high so most people find you don't get great value with Economy (Y) redemption