AFF on Air Discussion thread

[sudoer]

As someone who follows loyalty program tweaks/changes/promos a little too obsessively and finds their mechanics fascinating, I really enjoyed the recent episode with David Feldman.

I agree with the comments at the end of the show about Velocity starting to look more appealing - once they have the QR and NH partnerships (if it ever happens?) established they'll offer decent partner coverage of Europe, North & South Asia, and North America. As long as they ramp up frequencies of their own metal to NZ/South Pacific in due course, they would have most major business destinations covered. It might even be enough for jaded QFF Golds to consider switching to VA - the type who are sick of the abysmal call centre experience (both hold times and incompetent off-shore staff), the removal of lounge service desks, the struggle to find decent QF J awards at 353 days, and the published but undelivered benefits like priority boarding/baggage.

For most travel patterns VA Plat is about as easy to attain/retain as QF Gold, in some cases easier with family pooling. Fly Ahead and Economy X are quite attractive benefits, they really just need to make the international partner lounge entitlements clearer/more consistent, and bring in some form of lifetime status. If your usual QF SC earn was around the 650-700 mark each year I think it would then be quite easy to justify a switch to VA.

IMO the most interesting QFF value proposition is a combination of WP & Points Club Plus. A 100 SC head start each year, combined with QF classic award requests on which you can earn SC (and even DSC) makes retaining WP quite a bit easier. PC+ means churning 2-3 cards annually for most people and results in accruing quite a few QFF points, but if you have confidence that you can burn them on the routes/dates you want AND they count towards your WP retain target I think it would appeal to a 650-700 SC per year flyer as a stretch goal.

 

[Townsend]

What a great trip it sounds you are having Matt. Hope it is as good as it sounds!

 

[AFF Editor]

What a great trip it sounds you are having Matt. Hope it is as good as it sounds!

It's been the most fun I've had in two years!

 

[blueys]

G'day, it's Matt here. I hope you've been enjoying our new AFF on Air podcast! It's free to tune in, and a new episode will be released each fortnight.

This thread is where you can discuss anything from an episode of the podcast. In this thread you can also ask any travel-related question that you would like me to answer or talk about in a future episode of the podcast!

Hi Matt, just listened to your podcast re Round the world flight a , can you advise me where I am best to book these flights please as during the podcast it was mentioned these are complicated bookings so best to use a travel agent . TIA Jay

 

[levelnine]

Hi Matt, just listened to your podcast re Round the world flight a , can you advise me where I am best to book these flights please as during the podcast it was mentioned these are complicated bookings so best to use a travel agent . TIA Jay

Try the travel agent Matt interviewed on the podcast, Alan Lam. His email is alan[at]netwavetravel[dot]com.

The last two great podcasts have been great. Thanks for both of them.

 

[MJHoops]

As someone who follows loyalty program tweaks/changes/promos a little too obsessively and finds their mechanics fascinating, I really enjoyed the recent episode with David Feldman.

I agree with the comments at the end of the show about Velocity starting to look more appealing - once they have the QR and NH partnerships (if it ever happens?) established they'll offer decent partner coverage of Europe, North & South Asia, and North America. As long as they ramp up frequencies of their own metal to NZ/South Pacific in due course, they would have most major business destinations covered. It might even be enough for jaded QFF Golds to consider switching to VA - the type who are sick of the abysmal call centre experience (both hold times and incompetent off-shore staff), the removal of lounge service desks, the struggle to find decent QF J awards at 353 days, and the published but undelivered benefits like priority boarding/baggage.

For most travel patterns VA Plat is about as easy to attain/retain as QF Gold, in some cases easier with family pooling. Fly Ahead and Economy X are quite attractive benefits, they really just need to make the international partner lounge entitlements clearer/more consistent, and bring in some form of lifetime status. If your usual QF SC earn was around the 650-700 mark each year I think it would then be quite easy to justify a switch to VA.

IMO the most interesting QFF value proposition is a combination of WP & Points Club Plus. A 100 SC head start each year, combined with QF classic award requests on which you can earn SC (and even DSC) makes retaining WP quite a bit easier. PC+ means churning 2-3 cards annually for most people and results in accruing quite a few QFF points, but if you have confidence that you can burn them on the routes/dates you want AND they count towards your WP retain target I think it would appeal to a 650-700 SC per year flyer as a stretch goal.

Great thoughts
Most of my travel is leisure and I have a wife and 2 kids - so the family pooling of SC means Velocity is a no brainer for us.

Plus we get economy x so little ones can sit / move around in front of us in row 3, and various combos of us / kids are always up and down out of seats

Currently my wife is also a companion platinum as I did a year with lots of business travel added in 2019

Lounges are comparable in my view

Virgin catering in economy is basically nothing but you can stock up in the lounge and it’s only if flying more than 2 hours I feel the need for food

The redemption situation for long haul business seems bleak across both programs at present (!) I have flown etihad to Europe in business (2 seats only then) using velocity points in 2016 which was great. Qatar partnership a very intriguing development for me. Doubt I’ll ever get the 4 seats we need as a family anywhere in business moving forward and that’s not unreasonable in my view (we do have 4 domestic business seats on VA MEL-BNE-TSV for free under a promo for platinums which I find hilarious we will have half the cabin with our 5 and 2 yo in tow)

The call centre is a big problem with Qantas even as a gold according to AFF forums (I’m just a lowly bronze). As platinum virgin I get fast, knowledgeable, excellent service (recently they let me get off the phone while they did all the computer work across 3 bookings and of course it actually ticketed and no need to call back!)

Lastly, a potential combo strategy - I accidentally got points club with Qantas because I switched a commbank credit card to QFF points and all the accumulated commbank points were converted into QFF on switching. This got me enough for points club with lounge access

So that’s an interesting combo - you can basically have platinum with VA and also do a credit card churn to get points club for lounge access with QF

For me I can’t be bothered churning cards, but it’s a little bonus til next year to have lounge access when I finally use that QF travel credit I have…

 

[kpc]

Loved the insights from Aaron Wong of Milelion on all things Sq on the latest podcast....he is very knowledgeable about all things about the KrisFlyer program and you will learn alot reading his website!

 

[mel-world]

Loved the insights from Aaron Wong of Milelion on all things Sq on the latest podcast....he is very knowledgeable about all things about the KrisFlyer program and you will learn alot reading his website!

I agree; for an SQ regular, at least before COVID, I really enjoyed this episode with insights about the recent changes to the KF program. I'll definitely take a look at Aaron's website.

 

[suze2000]

I have only just started listening to the pod (hard to believe, I'm such a podcast tragic), but I'm finding it so informative and helpful. I AM surprised at the lack of advertising on it though - I would have thought a couple at the start and finish would be a no-brainer. Not that I'm complaining, it's great to have at least one ad-free pod in my lineup.

 

[James Gatenby]

I enjoyed podcast 89, in particular about Air Canada/Aeroplan. Prior to the podcast, I bought Aeroplan points during their recent 100% bonus and redeemed for flights SYD-MAD and BCN-SYD in 2023 flying Etihad via AUH. I tried to arrange a stopover in AUH on the return leg but was disappointed (and surprised) to find that not all flights are eligible for the 5000 point stopover that has been highlighted on various media lately (including AFF). It seems that BCN-SYD was not eligible and the only explanation I was able to get from the Aeroplan contact centre operator was that their system would not allow. Has anyone had similar experience? Apart from this hiccup, it was a very cost effective way to buy bus class seats to Europe.

 

[AFF Editor]

I enjoyed podcast 89, in particular about Air Canada/Aeroplan. Prior to the podcast, I bought Aeroplan points during their recent 100% bonus and redeemed for flights SYD-MAD and BCN-SYD in 2023 flying Etihad via AUH. I tried to arrange a stopover in AUH on the return leg but was disappointed (and surprised) to find that not all flights are eligible for the 5000 point stopover that has been highlighted on various media lately (including AFF). It seems that BCN-SYD was not eligible and the only explanation I was able to get from the Aeroplan contact centre operator was that their system would not allow. Has anyone had similar experience? Apart from this hiccup, it was a very cost effective way to buy bus class seats to Europe.

Glad you enjoyed the podcast and thanks for the question. I'll talk about this in the next episode.

 

[Charger73]

Hey @Mattg,

LOVE the podcast mate! Thanks for consistently putting out quality, actionable, and timely content every fortnight.

One request on my end (from a Podcast tragic) - can you please submit the Podcast to Overcast for inclusion on their platform, as it doesn't show up anywhere on there.

Cheers, and keep up the great work!

 

[kpc]

Given Point Hacks is now the owner of AFF, I think I can post this here
Great discussion / podcast between Matt Graham (AFF) and Chris Chamberlin (Point Hacks) and Brandon Loo (Point Hacks) re searching for award flights.

Our new Points of View podcast is now live!

Subscribe to Points of View, our podcast series that features discussions with some of Australia's top points collectors and road warriors.

www.pointhacks.com.au

 

[levelnine]

Given Point Hacks is now the owner of AFF, I think I can post this here

When did this happen?

Agree it was a great podcast episode. Thanks to all presenters for their tips and tricks.

 

[kpc]

When did this happen?

Australian FF - Important Announcement

I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about this post, what I’m going to say, the tone etc. But then I realised that what I'm about to announce isn't actually that important to anyone other than myself, so I'll keep it brief and tell it as it is. After 24 years, I’m finally hanging up my AFF hat...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Chief Wiggum]

Given Point Hacks is now the owner of AFF, I think I can post this here
Great discussion / podcast between Matt Graham (AFF) and Chris Chamberlin (Point Hacks) and Brandon Loo (Point Hacks) re searching for award flights.

Our new Points of View podcast is now live!

Subscribe to Points of View, our podcast series that features discussions with some of Australia's top points collectors and road warriors.

www.pointhacks.com.au

Wait… whaaaaat ??? Who bought who now. Interesting. Keen to find out more in due course. It was a great listen though on the Points Hacks podcast with Matt as guest.

 

[AFF Editor]

Hey @Mattg,

LOVE the podcast mate! Thanks for consistently putting out quality, actionable, and timely content every fortnight.

One request on my end (from a Podcast tragic) - can you please submit the Podcast to Overcast for inclusion on their platform, as it doesn't show up anywhere on there.

Cheers, and keep up the great work!

Thanks @Charger73.

I personally don't have any control over the podcast distribution, but we did look at getting the podcast onto Overcast a little while ago as this has been requested a few times. I honestly don't know why it doesn't appear on there (and can't seem to be manually added) as we've done all the necessary steps on our end.

I'll ask someone to have another look, though.

 

[Goodo]

Recently discovered this podcast and was interesting timing as i've just booked a KF RTW award in Business a few months back. Took me about 3 weeks to get it ticketed which was frustrating but obviously this was due to the announced increases for award levels.

Having decided to travel on a bit of a whim, i planned the whole trip out on SIA's website based on availability and figured it'd be fairly simple to book. Trying to get through to someone, you call through and even if you press the buttons i want to book an award, you get put through to a regular agent, and you say you'll hold for a Krisflyer agent and you do for at least 30 mins. You think once booked we're good to go, but obviously the RTW desk needs to review and approve and ticket. They said it'd take 72 hours and even though i was calling every 3-4 days to follow up, it took them about 3 weeks to actually review and ticket which meant legs that were confirmed on partners were dropping due to not meeting ticketing time limit.

A few learnings from my end were:

1. Availability online vs what the agent on the phone can see can differ. If they can't see it, they can't book it, even if it shows available online. On the flip side a segment which showed nothing available online (LAX-NRT) they were able to confirm for me.
2. Not everyone knows the rules of RTW awards, even award agents. It was only the last agent I spoke to after about 2.5 weeks of following up, who looked at my routing and said I was breaking some rules so we had to do a large reroute - this would've been helpful to know from the start.
3. Compared to the guest who was on the podcast who booked multiple legs via VIE, I had something similar via FRA but was told even if just transiting I couldn't transit more than once so reworked some flights through other European cities to make it work.
4. Practically nothing available out of SYD or MEL which seems to be a common thread, had to position out of BNE. I was able to find one leg out of MEL but was told I have to depart and arrive into the same city.

I think that covers it, will slowly make my way through the older episodes.
G

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to posting on AFF @Goodo

 

[AFF Editor]

Practically nothing available out of SYD or MEL which seems to be a common thread, had to position out of BNE. I was able to find one leg out of MEL but was told I have to depart and arrive into the same city.

Just on this last point - it specifically says in section J.3 of the KrisFlyer terms and conditions (my bolding):

Additional conditions for Star Alliance Round the World Awards

1. Normal Star Alliance Award travel restrictions apply.
2. You must travel in a continuous eastbound or westbound direction, beginning and ending in the same country. You must make only one crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and only one crossing of the Pacific Ocean. You are allowed an origin open-jaw in the same country.
3. Your total travel distance must not exceed 35,000 miles. You are allowed a maximum of 16 segments in your itinerary.
4. You may include a maximum of seven complimentary stopovers in your itinerary. The same stopover restrictions for Star Alliance Awards apply for Round The World Awards. In addition, you may stopover only once in each city and no more than twice in any one country. You may not purchase additional stopovers. Surface sectors are permitted but count as stopovers.

It's unfortunate when the people you're forced to talk to in order to book one of these awards are not familiar with their own rules. Not much you can do about it though, other than refer them to their own T&Cs (which I have occasionally had to do in the past).

Nonetheless, now that you've done the hard work I'm sure you'll have a good trip