Aim: PER-EWR 94k pts in 2 yrs: Triple points 6/$1 on Optus over $30/mth QFF Connect?

[addyoni]

Anyone done the Qantas FFP with Optus? Get 6 points per dollar (triple points), as long as it's over $30 a month. Frequent Flyer - Member Specials - Connect - Optus Triple Points Offer valid 'til March 15th 2012, but must take up the Optus plan by end of February.

Considering a cell phone plan of $59.

Would prefer Telstra (not only as it's best coverage, but Australian company, why Qantas 'our' airline would be so stupid as to go with a foreign telcom corp like Singapore's SingTel isn't so much a surprise, but still! Can you imagine?! Aussie telcom & Aussie airline, oh the brand synergies!) but anyhow, if you're gonna give me 6 points per dollar, I'll grin & bare it with Optus. Wouldn't go with anyone else. Most networks use Optus lines anyways.

So am thinkin' of the Samsung Galaxy SII i9100. (To those that frequent or know the U.S.A well: Or would it be better to just get the GSM (T-Mobile etc) 4G ones in the U.S.? Samsung have hinted/said they're introducing a 3rd generation one in first half of 2012, so that'd mean by July, over 4 months away. Bet SIII has 4G and NFC to paywave like gold smartcard chip credit card.)

Total points earn is over 8496 for the $59 a month cap (over 24 months is $1416). Guess you could just send 4 extra text messages if you're on the $29 cap to make it to $30 spend - that's $720 for two years = 4320pts.

Paying with the Woolworths EveryDay Rewards Mastercard would get another 1416 points on top I think for double dip to 9912.

So is it worth it? Aiming within 2 years for PER-EWR which is over 94,000 or so FF points, and have around the 15k mark from credit card bonuses & one month spend. So if done = 25,000 and 69k to go! 34,500 points per year is doable. Especially after a 90 day PER-EWR flight billed on Amex Qantas for around the $1600 mark in May 'til August. Am thinking of doing the epiQure wine thingy $99 to join and >$200 per case for 4 times to get 8,000 bonus works out to be around 12 points per dollar if getting the cheapeast $18 per bottle wine I don't drink, so would just resell or give as gifts to those that do. So another 8,000 points would be 61k to go.

Was going to ask in a seperate thread about Amex Member's Rewards the $40 or $80 annual fee for two different programs that look identical. Would probably put around $10k a year through Amex. [I have started a spreadsheet for this to keep track and calculate best strategies! LOL And then buying points from U.S. airlines like AA (I just missed by one day ago the AAdvantage 48pts/US$ off 40k plus 15k bonus for $1130), but then again I'm new to this and uncertain as to whether you can transfer AA points to QFF:?: I've seen how some deal offers in America do 12 pts a dollar for things like flowers bought through the Delta shopping mall etc, so perhaps I could do some sort of charity bulk buy thingy like the famous Christmas pudding cakes to 1mn miles:!: Or perhaps I could just order everyones Valentine's Day flower purchases & you send me your funds - in PayPal or directly to bank ]

Ai! just re-read Qantas page and triple points only earned for this year. So perhaps I can prepay or credit the $708 2nd year of Optus contract on Monday December 31st 2012?

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: Aim: PER-EWR 94k pts in 2 yrs: Triple points 6/$1 on Optus over $30/mth QFF Conne

Hi there,

I don't know where you got 94K points for PER-EWR(NYC) but I am getting a minimum cost of 64,000 each way using QF points.

Personally, I'd buy a Samsung S2 outright (easily around the $500 mark if you shop around), then connect to a generic mobile plan such as Live Connected .... this will save around $500 over two years in total and probably get more call/data charges than Optus will give you.

I'd then go sign up for an American Express Edge Card and earn 25K points for signing up. You do pay $149 in annual fees but with this card you get a complimentary domestic return flight with Virgin Australia each year, and since you are in PER this is the best value as you can fly over to the Sydney, Melbourne where flights are generally no less than $400. So you are now already in front $251 each year

Now buy all of your (and family,friends etc) groceries, food, anything at major supermarkets and earn 3 points per $1. Then in the next 8 weeks, buy all of your petrol at BP and earn 6 points per $1. After that, look out for the next bonus Amex promotions which will assist in points hoarding - this will help alot.

Now you're asking why Amex Edge? Well you can transfer the points to Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer at 1:1. Ok, PER-SIN-JFK for a saver economy award is 55,000 less 15% = 46,750 one way.

So for just signing up to this card, you are $251 ahead, are more than 25% on your way to New York and back, and is $500 better off from buying the Samsung outright.

I am sure there are other suggestions but that's just what I would do if I was in your situation.

 

[casanovawa]

Re: Aim: PER-EWR 94k pts in 2 yrs: Triple points 6/$1 on Optus over $30/mth QFF Conne

Don't know about others because it is all very dependent on what you are going to be using your points for (economy awards, business class awards, business/first class upgrades, etc), but if thinking Qantas frequent flyer points rather than Krisflyer, for award flights i am usually very reluctant to spend more than 1 cent earning each QFF point as i redeem my points for economy class award seats....

So Alanlegal's estimation of 64,000 points each way from Perth sounds about right plus its going to cost about $800-1000 in fuel charges and airport taxes on top of that.... So to work out what you might be wanting to spend to gain each point you take the say $1000 taxes and charges figure away from what the cost would be just to purchase an actual ticket to NYC (say $2400 for instance, will vary by season/period your travelling) and that leaves you with say $1400 difference... Now divide the $1400 by the 128,000 QFF points that you will need to get there and your looking at a value of 1.09 cents per point when redeeming for this award (plus with a purchased ticket you actually get frequent flyer points and status credits which you don't get with a basic award seat)...

So now you have a benchmark to work out if your getting value when spending to get each point... Apart from free points for things like buying fuel and groceries on credit cards etc unless all the other points average out to less than 1.09 cents (say if some are cheaper and others more expensive but they average out) then you are probably spending too much and it would be cheaper to just buy the ticket outright...

So an offer where you get 12 points for spending $1 means each point is costing you 8 cents per point to then try and redeem them to get a value of 1.1 cents per dollar doesn't sound like great value to me??? I'd also think long and hard about spending lots more on a phone contract that you don't personally need just to earn the points (in your example the $59 contract is $1416/24 months compared to $29 cap=$720, this is a difference of $696 over 24 months which is 1/4 of the example cost of the ticket bought outright to earn 8496 points which is 1/15 of the points required or even an even smaller percentage when you take into account the lesser contract will still earn half the points)

Bit of a long explanation, but just trying to show you ways of working things out that I use.... Me personally i would be careful buying lots of stuff and paying over the odds just to get the points as it can quite easily end up costing more than buying the ticket outright without any of the benefits...

 

[addyoni]

Re: Aim: PER-EWR 94k pts in 2 yrs: Triple points 6/$1 on Optus over $30/mth QFF Conne

Ai had just written a reply to Alan and my laptop battery went long and goes into Standby but then resets when waking it up again.

Anyhow: Cool thanks. You're right, it's 64k or 128k return to NY from Perth.

Just looked into that Live Connect. Far out. That's 1/5th of Optus. Heaps better value actually. The Zen35 plan for $35 was ideal for me Plan Chooser Unlimited txt, social 3GB data (billed per KB!), tethering and $40 Intl calls is good for me. Now just gotta get the phone. Did see them online for $523 at ShoppingSquare, but they're not Oz ones, but shipped from Hong Kong.

Thanks CasanovaWA for reminding or enlightening me to the fact of the value of points. No wonder the 6pts Optus deal hasn't really been discussed on here (or search didn't show any results of it) as half of the AFF readers upon seeing the deal might have gone 'Meh!'.

I guess what I want to get out of the FF programs are value...don't we all? Perhaps being rewarded for 'loyalty'. But then the programs keep getting watered down with points inflation and the terms keep shifting and changing. Oh well, win some, lose some. I think the access to lounges is another main goal.

So I'll just funnel as much of the standard normal purchases and bill payments through the best cards. Wish I'd applied for the Amex Edge as I met the $65k income criteria. Will apply for it or ask to switch/upgrade.

Thanks for your advice.

So I take it that epiQure is another 'Meh!' deal? Just stick to buying the points in bulk for 2 or 3 cents a point right? Just missed out on those AA ones. After not going for the 10x gift voucher bonus (would have bought a $1000 credit to go towards the PER-EWR flight in May) in December 2011 I'm going to take action at next opportunity, now that I know to calculate the value cost of them & compare. Time for a run of good luck.

 

[casanovawa]

Re: Aim: PER-EWR 94k pts in 2 yrs: Triple points 6/$1 on Optus over $30/mth QFF Conne

Hey addyoni, no probs... Everyone is different on where they can get their points from... I can't put big lots of work expenses (either from my private sector employer or running my own business) through my personal credit cards as i work in govt, i can't accumulate lots of points from business class fares bought for me by work coz govt doesn't do that... So its either mainly from personal spend or bonus offers...

For me personally i look for opportunities to get points on everything i would have to spend money on anyway like groceris, fuel and so those points are basically free points (if i was with Optus those points would be good and certainly better than nothing but i am with vodafone at the moment, but i wouldn't up my spend to anything i didn't need at the rate they give them to you)... I am careful as soon as i think about spending more than i would have normally spent over and above my normal spend and I will usually only do that if the points earn will be close to 1 cent per point... Over that i rarely bother unless they are the last few points to get me to a target...

In my situation a lot of this point earning from groceries and fuel and paying rent etc is a nice little earner using a platinum amex that earns me 1.5 points per $1, but they are basically topping up points than getting large chunks of points... For me the biggest opportunity for earning cheap points in decent amounts have either come through credit card applications with bonus points or with taking out insurance through Onepath... So an ANZ set of cards for $95 for 20k points, another set of ANZ cards for $295 for 20k points, Woolworth card with $89 for 16k points, Onepath insurance $132 for 40k points and a few other deals, those are the ones when you can earn a decent chunk at a time...

All of those were roughly around 0.5 cents per QFF point so pretty good value accept for the $295 ANZ cards but they were a platinum duo which came with the higher earning Amex and also complimentary travel insurance which made them worth it... With my second year for those plat cards they gave them to me for almost no annual fee because i think of the amount of money i put through them...

I also don't use a direct Amex card and so go the Member Rewards points path but there are also strategies that people use with those which may be as good or better than what I do....

For buying business class flights with your own dollars i personally think US Air dividend miles is my program of choice but the AA miles also can be good...