Any advice for choosing a frequent flyer account.

[Gareth Dorey]

Hi all, first post and was after some advice.

Have recently started to look around at joining a frequent flyer program, my questions are which program will be best. For my circumstances.

As a family of five we are planning one overseas trip per year and maybe an occasional trip to QLD to see family. Velocity offers a Family pooling option which allows up to six members of a household to earn points for the main card holder including status credits possibly allowing to get to silver or gold and being able to maintain each year.

Am I better off in the velocity program and be able to pool status credits which would allow bonus points?

Most of my points would come from normal household spending, shopping, petrol bills etc.

1. Qantas – Which would be the best CC for this purpose? Thinking Woolworths Qantas Card with Everyday rewards attached.

1. Velocity – Which would be the best CC for this purpose? Thinking AMEX Edge card.

Sorry for the long winded question, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nlagalle]

Welcome Gareth!

certainly pooling points and status credits would help you there, but overall program would also depend on where you want to fly to.

for Virgin earning, look at the Virgin credit card. You get 4 x 2for1 per year. Plus it's 1:1

 

[yo yo ma]

As a family of five we are planning one overseas trip per year and maybe an occasional trip to QLD to see family.

Welcome Gareth... I also have a family of 5 and we take one overseas holidays a year.

For most purchases I use the QF AMEX card through Commbank which earns 1.5 points/$... I am going to add the David Jones Amex next week which earns 2.25 points/$ at major supermarkets and petrol stations. Where Amex is not accepted or there is a surcharge, I have a Jetstar MasterCard which earns 1:1. Other options which also earn 1:1 with QF are the HSBC Visa or the Woolworths everyday MasterCard, as you mentioned.

The best program would be the one which flies the routes where you wish to travel overseas. Both are good, so select one and start accumulating the points!

All the best with it.

 

[Limewood]

ANZ have an AMEX card get 1.5 QFF points per $1 spent. Look out for FF CC offers of many thousands of points to sign up.

 

[simongr]

If you are only going to do one trip overseas per year then the benefits of status are probably not worth worrying about - you should focus on the bang for your buck in terms of earning/burning points. However unless your CC spend is significant then the whole points earning thing might be a furfee. Say you flew annually to LAX - about 7,000 miles. If you flew that on QF you wold earn about 14K for the trip or 70K for the family - about one return in economy to HKG - so every five years you could go to HKG as a family. Then you probably don't plan to fly to LAX every year but to make sure you earn QF points to top up the QF account you have to fly to NRT, HKG, SIN, DXB (next year) or LHR - if you go somewhere else even if it is a oneworld carrier the points you earn could be zero or as low as 25% of what you would earn flying on QF due to discount economy flights.

If you fly with whoever you want and look for the best deal then you might save enough to guarantee that "free" family holiday more frequently than once every five years.

 

[Gareth Dorey]

Think I may go with Qantas FF, may also look at the David Jones AMEX - ($200 shop at Woolworths and swipe the EDRS card could net 620 points) would that be correct? (new to all this point chasing) Same with petrol and using the 2 points per litre point instead of the 4c per litre voucher.

Or am I better off all together about not being locked into a particular program, getting a AMEX MR card and have flexibility of where i put the points or book directly via AMEX using the AMEX edge card.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[nlagalle]

Think I may go with Qantas FF, may also look at the David Jones AMEX - ($200 shop at Woolworths and swipe the EDRS card could net 620 points) would that be correct? (new to all this point chasing) Same with petrol and using the 2 points per litre point instead of the 4c per litre voucher.

Or am I better off all together about not being locked into a particular program, getting a AMEX MR card and have flexibility of where i put the points or book directly via AMEX using the AMEX edge card.

Thanks for the advice.

Don't forget the Amex platinum charge card is the only Amex card that will allow you to transfer to Qantas and Virgin (ascent premium).