Are the days of Points collecting over?

[flyguy77]

The bloggers have made it easy for everyone to play the game

The bloggers only care about credit card sign ups & bonuses as that is where their income comes from. All other content and the guise around helping people is really just filler.

I think the ease of mass social media sharing & particularly award search tools are more to blame for the current problems.

Airlines didn't expect the general population to increase in knowledge and everything to become so easy so quickly - they are having to adjust value (downwards) accordingly now people all know not to redeem points on toasters and gift-cards and can access resources that don't require them to have much knowledge of how to find reward seats.

The whole game (in the previous format) relied on the vast majority of the points collecting population being oblivious, uneducated & lazy.

 

[Haplo]

It's definitely harder to redeem seats now on routes to asia, compared to 10 years ago. Airlines have been overselling points and the supply have now kept up with the demand.

 

[Tiki]

I miss the old glory days around 2008 when people had to put in effort to earn miles and points. The US Airways Grand Slam was my all time favourite until the bloggers blew it up and spoon fed the strategies to all and sundry.

Eventually you run out of credit cards to churn (even playing the game in the USA). There are restrictions on how often you can get a card, annual fees are higher and minimum spends are more difficult.

And the whole reason for playing the game - J class awards on long haul flights is practically non-existent. It's almost impossible to find J out of Australia through the main gateways of DOH, DXB, AUH. But the airline surcharges are ridiculous. SIN is gettable but it takes more Amex as they devalued the transfer rate.

Flybuys and to a lesser extant Woolies can get enough points for a trip to NZ, Bali or one of the islands in Y if you plan your grocery shopping well.

 

[lovestotravel]

We will never see this offer again...

M

Thread '10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions'

Sep 16, 2008

Received this in the mail today...

Each month, every 20 transactions qualifies you to earn 10,000 Bonus Points, with no limit to the points you can earn.

http://americanexpress.com.au/earnpoints - log in, and enter the offer code EARNPOINTS.

Matt.

• Matt_r
• Replies: 5,311
• Forum: American Express

 

[Tiki]

We will never see this offer again...

M

Thread '10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions'

Sep 16, 2008

Received this in the mail today...

Each month, every 20 transactions qualifies you to earn 10,000 Bonus Points, with no limit to the points you can earn.

http://americanexpress.com.au/earnpoints - log in, and enter the offer code EARNPOINTS.

Matt.

• Matt_r
• Replies: 5,311
• Forum: American Express

I remember that one and the one that was a couple years ~ before that I think it was 5000 points for 5 transactions or something like that? I remember going to all the supermarkets and Kmart/Big Ws to buy a bottle of shampoo, tp, can of soup or whatever it took to trigger the points.

 

[Aeryn]

It's almost impossible to find J out of Australia through the main gateways of DOH, DXB, AUH.

Interesting perspective. Depends where you are travelling but personally I dont consider ME to be main gateway from Aus. East Asia (SIN, HKG, BKK, KUL even ICN and HND) are closer gateways enroute to Europe that mark half way point.

 

[Tiki]

Interesting perspective. Depends where you are travelling but personally I dont consider ME to be main gateway from Aus. East Asia (SIN, HKG, BKK, KUL even ICN and HND) are closer gateways enroute to Europe that mark half way point.

I only go to Istanbul these days but people going to LHR, CDG or whatever use the same gateways. So in my case DOH/DXB/AUH/SIN work better. For my upcoming trip in Sept I am going via CGK - DOH-SAW but that's just because I am hitting some birding hotspots in Indonesia beforehand- the Malukus.

 

[andye]

Agree it's best viewed as a hobby rather than an expectation to get what you want when you want.
I didn't get started until 2010 but even over this time the game has changed. Some lucrative doors close and other ones open.

I'm sure long haul J/F was much easier before my time but then there weren't many airlines offering flat beds so in some ways the reward is greater
I am still able to get value because I know more than I did before (Alaska redemptions and CX with Asia Miles are good "advanced" options at the moment)

I think the points game has always been and will remain easier for people with higher business and personal spend.

 

[WilsonM]

Agree it's best viewed as a hobby rather than an expectation to get what you want when you want.

I think social media has inflated this beyond reasonable expectations - when you're on FB, instagram etc and see someone flying EK F for '$90' cause they used points - that's someones only exposure to using points, so they naturally think that they can do that too.

That being said, yeah the game has changed, yet there's still lots of ways to take advantage of it. Things like seats.aero make it easier to search for reward seats sure, but you still probably need an understanding of which programs can access flights on particular routes, when do programs release seats, cost of acquiring points (i.e. no point telling me I can use 40k AA miles vs 80k QF points when it's far cheaper for me to get QF points) and more. The tools raise the floor, but to get the most out of the tools, and more broadly FF points, it's still beyond the reach of the average punter.

I don't really get the mentality of "It isn't as good as back in my day when you compare it to some metrics, so therefore it's not worth it at all".

Lots of people I know have been able to get great value out of their points still - just not as amazingly good as 'back in the day'. Earning points is different sure, but still pretty straightforward. Yes, ofc it helps if you have 3mil in business expenses a year, but that's not a prerequisite.

And if airlines make it harder to get value, then it still raises the ceiling out of the average punters reach - but not for us who spend the time and energy to figure out the loopholes. So the same status quo remains.

 

[SOPOOR]

This is my personal situation but I will never be able to pay cash for a first class flight so in the past being able to accumulate by everyday spend as well as advantage of specials and churning, to be able to fly premium for virtually not more than the cost of an economy flight was amazing

my current Credit card is spend above $2000 is 0.5 points anz, which I believe is 0.25 Kris/Qantas points,

a few years ago it was 1 pt per dollar, even 1.5 or even 3

so for me to earn 100,000 frequent flyer miles now requires $400,000 spend ( give or take) previously it was $100,00 - 65,000 - $33,000)

its become a point where its now a maybe once in a few years of spending to get one flight,

I didnt think the influencers etc. would be that high impact as most ppl cant bothered, disciplined or understand

 

[offshore171]

Ultimately these days there's too many points out there chasing too few seats.

Controversial thought: Maybe they should just go back to giving points solely by flying? Literally a FF scheme.

so for me to earn 100,000 frequent flyer miles now requires $400,000 spend ( give or take) previously it was $100,00 - 65,000 - $33,000)

You can get 100K points from about $2k wine.

 

[Forg]

Controversial thought: Maybe they should just go back to giving points solely by flying? Literally a FF scheme.

I think over the last 20+ years the FF programs have become too lucrative to wind it back to something that's only directly linked to travel ... didn't I read around here (a while back) that QF makes more outta the FF scheme than any other single chunk of their business?

 

[levelnine]

Controversial thought: Maybe they should just go back to giving points solely by flying? Literally a FF scheme.

Programs are going in the opposite direction — more points for on the ground spending — and that is only going to accelerate.

Anyone hoping for a return to the good ol' days will be sorely disappointed.

The game evolves — either you move with it or get left behind.

If all one does is the same things they did 10 years ago (eg churn sign-up bonuses), their strategy is returning less and less value each year.

 

[CaptJCool]

You can get 100K points from about $2k wine.

You can get 225K top-up points for $4k when the 50% extra special is on

 

[NZflygirl]

Agree with @levelnine After all there's a larger market to capture on the ground than there is in the air and a lot of people end up flying at some point even if not frequently, or they can redeem on a hotel stay.

Also agree you just have to evolve with the times. Your strategy needs to change but as long as you're still going grocery shopping, filling up on gas or like wine then it's too easy not to take advantage of?

Sometimes it's way better to just buy the ticket, look for a sale or a cheaper departure airport. I'm also not looking at buying points unless it's a really good deal. It can be fun to get into the nitty gritty but you constantly have to be thinking about it. I wanted to buy some aeroplan points but was only offered 75% during the latest offer and I wanted the 90% so I'm not buying.

It's still fun and I love the searching process, it's kind of like an easter egg hunt to me

 

[I love to travel]

For me, the final straw with QF was that classic awards from July will now attract much larger taxes. So even when you are lucky enough to snag one, you will pay dearly for it and the difference shrinks to paying for it outright

 

[levelnine]

For me, the final straw with QF was that classic awards from July will now attract much larger taxes. So even when you are lucky enough to snag one, you will pay dearly for it and the difference shrinks to paying for it outright

The rise in surcharges has moved many award tickets from being 'close to free' to being 'a small to medium discount on paid tickets'.

 

[CaptJCool]

For me, the final straw with QF was that classic awards from July will now attract much larger taxes. So even when you are lucky enough to snag one, you will pay dearly for it and the difference shrinks to paying for it outright

Unless it’s ADL-CBR where the base fare is $290 (direct) and the points are 12k + $77….

Some of the co-payments hardly make it worthwhile if the fare is <$200

 

[CMA222]

Points earning from spend becoming much more marginal as most merchants seem to completely ignore government ‘cost of doing business’ guidance for credit card fees. For a while 0.5-1.0% was being charged, but now most small/medium businesses are 1.5-2.0% card transaction fee.

I find I’m pulling out cash much more often this year than maybe the past 10 years.

Did none of the "cash-is-dead" people notice how hard the banks have worked to switch everyone over from the use of "no profit" cash to "profit on every transaction" credit cards, together with the growing credit card annual fees and the reducing benefits of earning points, or other benefits including insurance on those CC's. Until the banks succeed in killing off cash (try and find a bank ATM!) and controlling everything via their stranglehold on CC's, I support the push back by using cash where possible. When banks make around A$1 billion pa in credit card fees who is benefitting from killing off cash?

 

[Human]

The days of points collecting are absolutely not over for me. I do find that I need to be very nimble, though, and I certainly don't rely solely on CC sign-up bonuses like I used to.

Flybuys is particularly useful: their bonus point offers are pretty good, and I can easily accumulate well over 100,000 Velocity points (which would usually convert to 65,000ish KrisFlyer points) per year.

But I might be a little different from other posters in that I'm more than happy to pay a 1% to 1.5% credit card surcharge -- that comes to about 1c per point on my AmEx Platinum, which is way, way less than what buying points would cost.