Best advice on AFF

[junbugging]

I think the following was one of the more important pieces of information, as it let many people know that it was time to go hard on MASAs:

With the launch of the new website set for 08 April QF will no longer offer Any Seat Awards - it will simply being the points+pay option. The new site will offer commercial seats and award seats on the same search page. So I guess this is the end of cheap FASA/JASA which share the same revenue class as the classic awards. It was good while it lasted.

 

[serfty]

1. Generally available low $/SC earning fares YUPPS/KUPPS/DONEx

2. ATO CC payments to generate redeemable pseudo currency

3. Hotel status - in 2004 my reaction was "Who'd have thunk it, free breakfast!"

 

[browski]

Best advice was in 2003 but could not dig up the thread.

Forget chasing FF points; that is low rent and feeble.
(International) Discount J is where it is at...... and he was right.

 

[straitman]

My best advice has been that if it is FF related there is someone on AFF who knows the answer and there is no such thing as a silly question here.

 

[drron]

Keeping it at 3.
Making AA my primary program thanks to QF WP in this thread.
The great points transfer to AAdvantage
Unfortunately things have changed but I was able to get to LTP,many F awards ans a few F upgrades due to SWUs.

Secondly-life miles.This was due to quite a few posters.Doesn't work for everyone but it certainly has worked for me.Another 2 F awards booked for this year plus a J award-all for 2 people.

Third.A good explanation of the BAEC by Tony Hancock.Means for the first time since 2009 that I will qualify as an OWE.

But also an honorable mention to madrooster.Thanks for the help.

 

[travelislife]

Number 1 for sure and my start on AFF was US Dividend Miles. I was first year out of Uni with all my OS trips being in J often cheaper than economy. Was the one time when ‘if it sounds to good to be true’ didn’t apply. Finished that program off with an infamous Guam via Japan with stopover trip for about $500 return in business class!

 

[Wello]

I still have a lot to learn but the best advice I have received was to get the Amex Explorer even though I already had an Amex card, delink it from the Ascent program to get the bonus points and than link again to the Accent program to redeem the points and now to get at least 2 points for each dollar I spend on the card. I would never have been game to try this without reading of the successes on AFF.

The next best advice was to plan in advance and to know how many days out reward seats are released.

The third best learnings is to churn cards.

 

[Bundy Bear]

1. JASA, FASAs
2. ATO credit card spend,
3. T80.

 

[pauly7]

DONEx

That’s the one

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

Originally for me was the now defunct MASA , JASA & FASA made an absolute pig of myself on these mostly JASA's

Agree managed to get from Bronze to Gold and then Platinum and held that for 2 years now sliding down the pole again

 

[JB expat]

That moment for me was when I read The Pudding Guy story and that then induced a huge thirst for FF knowledge which I fuelled on this site in particular, but also in others. That knowledge and willingness to act has allowed me my own Pudding Guy Times. One much larger, and some almost as good and many that were very, very nice

What's the Pudding Guy story?

 

[daft009]

my guess is, it might be decryption from the sizzle maybe?

Some info here (scroll down)The Sizzle

He runs a great tech newsletter, worth signing up for

 

[serfty]

What's the Pudding Guy story?

The "Pudding Guy" - Flyertalk

Man Gets Millions of Air Travel Miles from Pudding Cups - Snopes

 

[Lord_Lenny]

my guess is, it might be decryption from the sizzle maybe?

Some info here (scroll down)The Sizzle

He runs a great tech newsletter, worth signing up for

Nah he's from the US, basically found a loophole that allowed x amount of FF miles (or award points that could be credited to FF programs) per Pudding Cup barcode sent in to the company. Basically he bought up all the pudding cups he could find, as in like pallets of them, got his family and I believe a local charity/shelter to remove the barcodes and then donated the pudding to the charity, sent them all in redeemed something like 1 million miles which he used to get LTG for American Airlines. Worked out at a few cents/mile plus he ended up getting a tax deduction for making the donation to the charity.

Pretty cool story.

Edit: and I got ninja'd by Serfty...should've just posted links haha

 

[JB expat]

The Pudding Guy is a Clever Cookie

 

[Scr77]

Similar to The Pudding Guy, my inspiration came from:
WOW Select Trolley Run

 

[daft009]

Nah he's from the US, basically found a loophole that allowed x amount of FF miles (or award points that could be credited to FF programs) per Pudding Cup barcode sent in to the company. Basically he bought up all the pudding cups he could find, as in like pallets of them, got his family and I believe a local charity/shelter to remove the barcodes and then donated the pudding to the charity, sent them all in redeemed something like 1 million miles which he used to get LTG for American Airlines. Worked out at a few cents/mile plus he ended up getting a tax deduction for making the donation to the charity.

Pretty cool story.

Edit: and I got ninja'd by Serfty...should've just posted links haha

aah my bad, wrong guy.
Decryption did 7,000 1c transactions in a day to earn extra points or something. I don't have access to AFR so can't remember the full story but I do remember reading about it when it first happened.

 

[Bindibuys]

Flying J & F had never entered my head before finding this site, so I will go with the following:
1. How to find award seats
2. Credit card churning - but being married to an accountant, it is frowned upon by him. (so now I don’t tell him)
3. The ‘staples” debarkle, earned 140,000 points in 1 night.

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

Flying J & F had never entered my head before finding this site, so I will go with the following:
1. How to find award seats
2. Credit card churning - but being married to an accountant, it is frowned upon by him. (so now I don’t tell him)
3. The ‘staples” debarkle, earned 140,000 points in 1 night.

What was the staples debacle ?

 

[Saltywings]

1) CC Churning, definitely
2) How to properly search award space
3) The ATO thread. Sadly, most of those loopholes are closing up, but it was nice to collect 2mil+ FB points in < 1 month and not be able to convert them all into VA /sarcasm