Best frequent flyer program - reccomendations for a newbie!

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Hi, I'm new to the game. I've recently converted from altitude reward program to qantas frequent flyer on the Westpac black card. My annual fees are waived as I have mortgages with westpac. I have an toddler and an infant and am aiming to travel at least once a year overseas, ideally in business class using our FF points. As we are very unlikely to travel more than twice a year, hence will unlikely to ever be upgraded from a qantas bronze status.

I guess given that we are infrequent travellers, which FF program will give us the best chances of being upgraded/be able to redeem business class flights easily? Our travel dates also tend to fall during the Christmas period. We spend a fair bit on our credit card per month and should accumulate at least 60-80 k of FF points per annum. I heard it's almost impossible to redeem points with qantas FF. Should I go for velocity?
 
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As long as you plan your trips 11-12 months in advance, you should be able to find some reward flights in business class, regardless of the program. But from my experience, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer often has the best availability. You can redeem KrisFlyer miles for flights on Singapore Airlines as well as their Star Alliance partners. They also charge fewer points and lower fuel surcharges for redemptions than Qantas and most others.

If I were you, I would stick with a credit card (such as the Altitude card) that gives you a choice to transfer to either KrisFlyer or Velocity, as required. But if you do go with Qantas as your primary program, be prepared to book your award flights a year out and look for flights on partner airlines. You're unlikely to find much Qantas international award availability as a bronze member.
 
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You need to create a plan. Where would you like to travel? 80k points/miles is not much with any FF program and certainly won't get 4 of you somewhere out of australia in business class.

Singapore airlines Krisflyer is an excellent program for redemption and availability is what I believe to be the best of any airline in the world -- however you will be destroyed on taxes with infant tickets which are calculated as 10% of the paid fare.

My advice: Work out where you want to travel, calculate the points required in advance and find the best cards which facilitate the means of you obtaining the points goals. There may be extra learning along the way but with the help of AFF you'll get there.

Welcome to the club!
 
Agree with the above posters. Finding 4 seats on Christmas will be almost impossible unless you have status (even then it is not easy). Best chance is with a Star alliance airline and redeem 2x business and 2x first class seat on Thai on the same flight. You will need to book 330 days out i.e. when the seats are first released.

SYD-HKG return in business for four of you would be over half a mil of point so will take time to save up.
 
<snip> I heard it's almost impossible to redeem points with qantas FF. Should I go for velocity?

It's not impossible to redeem QFF points, I myself manage to do so quite frequently.
My general advice when talking loyalty programs is to find one which fits in with what you are already doing, and importantly fits in with what you would have done without the loyalty program in place.

The reason for that is as you've observed, certain loyalty programs can be very bad value, so if you are paying a premium beyond what you would have otherwise paid to be part of a loyalty program and to earn points in that program, you could be better off not getting the points and simply putting the extra money aside. It's very easy to become fixated on the earning of points without ever looking at the actual monetary value you are getting.

Not to put a too finer point on it, 60-80K is not a huge number of points, so it's likely to be quite a few years before you can truly use your points with all your family. This is when double points promotions may come in handy, so keep an eye out for such things, again don't change what you where already going to do (unless you see a "pudding guy" type deal), but perhaps bring spending forwards to within double points promotion times.
 
Think more of buying AS (Alaskan Airlines) or AA (American airlines) miles for PE or J seats internationally, as it will take you years to accumulate at your rate. Pop over to Point Hacks for the award info on the program and miles.
 
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