Hi,
I'm trying to find out the best option to get return flights for both of my parents from Perth to Auckland in February or March next year (they are quite flexible with exact dates).
Are have about 27,000 altitude points at the original 1:1 value & about 80,000 altitude points at the new value (i.e. 40,000 ff points).
They don't have membership of any of the frequent flyer programs, so are quite flexible on who they travel with.
The 25% bonus points offer with Virgin Blue sounds good (and they don't charge membership), but it appears that they don't support the original 1:1 valuation of their original points, so this may not be any good.
I don't think they have enough for 2 return flights, but I am trying to workout the best / cheapest option. For example, perhaps they look at buying cheap fares to Melb (on Tiger, for example) & then use the points for tickets from Melb - Auckland. Mind you PER-AKL on QFF is 25,000 each way (28,000 with taxes) whereas MEL-AKL is 18,000 points (20,000 with taxes) so there's not much difference anyway.
There seems to be some specials to Auckland in Feb / March, so I'm not sure how this affects the velocity rewards, airpoints, etc.
To make things more complex, I guess the most cost effective option could end up being to use different airlines for each sector too!! (of course they would want to be together on all flights!).
Anyway, I would appreciate any suggestions on the best way to help them get best value from their hard earned points.
Thanks,
Gary.
I'm trying to find out the best option to get return flights for both of my parents from Perth to Auckland in February or March next year (they are quite flexible with exact dates).
Are have about 27,000 altitude points at the original 1:1 value & about 80,000 altitude points at the new value (i.e. 40,000 ff points).
They don't have membership of any of the frequent flyer programs, so are quite flexible on who they travel with.
The 25% bonus points offer with Virgin Blue sounds good (and they don't charge membership), but it appears that they don't support the original 1:1 valuation of their original points, so this may not be any good.
I don't think they have enough for 2 return flights, but I am trying to workout the best / cheapest option. For example, perhaps they look at buying cheap fares to Melb (on Tiger, for example) & then use the points for tickets from Melb - Auckland. Mind you PER-AKL on QFF is 25,000 each way (28,000 with taxes) whereas MEL-AKL is 18,000 points (20,000 with taxes) so there's not much difference anyway.
There seems to be some specials to Auckland in Feb / March, so I'm not sure how this affects the velocity rewards, airpoints, etc.
To make things more complex, I guess the most cost effective option could end up being to use different airlines for each sector too!! (of course they would want to be together on all flights!).
Anyway, I would appreciate any suggestions on the best way to help them get best value from their hard earned points.
Thanks,
Gary.