Best use of points

[gbanger]

New to the card game and I have just redeemed my first reward flight with Singapore airlines before the devaluation.

Essentially 2 "business saver" class tickets for april 2024 with retail value of $7,700 for 360,000 Kris Miles / 740,000 Amex points, the majority if which I had to pay a surcharge of 2.2% with Pay.com.au which is around $7235.

Does that seem normal? It seemed to be alot of effort for the $500 in savings.

After the devaluation it would actually be worse off than buying the tickets outright.

 

[Hunter4vr]

You essentially paid around 2c per point which I feel is on par with what they're worth. What's letting you down is that you spent quite a lot of points on a fairly cheap revenue fare.

 

[lilkid28]

2.2% fee is not low... you want to achieve a higher redemption value. But if the 2.2% fee is tax deductible, then it may be a bit lower.

 

[Quattro]

It is all in how you accumulate. There are different ways to do so. The big one is a sign-on bonus.

Other streams are sign-on bonuses for Visa/MC products. Commonly known as churning.

 

[dein_gesicht]

Doesn't seem right, but you might be right. Where was the return fare to?

 

[gbanger]

melbourne to shanghai, traveling in May 2024. 90k kris miles per person each way.
Figured I redeem it now before the devaluation happens.

yes, with gst and tax deduction it works out slightly better, but again alot of effort.

 

[Coops1]

Where you’re going wrong is basically paying a surcharge on your spends, to accumulate points. You’re always going to come out even. Large Sign-on bonuses and refer a friend bonuses is where you used to get free points. Those days are long gone.

 

[RealtimeY]

You have to be quite selective with which surcharges you pay. If the payments you made could have been done on Sniip instead at 1.29% your surcharges would have come to $4242.

 

[gbanger]

I do use sniip where possible, but the big spenders are payments to business suppliers and they're bank transfer only.

 

[levelnine]

I do use sniip where possible, but the big spenders are payments to business suppliers and they're bank transfer only.

You've just found out why points collection & redemption can be a mug's game for the uninitiated.

For it to be worthwhile, you need to keep your points collection costs as low as possible. You definitely shouldn't be collecting points at 2c/point. No more than 1c/point. My personal aim is 0.3c/point.

 

[dein_gesicht]

I just booked Conrad Bora Bora for 5 nights for 480k points. I already had 247k points so it only cost me another US MR 92k points due to Amex having a bonus