Best way to accumulate points and pay for airline tickets

[Ennoh]

Hi all! I'm new to this site and am looking forward to learning as much as I can on accumulating FF points and working out the best way to buy airline tickets. Ive never really been interested in accumulating points, figureing that I would have to spend a gazillion dollars to earn a few. We have a lot of expenses between mortgage, school food, clothes, health insurance etc etc etc - and if we can get some benefit to use toward ticket purchase then that would help.We want to take a holiday to Italy with our five kids and Im wondering if accumulating FF points will be of any use. If anyone could give me some suggestions I'd really appreciate it.

 

[samh004]

I see you’re an old member, but this is your first post (?), so welcome at last!

While earning points from flights you’ve taken, and money you’ve spent can be beneficial for free flights, being able to redeem tickets for 2 adults and 5 kids would be hard at the best of times, and cost many thousands, even hundreds of thousands of points. You could however do well by earning miles from the flights for a future trip, and possibly redeeming a couple seats, but paying for the rest.

 

[Ennoh]

Thanks Sam! But cant I earn points from credit cards? And if so – whats the quickest and smartest way to get points. None of us fly regularly – so we couldn’t earn many points from flying. Ive heard that I could get points by paying the mortgage on credit card and then immediately repaying the mortgage payment back into the card – that would work for us. We will have to buy 7 Perth to Rome tickets return in the high season - so Im trying to work out the cheapest way for us to do it.

 

[samh004]

Yes you could earn points on your credit card and then transfer them to a frequent flyer program. The first thing to do would be to choose a program though I think, as some can be better than others for the flights you want. Also, some are direct sweep cards while others give you a choice of where your points go at the end of the day/month/year. However I’m not very well versed on credit cards, as I don’t have any here myself.

Regarding your tickets, eventually, if you have enough points, you’d obviously want to redeem the most expensive tickets with points, assuming there’s a difference between child and adult tickets these days, I’m not sure?

 

[JohnK]

Thanks Sam! But cant I earn points from credit cards? And if so – whats the quickest and smartest way to get points.

How much do you spend on credit cards a year? You can get an Amex Platinum card or even Kris Flyer Card that give 1.5 MR points/$1 spent but do come with an expensive ~$900 fee per year.

My personal favourite is a normal Gold Amex that earns 1 MR point/$1 spent but comes only with an ~$80 fee for Ascent.

As for getting 2 adults and 5 children on award bookings to Europe is going to be very difficult. Your best bet would be to purchase some flights (and still earn some miles/points) and redeem awards for others. Also note you may be travelling separately on different flights on different days.

Again without knowing your situation fully my recommendation would be SQ KrisFlyer as a return award flight to Europe is ~80,000 KrisFlyer miles + ~AUD600 in taxes and surcharges and is an achievable target.

Note there is no such thing as a free flight unless someone else is paying for it.

 

[Alanslegal]

Ive never really been interested in accumulating points, figureing that I would have to spend a gazillion dollars to earn a few.

Firstly, get interested and then secondly, start reading alot and realise that you don't need to spend a gazillion dollars to earn a few!!

The first thing that pops into my mind is "you need to start earning using a credit card" and use the card everywhere and anywhere you can! Just make sure you pay the closing balance in full every time it's due, otherwise the points earnt is outweighed by the interest charged.

With a family of 7 I can see a HUGE weekly supermarket bill, and with some of the newer cards, you can earn up to 3 points per $1 spent from the credit card itself. Major supermarkets accepts all types of cards and don't charge surcharges, why pay cash when you can pay with card and earn points

Simple example, let's assume you spend $300 per week just at the supermarket, $100 on petrol, $200 pw on other things like utilities, rates, health insurance, + miscellaneous expenses and you have (for eg.) an American Express Edge Card.

Supermarkets 300 x 3 = 900 points pw
Petrol $100 x 2 = 200 points pw
Miscellaneous $200 x 1 = 200 pw.

In this example, you would earn 1300 points p.w, or 67,600 each year.

Now we're just getting started; you got to look out for promotions where you could earn extra points etc and they all start adding up.


The only negative I can see from your situation is ..... redeeming 7 seats at once. I've never looked/searched at booking 7 seats at once so I don't know how easy it is.

 

[Ennoh]

Great info Alan! Your figures are in the ballpark – and add $28k in school fees plus mortgage repayments of about $30k pa. Normally we pay everything from our debit card so basically its from our own money. I will investigate credit cards. I don’t expect to pay for all tickets on points but if we could get one or some on points it would help greatly.

 

[Ennoh]

John – we would put thru around $80k a year but from savings via a debit card. With KrisFlyer does that mean that we would have to spend $80k on credit card to get one free ticket? Are all of these different frequent flyers worked out on the basis of one dollar spent gets one point?

 

[JohnK]

Not sure how you are going to pay your mortgage on credit card so no points there. Note no earning of points on debit cards. Has to be a credit card.

Ennoh, there are a variety of credit cards and most have different earning.

The vanilla flavour Amex have 1 MR earned/$1 spent while some have 1.25 MR earn and 1.5 MR earn but with higher yearly fees.

With Visa/Mastercard the best that you could earn is 1 point earn/$1 spent but then some are 1 point earn/$2 spent, others are 2 points earn/$3 spend and many have an earning points cap in place althugh that will not be reached with $50,000 spend a year. Note these also have restrictions to where they could be transferred.

But with my example if you spend $80,000 on Gold Amex then without any bonuses you will earn 80,000 MR points which transfers to Kris Flyer at 1->1 so you will have 80,000 Kris FLyer miles and with just over 80,000 Kris Flyer miles + ~$600 in taxes and surcharges you get a return award flight to Europe.

Do some research on AFF as there are so many options and no one person knows about all of them.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Firstly, get interested and then secondly, start reading alot and realise that you don't need to spend a gazillion dollars to earn a few!!

.

I endorse this.....and can basically guarantee that if you are willing to spend about a weeks worth of evenings (or it's equivalent) reading past threads on this forum that you will lean enough given what you can spend to generate a goodly sum of points to redeem for international flights on a regular basis.

A bit of more effort spent to really understand things, and see what opportunities are available to both earn and burn (ie redeem for flights) points and you can supercharge things to earn vastly more flights than that.

Remember there is no ONE answer. What will gain you the best earn to burn ratio will depend on your own set of circumstances. So it is up to you to learn...and then develop your own strategy.

Apart from this forum you will find others such as Flyertalk etc..

 

[Ennoh]

Apart from this forum you will find others such as Flyertalk etc..

how does it help to use a dot.com frequent flyer type site? The suggestions would all relate to cards available outside Australia and therefore not accessible to me........

All of you guys have been so helpful. !

 

[drross]

the 7 seats are going to be your biggest hurdle. I've 4 daughters and only managed to get 6 reward flights(briz to new york return) when i was platinum. on gold , the best we could do was 4 awards seats and had to buy the other 2 seats.

 

[Ennoh]

Now you're talking DrRoss! 4 tickets on FF would be fantastic - any tips you can offer for a newbie like me? ie - what card recommendation would you make

 

[lovetravellingoz]

how does it help to use a dot.com frequent flyer type site? The suggestions would all relate to cards available outside Australia and therefore not accessible to me........

. !

1/ There is a lot more info than just earning points via CC.

2/ You will learn a lot about the best way to burn points. ie flights....
booking airlines through other airlines. ie Booking through a Star Alliance Airline to fly on another star Alliance Airline. Say Singapore Airlines but flying with Thai.

IMO Star Alliance is the best way to go for many Australians, but this forum only has a very small of info on Star Alliance Airlines. If you want to learn how to maximise flight benefits on Sta Alliance Airlins you need to read beyond this forum.

3/ Some point earning schemes can be replicated in Australia. You take the knowledge and then think laterally for your circumstances.

4/ Some of the opportunities overseas can be taken.

ie I have earned 80,000 BMI points at zero $ cost.

Other opportunitise such as cheaper hotels can arise....or buying FF points in an overseas airlines program when "specials" are on so that one can fly cheaper by buying points that by buying the flight directly.


etc etc

 

[drross]

we use amex and citibank visa and Nab platinum - pay them off in full every month. Macquarie used to have a mortgage plan that let you accumulate FF points - not sure if its still available but worthwhile checking out. have booked rewards' flights for each of the daughters this year (return paris, return london etc) and they love it and we love being able to do it. you have to be obsessional about accumulating points to do it properly.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

the 7 seats are going to be your biggest hurdle. I've 4 daughters and only managed to get 6 reward flights(briz to new york return) when i was platinum. on gold , the best we could do was 4 awards seats and had to buy the other 2 seats.

Continuing this vein..

Economy is a lot easier than Business Class.

I have redeemed for family of 5 in economy to Thailanda few times, New Caledonia and Cairo.

In Business Class getting more than 2 beyond Asia is hard work. So consecutive flights or flights on different airlines is required.

To Asia one can often get 4 at once in J and this Xmas I redeemed 5 on the one flight to coughet on Thai.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Just had a look at Singapore Airlines (SQ).

Maximum appears to 6.

I currently have 4 nominees (ie my wife and duaghters) and so my max is 5 that I can search on.

Just did a dummy run and if you book far enough in advance I can get all 5 on economy.

Cost for all 5 is 340,000 points and $2650 in taxes and charges.

That is 68,000 and $530 pp.


On Qantas.

A/...doing a dummy run I can book 7 seats Perth Rome return.
Point cost is 980,000 points and $5376.

That is 140,000 and $768 pp

B/ To see how Qantas can be optimised by redeeming a Oneworld Award including Rome see:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....program/qantas-ff-points-to-europe-26699.html

Amazing value is it not..... and a good example of what you can find by researching. However doing this for 7.....would be a challenge!!!

Moral
The above indicates why you need to research how you burn points and not just how you earn points......as well as indiacting that you should research Star Alliance and not just Qantas.

You are flying from Perth...so your point cost structures are different than what many are used to who fly out of say Melbourne or Sydney.

WARNING: If you are thinking of travelling leaving exactly when school holidays start and finish then that is peak peak and you are competing with thousands of other Australians for a few flights = small chance of getting award flights on those days.

 

[Ennoh]

Just had a look at Singapore Airlines (SQ).

Maximum appears to 6.
I currently have 4 nominees (ie my wife and duaghters) and so my max is 5 that I can search on.
Just did a dummy run and if you book far enough in advance I can get all 5 on economy.
Cost for all 5 is 340,000 points and $2650 in taxes and charges.That is 68,000 and $530 pp.
On Qantas....doing a dummy run I can book 7 seats Perth Rome return.
Point cost is 980,000 points and $5376.

Thats excellent! When you go to book a flight- how can you tell if there is a seat available using FF points?

 

[11sjw]

Thats excellent! When you go to book a flight- how can you tell if there is a seat available using FF points?

Once you've logged into your FF account you want to be here to have a crack at Multi City bookings..https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/auth/awardbooking/startmulticity

Regarding earning FF points. If your budget will accommodate it check out the AMEX Platinum promo that finishes in March, you'll see ads for it in here. As others have said it's steep at $900/annum but there's 75,000 points (once you've spent $500 on the card in the first year) and the Travel Insurance is great (drawback is the travel must be paid for with the card). Any chance of work spend through your cards at all? I've run a pile through mine in the last year which is great.

Make sure your kids have FF accounts as well so if you do pay for flight you get something extra out of it.

 

[JetLagged]

No-one has seen fit to mention the Woolworths Rewareds card - of course only relevant if you plan to fly OneWorld - but is a great way of doing your normal grocery shopping and earning those points + doubling up (at least) by using your credit card.
​

AND, get a card for each of your family to enable points transfers.