Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline combo

[pjb1803]

We hope to do some regular travelling in the next 5 years....and on the long hauls want to fly business class in at least one sector. We want to put "all our eggs in the one basket" to maximise points/status credits etc and at this stage have no loyalty to any particular bank/credit card or airline. At the moment we have Westpac Altitude Gold Cards and are Qantas Club members.

There seems to be so many clever ideas and savvy travellers on these forums...but if you were starting from scratch what would you do?
Which credit card?
Which FF scheme would you direct those points to etc?
I currently take about 6 - 8 domestic flights a year and 3 - 4 across the Tasman but am not tied in to any one carrier.

Advice much appreciated...

 

[Deewhy]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

pjb, which destinations are you looking at internationally and how many people will be travelling with you?
I ask because your intended destinations may point you in a certain direction re airlines and their partners, and also points pooling. If you provide that sort of information I'm sure you'll get a barage of help!

 

[simongr]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

As deewhy says you need more of a framework or reference point to work out what sort of advice you can be given. There is a lot missing here. I think it is hard also to provide a "if you could start from scratch what would you do?" advice as circumstances influence what you should or should not have done.

When I look back I think I should stuck with AA rather than moving to QF - but when I made that decision I knew (in theory) that I would be well short of the requirements for AA EXP in 2009 and 2010. Turns out in 2010 and 2011 I would have comfortably made AA EXP. Now I am at 10,000 LTSCs with QF so am sort of locked into them until I hit LTG. equally I would have tried to credit all flights to QF rather than flying on Ansett and wouldn't have lost 250K points in the collapse of AN.

 

[pjb1803]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

pjb, which destinations are you looking at internationally and how many people will be travelling with you?
I ask because your intended destinations may point you in a certain direction re airlines and their partners, and also points pooling. If you provide that sort of information I'm sure you'll get a barage of help!

Thank you...

Destinations primarily Europe and there will be 2 of us traveling

 

[Deleted member]

Well anything like a Amex Plat card with 1.5 pts per $ spend is a start,
Woolies EDR card another. , the secret like anything is volume. Pay everything ( within reason) on your card hat earns you miles/points.
And of course try and fly with your chosen airline in the mean time. Maybe even attain some status along the way?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Depending on your grocery and fuel spend the Amex Platinum Edge is pretty good - 3 points for groceries / 2 points for fuel / 1 point for everything else.

Can have 4 sup cards for free as well. Free domestic flights on DJ each year as well. The flight alone is worth the $150 annual fee.

If you want QF points you can't really beat the Citibank Citibusiness gold card that earns 1.25 points per $ with 1:1 conv to QF in blocks of 10K. Transfers to other airlines is at 3:2 so not such a good deal. Also gives u 4 sup cards for free as well. The travel insurance is reasonable too.

 

[serfty]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Depending on your grocery and fuel spend the Amex Platinum Edge is pretty good - 3 points for groceries / 2 points for fuel / 1 point for everything else...

I think the earn rates may be changing - maybe to ½ point for things such as bill payments.

 

[medhead]

I think the earn rates may be changing - maybe to ½ point for things such as bill payments.

Utilities and insurance bills I think. I haven't been notified about it yet.


Sent from the Throne

 

[scaredeycat]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

It also depends on how large your bills are likely to be. If you run a business with expenses that can be put on the card, you might easily rack up hundreds of thousands of points per year, which would make it very easy to justify the annual fee of a premium card (such as an Amex Platinum charge card). On the other hand, if you anticipate spending less than say $75,000 per year on a card the benefits become more marginal and you need to look at your usual expenditure patterns to figure which one would serve you best.

 

[Ultimobo]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Dunno if it helps - we're just holiday travelers - I probably spend maybe $40kpa on my CBA platinum AmEx/Mastercard combo where all points go to QFF - but I've never used those points (have enough for SYD-NYC return for one I think)

We usually fly China Airlines (Taiwan) and as Dynasty members we've previously used points for one Euro upgrade, and are now planning our next - aiming for ex-Schiphol AMS which hopefully has a nice business class departure lounge (Frankfurt's was pretty sweet!)

 

[Deleted member]

Depending on your grocery and fuel spend the Amex Platinum Edge is pretty good - 3 points for groceries / 2 points for fuel / 1 point for everything else.

Can have 4 sup cards for free as well. Free domestic flights on DJ each year as well. The flight alone is worth the $150 annual fee.

If you want QF points you can't really beat the Citibank Citibusiness gold card that earns 1.25 points per $ with 1:1 conv to QF in blocks of 10K. Transfers to other airlines is at 3:2 so not such a good deal. Also gives u 4 sup cards for free as well. The travel insurance is reasonable too.

I still get 1.5 from Amex plat
Mrs GPH reckons the QF Amex is a good deal and half the cost of my charge card.
So now that the travel ins is rubbish I may move to the QF Amex.

 

[k3nnis]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

But the issue I see with QFF is the burn rates? What do you think?

 

[Deleted member]

But the issue I see with QFF is the burn rates? What do you think?

What do you mean?
The points cost for a flight?

 

[k3nnis]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Yep. For international flights.

What do you mean?
The points cost for a flight?

 

[Deleted member]

Who has the best rate then?
I use QF for convenience and to maximise my potential for flying on points to Europe.
Also flit across the Tasman a bit

 

[k3nnis]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

My calculations are probably not the best but I think transferring to one of the AMEX MR rewards partners is probably a better burn rate, i.e. VS,MH,SQ,CX. And also I find it very hard to get award seats on QF international.

 

[JohnK]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

But the issue I see with QFF is the burn rates? What do you think?

It depends what you want.

Personally I feel the 140,000 QFF points required for a Oneworld award are great, make that fantastic, and no airline, including AA, comes close. Yes AA has a similar award which at face value may look cheaper but has a lot more restrictions attached.

 

[k3nnis]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Hi john,
Do you mean 140000 qff points for a syd-hkg return in J? If so I understand cx will be 80000 asiamiles? Am I missing something?

 

[JohnK]

Re: Best way to start accumulating points and status credits..?? Which bank/airline c

Do you mean 140000 qff points for a syd-hkg return in J? If so I understand cx will be 80000 asiamiles? Am I missing something?

No. I meant a Oneworld RTW award in economy is 140,000 QFF points and in business is 280,000 QFF points.

Sure it is not as cheap as Virgin Atlantic but offers up to 35,000 miles, 5 stopovers and 16 sectors.

I think it is 120,000 QFF points SYD-HKG return in business and I agree that for point-to-point redemptions QFF is not great.

Take note though even if is 120,000 QFF points for a SYD-HKG in business for someone like me who is Platinum could relatively easily find an any seat award and earn 240 SCs and earn ~27,000 QFF points (including ~4,000 QFF pro-rata loyalty bonus). A gold would earn ~25,000 QFF points (including ~4,000 QFF pro-rata loyalty bonus) a Silver would earn ~22,000 QFF points (including ~4,000 QFF pro-rata loyalty bonus) and a Broze ~18,000 QFF points (including ~4,000 QFF pro-rata loyalty bonus).

So yes a little more expensive on Qantas but is offset by earning QFF points and SCs.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I still get 1.5 from Amex plat
Mrs GPH reckons the QF Amex is a good deal and half the cost of my charge card.
So now that the travel ins is rubbish I may move to the QF Amex.

What did Amex plats do to their travel insurance?

Has anyone ever been medically evac on a credit card policy?