Earning Qantas FF points flying Cathay Pacific

[Polki]

Hi,

I'm a Qantas Platinum / Oneworld Emerald FF going to be flying Business on Cathay Pacific CNS-HKG-ICH(Seoul) return monthly until the end of the year.

Should I join Cathay's Marco Polo membership as suggested by one of the Cathay staff?

She said I would earn more points and I would be a Diamond/Emerald, but I am not sure if I would be better off as I will be flying Qantas domestic regularly again from 2012 onwards and don't know if I can then transfer the points and status credits to Qantas to maintain Platinum status..

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[pshepvic]

Hi,

I'm a Qantas Platinum / Oneworld Emerald FF going to be flying Business on Cathay Pacific CNS-HKG-ICH(Seoul) return monthly until the end of the year.

Should I join Cathay's Marco Polo membership as suggested by one of the Cathay staff?

She said I would earn more points and I would be a Diamond/Emerald, but I am not sure if I would be better off as I will be flying Qantas domestic regularly again from 2012 onwards and don't know if I can then transfer the points and status credits to Qantas to maintain Platinum status..

Any help would be much appreciated.

You can't transfer the points or SCs to Qantas at all, so in my view I'd stick with QF, particularly if you want to retain the status in future. I guess you could always keep putting your domestic earn to Cathay as well, but I'm not sure whether that's an efficient option.

Other thing to consider is when your QF frequent flyer year rolls over - if half way through all of this travel, you might want to work out whether that will allow you to continue to reach WP status for two years, or might only allow you to retain SG, depending how the dates fall.

 

[Polki]

Thanks for the quick reply pshepvic, I think staying with QF is the way to go. My anniversary month is November so I should retain WP status. BTW I had to look up the abbreviations page to see what WP and SG meant - good to see humour is still alive and well these days.

 

[pshepvic]

The other thing is I'd probably take it with a grain of salt what the Cathay person is telling you - I guess they want to promote their own product! It might be worth doing a points calculation to see what you'd earn with each program, and then trying to see what that actually gets you. It's all very well to earn more points with Cathay, but if you have to use more when redeeming them, then the benefit is lost.

You wouldn't get things like domestic specials that QF offer from time to time on points as well - recently I booked a couple of classic awards MEL-BNE for 12,000 points return (normally it's that one way).

Another benefit of points with QF is that you can use them for JASAs (Business Any Seat Awards) which can then be handy to assist retaining your status in future years as you earn status credits. This extra "value" could be much more than just earning a few extra points with Cathay.

 

[Polki]

Yeah, it was definately a case of Cathay wanting to promote their own product alright. The lady pulled me aside and said she had to make sure we weren't within earshot of the QF ladies who were working behind the check in desk while she gave me the sales pitch.

I normally do a fair bit of domestic flying with QF and have been very well looked after over the years. I just checked on the QF website the status credits and points I earned for my first one way leg with Cathay and it's good enough for me, so I'll leave things as is.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[pshepvic]

No worries, happy to help!

 

[JohnK]

Better off sticking with QFF as explained.

Take note that CX Diamond is not easy to attain.

 

[serfty]

Also note that "Asia Miles" is free to enrol, but does not generate status. Marco Polo membership costs USD50 to enrol and this is where status comes in.