Expiring KrisFlyer Miles

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JohnK

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A friend has 38,000 krisflyer miles with 19,000 expiring in Sep 06 and the other 19,000 expiring Sep 07. Not likely to fly *alliance in the near future to accumulate more miles as he is a once a year traveller to Greece and Gulf Air beats Singapore and Thai by around $400 in airfare.

How to best use these points? Is a return SYD-WLG award 25,000 krisflyer miles? How much would taxes and charges be for this award booking? Can he book now for travel next February? Would the booking be with Air NZ? Is this quite easy to book online as I have never tried to redeem award for my 700+ krisflyer miles.

What happens with remaining miles? Do they just expire? Can they be used for any other award flights? I had a look at Krisflyer website and to buy additional miles costs US$40 per 1,000 miles which is a little too expensive.
 
Yes 25,000 miles, less 15% online redemption saving if booked online (ie 21250). See the online calculator.

If your friend could collect another 4,500 miles (to 42,500) before the first lot expire, then that is enough to book online award to Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Philippines/Southern China/HKG/Taiwan which would seem much better value than 1 1/2 or 2 trans-tasman flights which can be picked up very cheaply anyway.

38,250 miles is enough for online booking to anywhere NZ serves in south pacific (eg Tahiti).

Note that one-way awards are half round trip cost. So a one-way award to somewhere you can buy cheap tickets from may be a good value and good use of the remaning miles.

Taxes on trans-tasman flights are high and SQ awards no exception. Yes they also charge fuel surcharge on awards, and this is going up mid May IIRC.

Simple awards can be booked online (and save 15% as mentioned - all online award figures mentioned here include the online booking saving).

SQ miles expire regardless of activity. You can extend the validity of miles once only upon payment of a fee (loss of some of the miles) - option is 6 months or 12 months. It is quite a high cost so best used when don't quite have enough for award but will shortly.

While buying miles is quite expensive (and limited to 30% of award cost), if that is the difference between getting a great award and wasting the miles then it may still be worthwhile.
 
Another option would be to buy a cheap return fare to ADL on DJ, QF or JQ (assuming your friend is in SYD also), and from there do a redemption to SE Asia, Taiwan or HK. Booking on line with a 15% discount, it would cost 34,000 miles.
 
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Thanks Kiwi Flyer and dajop. It all sounds very good.

My friend and I have decided that we will come to Wellington some time in Feb 2006 probably a Wednesday, hire a car and drive up to Auckland for the weekend and then return to Wellington before returning to Sydney. Thinking of seeing the west and east coast. He is not interested in SE Asia full stop. I will more than likely pay for fare on QF to maintain status as most Air NZ and QF flights leave at the same time unless QF and Air NZ have come to a codeshare agreement by then.

It would also be helpful if with the 17,000 points remaining, after online booking and discount, if he can somehow get to south island from Wellington whether it be one way or return. I can pay for fare on Jetconnect as I have never to Christchurch, Dunedin or Queenstown.

Kiwi Flyer I may need on some advice from you on how best to go Wellington-Auckland and return and see some of the west coast and east coast. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Any ideas?
 
Just watch out for JQ flying the route instead of QF.

I wouldnt drive to Auckland for the weekend. It is a very long day driving each way.

I suggest you take a look at the Australia and South Pacific forum on FT. There is a lot of information there including a master thread on NZ.

February is a good time of year to visit - school holidays over as is peak tourist season, generally good weather. Note it is still a good idea to book travel/accommodation in advance since a lot of overseas visitors this period, and retired folk travel more in Feb.
 
JohnK said:
... Kiwi Flyer I may need on some advice from you on how best to go Wellington-Auckland and return and see some of the west coast and east coast. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Any ideas?
Here's a good web reference that I have used: New Zealand Driving Map Auckland / Wellington / Auckland ; note it recommends 10 days.

There are some other good options listed as well.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Just watch out for JQ flying the route instead of QF.
If they are then I am swimming across the Tasman!

Kiwi Flyer said:
I wouldnt drive to Auckland for the weekend. It is a very long day driving each way.
The plan would be to drive up in 2 days, stay Friday and Saturday and then return back driving for 2 days. Need to find somewhere nice to stop for the night on the way up and down.

Kiwi Flyer said:
February is a good time of year to visit - school holidays over as is peak tourist season, generally good weather. Note it is still a good idea to book travel/accommodation in advance since a lot of overseas visitors this period, and retired folk travel more in Feb.
That is why we chose this time. I normally book accommodation at least 3 months in advance and travel would be booked before points expire in September.
 
Rotorua and Taupo would be better choices IMHO.

New Plymouth is either a big detour, or a long windy back road.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Rotorua and Taupo would be better choices IMHO.

New Plymouth is either a big detour, or a long windy back road.
Not sure where Taupo is situated as I was only following the route recommended by New Zealand Driving Map Auckland / Wellington / Auckland . I would like to drive WLG-AKL via the east coast and return AKL-WLG via the west coast.

Any idea on how many points are required for internal NZ flights? Is it the same as SYD-AKL?
 
Kris Flyer points or QFF points? IIRC Kris Flyer just has one zone covering east coast australia and NZ so yes same points for domestic as trans tasman. Apart from AKL-ZQN, the QF domestic flights should all be zone 1, and I think there is a 20% off sale on awards right now.

Taupo is on State Highway 1 roughly half way between AKL and WLG. SH1 passes through the centre of the North Island. Rotorua isnt too far from Taupo (1 hour drive?) but not on SH1.

The terrain (and quality of roads) of the North Island is such that travelling between Auckland and Wellington by east or west coasts adds a lot of distance and considerable driving time. A very comfortable 2 day drive along SH1 becomes longer driving days via New Plymouth (on the west) or Napier and Gisborne (on the east). A compromise east coast route would be Wellington to Napier via Wairarapa, stop in Napier, then cross the mountains to Taupo and resume along SH1 to Auckland - however this misses the best scenery around East Cape (north of Gisborne).
 
If you are thinking of flying one way and driving the other, I'd suggest driving for WLG-AKL. Reason is that rental cars are often much cheaper (sometimes free except gas and insurance) one-way in this direction than the other way around.
 
Just dont leave it to the last minuet like I did.
My miles were due to expire on the Sunday and the flights I wanted couldnt be booked online.
When I called just after 5pm on the Friday, they were closed and the message stated that they were next open from Monday morning.

So just make sure u dont leave it to the last minute like I did.....and lost the whole lot.

JASON
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Kris Flyer points or QFF points? IIRC Kris Flyer just has one zone covering east coast australia and NZ so yes same points for domestic as trans tasman.
Thanks it was KrisFlyer points I was after.

Kiwi Flyer said:
Taupo is on State Highway 1 roughly half way between AKL and WLG. SH1 passes through the centre of the North Island. Rotorua isnt too far from Taupo (1 hour drive?) but not on SH1.
As we have around 6 days on the North Island we will need to draft an itinerary of what we would like to see and how much driving we want to do. Some of the websites mentioned earlier would be a good start. It is a possibility that we can drive AKL-WLG one way and then fly to CHC for a couple of days as well.
 
I think trying to see both North and South Islands in under a week is way too much. Nevertheless, if you do I'd suggest the other way around - fly AKL-WLG, take the ferry and drive the South Island. South Island has much better scenery and generally less traffic so easier driving, and driving enables a visit to Kaikoura. Alternatively you could take the train between Picton and Christchurch (stops at Kaikoura en route) and also across the Southern Alps to Greymouth (rated one of the best train trips in the world).
 
Now I can finally lay to rest my SQ card, as my final points expired on 30 April, like Jason's. Will actually be a bit of a relief to have one less card in my wallet.
 
JohnK, if you take Kiwi's advice and drive from Picton after taking the ferry from Wellington don't forget to get a bottle of nice wine, a couple of bread rolls and stop at one of the many caravans along the Kaikoura coast where they cook fresh crayfish. A cheap way to have great lunch.
 
Nothing to sweat about KiwiFlyer...expired 898 miles on 31 December and 431 on 31 March. So nothing I could do anything with them anyway (I have only ever earned ~ 2,700 miles on SQ since I joined).

I had the program open before travelling with TG BKK/HKT with Mrs LW in 2002 and then on a separate trip with my best friend on SQ SIN/BKK for a weekend trip. We were meant to return to SIN on another *A carrier whose flight got cancelled. I was then switched to an SQ flight and upgraded to Raffles Class as they wanted to ensure that I got to SIN in time for my QF flight to BNE. I arrived in SIN less than 2 hours before my QF flight was due to depart and had to hop a taxi back to my friend's house, grab my main luggage I had stored there and back in the taxi to the airport for check-in. From stepping off the plane until back at the QP was 1 hour. I was always thinking I could miss my QF flight.

I thought SQ were marvelous as they didn't need to protect me on the QF flight, they could have hung me out to dry. I wasn't the only unhappy pax that day trying to get back to SIN but it helped being with my friend who was (and still is) a *G and knew the SQ BKK station manager. They were instrumental in getting be back to SIN...and he had to wait until the next flight to get home.
 
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