FF article in Saturdays Australian

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DJ737

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Hi there

There is an article in todays Australian, which amongst other things mentions this :

``People love a freebie and will work hard to get the best deal when it's free,'' says Clifford Reichlin of frequentflyer.com.au, a website providing free advice on frequent flyer points to Australian-based travellers. ``Selling points has become an important moneymaker for airlines,'' Reichlin tells me. ``Most points are earned on credit cards. For example, it's estimated airlines sell points for about 1c each. So, to get the 17,000 points needed for a return economy ticket from Sydney to Melbourne, you need to spend $170 on the card. But you can use cash to buy a ticket costing a lot less that $170, meaning the airline is making more money selling the points than selling a cheap ticket.''


Can someone let me know which card gives me 17000 points for each $170 spent?

Cheers
DJ737
 
Whoops!

As we all know, of course, that's the cost to the credit card company, not the amount you spend.

1c per point
17,000 points x 1c = $170
 
The point Clifford was trying to make is that it can be more profitable for the airline to sell points to a merchant (eg. a bank, for them to give away to their credit card customers) than it is to sell heavily discounted seats.

Assuming the airline sells a point to a bank for 1c per point: The airline will receive $170 for 17,000 points. 17,000 points is required for an economy flight from Mel to Sydney and one can purchase a heavily discounted ticket for as low as $120. So the airline would rather sell the points and receive $170 than sell a cheap ticket for $120. (And, furthermore, the points might never be used so they will receive the $170 without providing any service!)

From a consumers perspective: assuming you earn 1 FF point per dollar spent on your card, you will need to spend $17,000 (not $170) to get that free Melbourne-Sydney ticket.
 
admin said:
The point Clifford was trying to make is that it can be more profitable for the airline to sell points to a merchant (eg. a bank, for them to give away to their credit card customers) than it is to sell heavily discounted seats.

Not to mention those fuel fines that keep increasing. The $170 is more like $220 after the fines vs $120 or so for a discount economy.
 
Yes, I got the point.

And I agree entirely.

Though, I actually think that domestic economy FF award flights on QF, when compared to red edeals, are actually better in some ways.

For example, for Silver, Gold and Platinum, date and time changes can be made without penalty (subject to availability), and, from my experience, award flights can often be picked up when N, O and Q have sold out.
 
And the $170 is in the airline's pocket long before the butt fills the flying seat. And then there are the orphaned points that are purchased and never spent. Its all good business for the airlines.
 
NM said:
And the $170 is in the airline's pocket long before the butt fills the flying seat. And then there are the orphaned points that are purchased and never spent. Its all good business for the airlines.

And then they make it difficult to actually redeem those seats on the flights that people actually want, despite the fact that they revenue they receive for those award flights exceeds the revenue they would receive if they were to actually sell the seats (in some cases, not all certainly, but some).

At least they are rewarding those of us who fly often (and therefore have status) by opening up extra WHY award seats, at least we get some bennies for actually flying.

Dave
 
thadocta said:
At least they are rewarding those of us who fly often (and therefore have status) by opening up extra WHY award seats, at least we get some bennies for actually flying.
but those who fly enough to have high status, also have large points balances and would often prefer to be seated in premium cabins when "spending" their hard earned points. At least status has an effect of upgrade waitlists.
 
Generally pretty good. There's certainly been far worse articles.

"there are two main airline groupings: Star Alliance and OneWorld"

Sky Team?
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Generally pretty good. There's certainly been far worse articles.

"there are two main airline groupings: Star Alliance and OneWorld"

Sky Team?
And here was me thinking it should have read Boeing and Airbus .
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

The sets of all airlines that start with "Q" and name is an acronym, and all others.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
"there are two main airline groupings: Star Alliance and OneWorld"

Sky Team?
That is right!

OneWorld is now the number 3 alliance behind Star Alliance and SkyTeam.
 
There is now a link to this article on the front page of news.com.au. Just under the main headlines. Clifford and Lindsay are really getting their 15 minutes of fame from this one...
 
Damien said:
There is now a link to this article on the front page of news.com.au. Just under the main headlines. Clifford and Lindsay are really getting their 15 minutes of fame from this one...
I saw that this morning as well, and just posted the same link on the Media Requests forum where it also been discussed. Oh well, all the more fame for Clifford and Lindsay :cool:.
 
Lindsay Wilson said:
and yet I don't even consider myself an expert in the same breath as NM and Dave Noble...
Don't understate your own knowledge. Your experience and willingness to share is well recognised in this and other communities. And you are now the voice of the FF public :).
 
NM said:
Don't understate your own knowledge. Your experience and willingness to share is well recognised in this and other communities. And you are now the voice of the FF public :).

Not only the voice, also the face!
 
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