Frequent Flyer Points Tips

[shoziqff]

Hey again folks!
I started earning Qantas Points roughly 4-5 months ago and have earned around 130k Qantas Points (with 200k more points coming from CC sign up bonuses) and spent 120k points business class flight in Jan 2023. For those who are veterans in earning qantas points, do you save your points and buy flights normally until you accumulate your status credits and get to a certain tier? Or is it better to just earn and spend those points immediately?

My plan at the moment after redeeming a business class flight is to buy flights at normal rates without points, to gain status credits and possibly attain gold status, and try to earn as much points as I can and spend them maybe at the age of 25, which is 5 years from now. Any thoughts on this?
In the upcoming years, I will also probably rotate my credit cards and earn other rewards points (to get Kris Flyer miles points). SQ and QF are my top 2 fave ones for now! So advices and tips for a rookie like me would be highly appreciated

Thank you in advance!
P.S I am 20 years old and very interested in the frequent flyer world and community . I currently work full time and will probably travel once a year.

 

[djkelly69]

Any thoughts on this?

Not quite sure what the purpose of saving the points until you have (still quite low) status is?

 

[Scash]

I’m assuming your plan is to earn status to give you earlier availability to reward flights. To get Gold you would need 700 status credits in your membership year, which is around 23 return trips BNE MEL in discount economy. Given what’s happening with Qantas rewards at the moment my suggestion would be use points now and forget status unless you plan on lots of paid flights.

 

[Mattg]

My main tip for you, since you're mainly earning points with credit cards, would be not to focus purely on Qantas points. Instead, look for credit cards that let you earn flexible point currencies that can be transferred to different frequent flyer programs. This will give you a lot more choice when you want to actually redeem the points.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

If you fly J then no need for status. Also diversity is key. I’m not a fan of qantas points due to the high taxes charged. Just a few thoughts.

 

[encryptededdy]

Welcome to AFF!

If you only travel once a year, then your ability to spend your points on the flights you want will depend heavily on how flexible you are with regards to when you want to travel. I would avoid building up too large of a balance, as a large points balance is useless if you can't find availability on the dates you want to travel.

Personally, all of my trips on FF points have been planned 1-4 months in advance, and have all been more or less spur of the moment trips when I've seen the availability pop up.

With regards to attaining status, I personally think you don't get much benefit from Gold, as IMO the best uses for Qantas Points are on partners where availability is unaffected by your status. You may get some benefit from Platinum status, since you can request the release of award seats on QF metal (unwritten benefit), however I'm unsure if getting Platinum just for that is worth it, unless you have an absolutely massive stash of points.

P.S I am 20 years old and very interested in the frequent flyer world and community . I currently work full time and will probably travel once a year.

It's neat to see someone else in their 20s hang out here . I do wonder sometimes what the demographic (age-wise) of the frequent flyer world (and this forum) is.