Help with allocating points to get to London or France

[Moorepreneur]

Hi there,

I've just stumbled across this fine looking forum and hoping that someone might help guide me on the best way to do this:

Currently we have:

125000 St George Velocity Points
167800 AMEX Points
525000 Commbank Rewards Points
28482 Qantas Points

My wife and I would like to use them to get to France and back in the next few months and I've just looked across them all and it appears they all align with different airlines/travel agencies etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best move the points around (is there any tricks/gotchas) for maximum benefit.

I'd prefer to fly Qantas if that helps.

Many thanks and good karma in return.

 

[mark4217]

I think you will need to confirm which cards you have the points in. Are the st George point 'Amplify' points or have you transferred to VA Velosity account? What AMEX card do you have? Can the points me passed to QFF and VA or just one, this is all determined by the type of cards you use . COMM card, same Q, what FF program can they be credited to? That's a starting point . Cheers

 

[Moorepreneur]

Ahh, sorry, I didn't realise there was a difference.

In St George - they are Amplify points.

With AMEX, they are from a combination of a Business Gold AMEX Charge Card and a personal Platinum AMEX Credit Card.

I'll take a better look at what FF programs they can be transferred to tomorrow.

Thanks for the input.

 

[mark4217]

Amplify can transfer to VFF
2 amplify = 1 VFF
Amex gold can go to VFF 1:1
Amex plat can go to QFF or VFF 1:1 again depending on the card type.
I'm not sure about COM . Different cards have different options with moving points.
I will watch this post and see how you go. Cheers

 

[mozerz]

Just as an aside, keep in mind that if you leave from LHR, you will be hit by their high departure tax which can be pretty high. So it might be better to leave from another city (such as CDG although people usually don't like the airport)

 

[quick_dry]

commbank will transfer into VFF at 2:1 (262500 VFF points)

 

[drewbles]

Amplify can transfer to VFF
2 amplify = 1 VFF
Amex gold can go to VFF 1:1
Amex plat can go to QFF or VFF 1:1 again depending on the card type.
I'm not sure about COM . Different cards have different options with moving points.
I will watch this post and see how you go. Cheers

OP mentioned one of the Amex's was the Platinum Credit Card, which cannot transfer to QF unfortunately.

 

[mark4217]

Looks like you need to point all you ff points to VFF . How about you do that and coma back with your total balance. Then we can all have fun working out how to spend them correctly . I understand that you preferred to travel QF but your points determine a different course . 80% + are VA.

 

[Moorepreneur]

Thanks everyone for your input - much appreciated. I've started rolling points into my VFF account.

We're thinking:

SYD -> LHR to get there

catch the train from london to paris after a few days in London

Then to get home:

CDG -> AUH (for a few days) -> SYD

Looks like we'll have enough points left over for a sneaky trip to the USA at the end of the year as well

Thanks again everyone!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hi there,


167800 AMEX Points
.

Rather than all points to VFF. Why not use them one way, and move 101,000 points to Malaysian from your Amex account to fly one way in J with them?

1000 point bonus to join MH, ...and you can fairly easily as they ave great availability redeem one way in J for 51K with taxes.

So 102K for two one way to London, or from Paris.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

(such as CDG although people usually don't like the airport)

What is wrong with CDG? When I flew in it was the quickest I had ever got through an international airport.

Landed....cleared through immigration by showing passports and barely broke stride in doing so and wit no queue...onto the travellator.... (which goes down under and up! Up to grab our backs...onto the train shuttle to the main station and then off to Paris on a cheap train ticket.

Maybe leaving is worse?

 

[mozerz]

What is wrong with CDG? When I flew in it was the quickest I had ever got through an international airport.

Landed....cleared through immigration by showing passports and barely broke stride in doing so and wit no queue...onto the travellator.... (which goes down under and up! Up to grab our backs...onto the train shuttle to the main station and then off to Paris on a cheap train ticket.

Maybe leaving is worse?

I haven't had problems transiting through it but my guess is that it may have to do with the ground staff at the airport. More often that not there are strikes which are very disruptive and create long delays. Then luggage may get lost more often and/or delayed. Unpleasant security and staff, and so on.

 

[Moorepreneur]

Thanks for everyones input. We ended up booking from sydney to london with Virgin and returning from Milan via Abu Dhabi for a few days.

we have enough points left for a return trip to the USA at the end of the year