My QFF questions/problems...

[akumaslair]

Hopefully someone with a bit of knowledge can turn it into a positve.

so I have a load of Qantas FF points, save up since 1998,

I log in and it I am surprised as it says 20% off trips to Japan until 30th Jun 2008, normally its 36000 points each way, so 72,000 points return, which I am happy with

I assume its 20% off one way, so it should drop from 36000 points to 28800, great...

so I book one on the 27th Jun UP and mid Jul back.

Final Checkout screen

Points & Credit Card = 72,000 + $401.02 (AUD)
1 adult x 72,000 = 72,000
Charges/taxes = $401.02
Note: Excludes local airport taxes collected at time of check-in.

Hmm.... firstly the discount hasn;t been applied, that I can live with,

Tax of $401, I was expecting some tax, and 3 years ago I wouldn;t have cared before jetstar came out!

so my unhappiness stems from this!!

- No discount (not too fussed)
- They will probably stick me on a Jetstar povo flight with no drinking water and probably no access to a toilet
- I still have to pay $400 in tax
- Ill bet if I just purchased a fare it will cost me like $800 including tax, so essentialy I am only getting $400 worth of freebies for my 72,000 points
- so my points that I have spent $72,000 on my credit card on is worth like $400

Should i pay cash for the trip and use the points to buy a Europe Trip or a round the world trip or similar, or should i Just use the points to get myself a stupidely overpriced plasma tv????

what options do fellow whirlpoolians suggest, that I feel a bit jibbed on the value of my points.......I did the exact same trip 12 months ago, and I paid the $400+ in tax, which I was happy with, but I got a qantas normal flight with everything included, I have a few friends who travelled about 2 months ago, and they said they would never fly international on Jetstar again....

can't help but feel a bit jibbed.....

 

[NM]

When you made the booking, did you enter the code "AUSNRT6Y" into the "Flight offer reference" field on the on-line form? If not, then I understand why the discount was not applied.

$400 does seem a little high for Qantas taxes and surcharges for a SYD-NRT-SYD route. Fuel surcharge will be $122 per sector, so $244. Then add the AU departure tax of $38. Sydney airport passenger services charge is going to be $45.28 for a return trip. Japan passenger service facilities charge is going to be JPY2040 (about $22). So that makes $349.

 

[akumaslair]

Ive worked out what the problem was, the promotion doesnt start for another 2 hours!!

also Im travelling from Melb, and hence maybe the tax is so high....

here is an extract

Final Checkout screen

Points & Credit Card = 72,000 + $401.02 (AUD)
1 adult x 72,000 = 72,000
Charges/taxes = $401.02
Note: Excludes local airport taxes collected at time of check-in.


do you have any other suggestions on getting the most of my points, I ve saved up hard for the last 10 years, and I have given a lot to my family, bu I don;t want for the points to get so worthless that I cant use them or justify to use them

 

[oz_mark]

It sounds as though you may have a couple of domestic legs in the itinerary as well. These will add to the fuel surcharges,

 

[akumaslair]

Im not too sure how many options I had to choose from to minismise domestic flights,

someone has suggeste to pay full price for the air fare and use the points for business class, how is this for a strategy...

I am not too fussed about getting business class if I have to pay for it though...

 

[oz_mark]

You would do well to find days when you can redeem on the direct flight, rather than doing a transit through somewhere. This should reduce the taxes back to something close to NM's calculation (assuming there were a couple of domestic legs in what you found).

As for the business upgrade, this can be a cost effective option, but there is no guarantee your upgrade will happen.

 

[JohnK]

I log in and it I am surprised as it says 20% off trips to Japan until 30th Jun 2008, normally its 36000 points each way, so 72,000 points return, which I am happy with

I assume its 20% off one way, so it should drop from 36000 points to 28800, great...

so I book one on the 27th Jun UP and mid Jul back.

From the terms and conditions

Travel must be booked, commenced and completed within the validity periods stated.

Which for this promotion is 8 May - 30 Jun 2008, so your return date in July nullifies the promotion code.

Should i pay cash for the trip and use the points to buy a Europe Trip or a round the world trip or similar, or should i Just use the points to get myself a stupidely overpriced plasma tv????

We are not likely to get away from paying fuel surcharges so for me the best value would be RTW itineraries requiring 140,000 FF points in economy or 280,000 FF points in business class. The taxes will be ~$1,000 but it is still worth it as the economy value of the airfare is ~$3,500 and the business class value of the airfare is probably ~$12,000 which is overpriced in my opinion.

The other option is to use the FF points on the more expensive routes, like PER-PBO or CNS-PER, where you get better value for money.

Business class upgrades may well be considered good value by some people but they are not guaranteed. In fact there have been times where QF have left the business class cabin mostly empty rather than process upgrades for people requesting them.

 

[akumaslair]

From the terms and conditions



Which for this promotion is 8 May - 30 Jun 2008, so your return date in July nullifies the promotion code.


We are not likely to get away from paying fuel surcharges so for me the best value would be RTW itineraries requiring 140,000 FF points in economy or 280,000 FF points in business class. The taxes will be ~$1,000 but it is still worth it as the economy value of the airfare is ~$3,500 and the business class value of the airfare is probably ~$12,000 which is overpriced in my opinion.

The other option is to use the FF points on the more expensive routes, like PER-PBO or CNS-PER, where you get better value for money.

Business class upgrades may well be considered good value by some people but they are not guaranteed. In fact there have been times where QF have left the business class cabin mostly empty rather than process upgrades for people requesting them.

wow so you get a $3500 airfare for 140,000 points, and a $12,000 airfare for 280,000 points, that sounds quite worth it, is this right??

maybe I should be using them for europe or south america or uSA trips!!

 

[NM]

wow so you get a $3500 airfare for 140,000 points, and a $12,000 airfare for 280,000 points, that sounds quite worth it, is this right??

maybe I should be using them for europe or south america or uSA trips!!

The problem is finding availability to actually obtain the flights. Its not a $12,000 value if you can find suitable flights.

 

[JohnK]

wow so you get a $3500 airfare for 140,000 points, and a $12,000 airfare for 280,000 points, that sounds quite worth it, is this right??

Yes. A high season economy Oneworld Explorer airfare for 4 continents costs $3,479 + taxes and fuel surcharges. I used 140,000 FF points for my first Oneworld RTW award in August/Sepember last year which was only booked 4 months earlier in April. You are allowed a maximum of 16 segments and 5 stopovers. If I remember correctly the taxes and fuel surcharges were ~$935.

The routing was SYD-MEL-AKL-LAX-WAS-STL-ORD-LHR-ATH-LHR-FRA-HEL-ZRH-HEL-BRU-LHR-HKG-SYD. But the SYD-MEL-AKL-LAX segments were replaced with a SYD-LAX segment due to being delayed on the taxiway for close 3 hours in SYD

I am planning something similar, but not as many transits, for next year and I was thinking of doing the trip in business class as I have close to 200,000 QFF points and over 100,000 Amex MR points.

The problem is finding availability to actually obtain the flights. Its not a $12,000 value if you can find suitable flights.

Sorry but I do not understand this statement. My mistake also as a Oneworld Explorer for 4 continents from Australia is priced at $10,499 + taxes and fuel surcharges. I don't value business class that highly but this is the listed airfare.

So if I book a Oneworld RTW award in business class using 280,000 QFF points then I am getting $10,499 value which works out at 3.74 cents/QFF point.

It does not matter that I would not have purchased a business Oneworld Explorer in the first place. It also does not matter that AAdvantage may be cheaper and require less points and does not have fuel surcharges. What matters is the value I am getting for 280,000 QFF points and that is what is important.

 

[serfty]

Even if Qantas make seats available at 353 days, other airlines may not.

This makes it quite a task to book a J (or F) oneworld Award as by the time seats on other airlines are released the QF ones may have gone.

 

[NM]

Sorry but I do not understand this statement. My mistake also as a Oneworld Explorer for 4 continents from Australia is priced at $10,499 + taxes and fuel surcharges. I don't value business class that highly but this is the listed airfare.

So if I book a Oneworld RTW award in business class using 280,000 QFF points then I am getting $10,499 value which works out at 3.74 cents/QFF point.

Yes, if you book a OneWorld award for 280,000, that may be considered $10,499 value. But if you can't find available flights then you are left with the 280,000 points and no ticket. In my view, a "value" can only be applied to the points if you can actually use them. Some people can find availability for a OneWorld award in business class. Others may not be able to do so.

In my view, points in an FF account have no value until they can actually be redeemed for something tangible. If there is no redemption available that is of use to me, then the points remain without value until I can actually use them.

As we all know, there is little available for business class redemptions on most routes, so the chance of me being able to redeem 280,000 points for a $10,499 airfare is very low, while I can almost certainly redeem $10,499 cash for a $10,499 airfare without too much concern about availability. So I would say that almost always $10,499 cash has a redeemable value of $10,499, while 280,000 QF FF points may have a redeemable value of $10,499 if I am lucky to find redemption flights available when I want/need to travel.

 

[JohnK]

In my view, points in an FF account have no value until they can actually be redeemed for something tangible. If there is no redemption available that is of use to me, then the points remain without value until I can actually use them.

I wasn't implying that the points in a QFF account or Amex MR account have any value. But once the points have been used for a Oneworld RTW award then I think I am able to put a value on them.

Yes I know that it is difficult to get award availability almost a year from departure let alone closer to departure. I am prepared to be flexible and let the award seat availability decide which cities I will visit as long as I get to my final destination of ATH/SKG.

If I cannot find availability in business class then I will try economy which will leave FF points for further Oneworld RTW awards. Now if I was able to book my last Oneworld RTW award 4 months before departure I should not have too much trouble booking the next one with a little more time to spare. Who knows? Time will tell....

 

[akumaslair]

thanks for your replies everyone,

I have never been on a busienss class or first class, and I am not wealthy, so to be honest, IF I had to pay an extra 20% on a flight to get first or business, I would seriously consider it, however, my assumption is that business class is at least double going by the points required,

so I ask myself, do I want 1 super dooper trip or would I like 2 povo trips.

I understand that some people would say 1 trip, however I am in the latter and would prefer to go twice,

hence, using double points I think is silly in my situation,

I now have the dilemma, I ahve saved up real hard for these points, and naturally, want to get something quite good out of it, well best value for $$$, so buying 100 movie tickets for me is not worth it!! Id like to go on a trip which I don;t often.

as previosuly mentioned somewhere, its debatalbe but you can get jetstart trips for say $600-$800 including taxes,

for me to have to spend $400 in taxes + spend 72,000 points to get something thats worth $600-$800 doesn;t make me feel good, this may be reality, but it makes me feel a bit coughpy to be honest,

also, paying for a full flight and using the poitns to upgrade to business class doesn;t work for me as well, as I was looking forward to a free trip + taxes so that my bank balance would doesn;t go down as much, and maybe I can spend the extra $$$ on my well deserved holiday......

can anyone suggest other options that I have... ive been saving since 1998, and only redeemed once or twice , just to use the points which were about to expire!

thanks everyoone

 

[simongr]

My view on the use of points is to use them to go where you want to go rather than using them up for the best value/return on investment.

For example for me if Qantas were doing a deal where business class flights to Thailand were at a 60% discount it would still be of no value to me.

I guess the question is - how many points do you have? People can then suggest where you could go with those points. If it is just the 72K points then you will struggle for a grand adventure unless you are willing to pay the $400 in surcharges and taxes.

 

[JohnK]

as previosuly mentioned somewhere, its debatalbe but you can get jetstart trips for say $600-$800 including taxes,

for me to have to spend $400 in taxes + spend 72,000 points to get something thats worth $600-$800 doesn;t make me feel good, this may be reality, but it makes me feel a bit coughpy to be honest,

Unfortunately this would be the best value you can expect by redeeming most point to point award tickets.

can anyone suggest other options that I have... ive been saving since 1998, and only redeemed once or twice , just to use the points which were about to expire!

Do you have enough for a Oneworld RTW award? That is what I would be doing. You do not have to max out the sectors. Just pick out 3-5 cities in the world you want to visit and take it from there. QF service centre would be more than happy to help out with itineraries if you do not want to use the QF online award booking engine.

 

[Alanslegal]

Akumaslair, if you have 140k points and a couple of weeks to spare, maybe you could do a nice RTW trip in economy visiting a couple of cities in North America, Europe, Asia then back to Oz. (Plus fuel fines of ~$1000)

It is easier to redeem an economy seat than biz for most sectors too.

 

[akumaslair]

hi everyone,

I have about 300,000 points, not too fussed about spending all at once./

does this change things????

if I found a great deal say to Asia for say 72,000 or 120,000 points, I wouldn't mind going 3 times in 3 years, so its not necessary taht I have to spend in one shot!