Need advice - Starting a new role travelling in Asia Pacific - SQ / VA / QF?

[yld200]

I've moved into a new role within my company which will see me travelling to the Asia Pacific region more frequently - around once a month is what has been agreed upon. I'll be flying to the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand more frequently, and less frequently to places like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and NZ. The travel will be company paid and the current policy is Y only.

I currently hold no status with either QF, VA or SQ and am looking for some advice who I should be looking to fly with and climb up the status ladder to get the most benefits.

Points balances at the moment are:
QF - 184K
VA - 84K
SQ - 34K
AMEX - 120K gateway

My new boss who has been doing this role for a while is a QF SG and does most of his flying with QF and MH based on some chats I've had with him. I'm leaning towards QF because I value the ability to redeem points within the oneworld alliance especially having just come back from a 280K J round the world flight.

Would appreciate any advice on which way I should be leaning and if anyone does similar travel - what is your strategy?

I'm based in Melbourne.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

I'd personally narrow it down to QF & SQ.

QF will fly to all but you will have night flights back into Melbourne from everywhere. SQ however will give you day options back but necessitate a layover. When i was working in South Asia and the Middle East i went QF but the night flights in Y killed me and if it came up again i would avoid that if i could.

 

[yld200]

I'd personally narrow it down to QF & SQ.

QF will fly to all but you will have night flights back into Melbourne from everywhere. SQ however will give you day options back but necessitate a layover. When i was working in South Asia and the Middle East i went QF but the night flights in Y killed me and if it came up again i would avoid that if i could.

Thanks @Wanderlust_tim.

I wasn't really considering SQ until I read one of CEs posts in the QF section re LTG so it got me thinking. I can't really sleep in Y so the thought of a red eye after a week of work isn't very appealing.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

Thanks @Wanderlust_tim.

I wasn't really considering SQ until I read one of CEs posts in the QF section re LTG so it got me thinking. I can't really sleep in Y so the thought of a red eye after a week of work isn't very appealing.

My pleasure, perhaps it is worth asking in the SQ forum as well to see if they have any experiences and recommendations? It might also be worth having a chat to your employer to see what their policies are as this could help inform your decision - e.g. i broke up my flights to the Middle East with an overnight in SIN on Health and Safety grounds (two day flights to minimise jet lag to go straight to meetings) and always was given the day off after an overnight flight.

Lastly, looks like a round the world is possible on SQ, but I am unsure as to how easy the points are to earn - A guide to KrisFlyer's Star Alliance Round The World Award - Point Hacks

 

[Hvr]

I'm based in Melbourne.

Come to Yum Cha on Sunday and ask us in person. Always fun and you'll have a really good conversation about work travel.

Melbourne Yum Cha Sunday 19th November 2017.

 

[yld200]

Come to Yum Cha on Sunday and ask us in person. Always fun and you'll have a really good conversation about work travel.

Melbourne Yum Cha Sunday 19th November 2017.

I would love to come and meet some people but have lunch plans with family =(

 

[gaz0303]

Will you being flying into major or regional ports in Se Asia?

I got lucky with an Alitalia status match on scaryteam which helped me with lounge access and better treatment. Garuda and Vietnam Airlines had better connections to some places. Definitely don’t make a scaryteam your main carrier but sometimes their timetables/prices just worked or they are the only option.

QF was my main airline as I had a Qlink connection in Aus. QF took me to SIN or BKK or CGK to make any connection I needed. Could all connections be made from SIN if you went SG?

A few J upgrade redemptions for return trips to Aus were good value. Getting home to family not completely stuffed from o’seas work can be appreciated.

 

[Haplo]

I would say you need to choose between OW and *A first, then choose the FF of an airline in that alliance.

OW have Australia (QF) and HK (CX) as a hub, and *A have New Zealand (NZ) and Singapore.

If you choose OW, then you probably want to stick to QFF but AM is not too bad, if you go for *A, I think both Krisflyer and Airpoints are good programs.

 

[yld200]

Will you being flying into major or regional ports in Se Asia?

I got lucky with an Alitalia status match on scaryteam which helped me with lounge access and better treatment. Garuda and Vietnam Airlines had better connections to some places. Definitely don’t make a scaryteam your main carrier but sometimes their timetables/prices just worked or they are the only option.

QF was my main airline as I had a Qlink connection in Aus. QF took me to SIN or BKK or CGK to make any connection I needed. Could all connections be made from SIN if you went SG?

A few J upgrade redemptions for return trips to Aus were good value. Getting home to family not completely stuffed from o’seas work can be appreciated.

Most of the flights will be to major ports in SE Asia and I'm not quite sure about the connections yet. I think I'll learn a lot after the first couple of trips and It'll depend on my schedule, whether i'm doing multiple customer visits on the one trip.

100% agree on the value of not being completely stuffed when I get back home to family.

 

[yld200]

I would say you need to choose between OW and *A first, then choose the FF of an airline in that alliance.

OW have Australia (QF) and HK (CX) as a hub, and *A have New Zealand (NZ) and Singapore.

If you choose OW, then you probably want to stick to QFF but AM is not too bad, if you go for *A, I think both Krisflyer and Airpoints are good programs.

I think I'll start off with QF and see how that works out for me initially. Second preference will be SQ at this stage.

 

[Mike65]

Greetings yld200, I am in similar position although I have long time SG status with QF. As Wunderlust_tim stated, QF has all night time returns from asia. The flights are just too short to get any significant sleep so you arrive home very tired. I almost always try to upgrade to J with points and with Gold status am successful about 1 in 3 times. If I was starting from pretty much scratch, I would probably go with SQ. I have even considered switching to SQ but it would take approx 2 years for me to get to a similar status level with lounge access (which is the most important criteria for me). Good luck deciding.....