Not-so-frequent flyer from Perth - Hi!

L

liamthanks

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Joined
Jul 9, 2023
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Hi there!

This forum looks to be very informative and full of helpful people, so as a relative flight-newbie, I'm keen to learn more about the system.

My partner and I are getting married (symbolically) in Italy in September next year, so with a heap of expenses coming up involving that as well as all the related travel and material purchases involved, we want to work out what it the best point system and credit card to work with. I spent some time yesterday looking into the benefits of both Qantas and Velocity and have been a bit stumped with what feels like a complicated system for a new-user. Hoping to get some guidance here and pointed in the right direction where I can find the information I need.

Cheers!
 
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Welcome to AFF and congratulations on the marriage.
liamthanks said:
This forum looks to be very informative and full of helpful people, so as a relative flight-newbie, I'm keen to learn more about the system.

My partner and I are getting married (symbolically) in Italy in September next year, so with a heap of expenses coming up involving that as well as all the related travel and material purchases involved, we want to work out what it the best point system and credit card to work with. I spent some time yesterday looking into the benefits of both Qantas and Velocity and have been a bit stumped with what feels like a complicated system for a new-user. Hoping to get some guidance here and pointed in the right direction where I can find the information I need.!
Click to expand...
Hard to know what you are expecting from a frequent flyer program (ffp) and credit card points. Frequent flyer reward flights are best booked a long way out, starting ~353/330 days out depending on the ffp. Starting to learn the in and outs of ffp's and hoping to get a benefit in ~12 months is a very big ask. It much sound harsh, but in 12 months you may not get much.

Qantas is a member of the Oneworld alliance with many partner airlines. QF fly's PER to Rome, but may not be the best pricing.
Emirates EK who do fly PER-DXB-Italy is a ff partner of QF, but not in an airline alliance.
Virgin Australia VA is not in an alliance, but a partner with some airlines. Including Qatar QR who will do fly PER-DOH-Italy. QR, a member of Oneworld, so is also a ff partner of QF Qantas.

Other than Italy, what is your travel profile? Or more of a frequent spender, and not frequent flyer?


All the best.
 
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Mwenenzi said:
Welcome to AFF and congratulations on the marriage.

Hard to know what you are expecting from a frequent flyer program (ffp) and credit card points. Frequent flyer reward flights are best booked a long way out, starting ~353/330 days out depending on the ffp. Starting to learn the in and outs of ffp's and hoping to get a benefit in ~12 months is a very big ask. It much sound harsh, but in 12 months you may not get much.

Qantas is a member of the Oneworld alliance with many partner airlines. QF fly's PER to Rome, but may not be the best pricing.
Emirates EK who do fly PER-DXB-Italy is a ff partner of QF, but not in an airline alliance.
Virgin Australia VA is not in an alliance, but a partner with some airlines. Including Qatar QR who will do fly PER-DOH-Italy. QR, a member of Oneworld, so is also a ff partner of QF Qantas.

Other than Italy, what is your travel profile? Or more of a frequent spender, and not frequent flyer?


All the best.
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Thanks for your response and certainly appreciate the honesty. I don't really have high expectations on what we can achieve within the time frame with regards to points, especially after looking into flight costs, however was just somewhat hopeful I guess.

We will be doing ~6 weeks in Europe and our intended flight path is PER - SIN (or DOH) - LHR there and then bouncing around internally and ultimately flying home from Athens. A wish was to try and see if we could get business on the second flight over to the UK and Singapore / Qatar seemed reasonable through VA, assuming I've searched up everything correctly.

With regards to my travel profile, we are more spenders than fliers and based in Perth.
 
Welcome fellow Westralian, there is much to learn here

Getting to Europe with points, is one of the crown jewels of AFFers, good luck
 
Welcome to AFF @liamthanks . yes a lot of info on this site. As for flights this September basically to get a J award you would have to have the points ready to go by October. So unless you have a stash of credit card points you will probably find it difficult. one possible way is to check all the credit cards for a sign on bonus but make sure it comes quickly ie with a minimum spend you could meet fairly easily.

As to Qantas or Virgin when you are not a very frequent flyer Qantas makes it a little more difficult by really requiring a QF branded CC to send points there way. Quite frankly I am starting to prefer VA to accumulate points as they do have some good partner awards such as SQ and QR.
Qantas on the other hand is getting quite hard to get awards and the problems they have had with partner awards scares me.

For Europe my plan is get to SIN (or DOH if you prefer) and then get the award from there to Europe. That part is easier than getting anything out of Australia.
So all the best and remember the most important part of the trip is not the flights but your marriage.
 
Welcome Liam - definitely looks like there's already the commitment for spending in the coming months, leveraging that into points earn is an opportunity that many miss out on, and can help fund many future holidays and travel experiences!! Good luck
 
Welcome. There is lots to learn and lots of reading to do. You'll get heaps of information by reading and then asking the questions. Enjoy.
 
Welcome to AFF.
liamthanks said:
Hi there!

This forum looks to be very informative and full of helpful people, so as a relative flight-newbie, I'm keen to learn more about the system.
Speed Test
My partner and I are getting married (symbolically) in Italy in September next year, so with a heap of expenses coming up involving that as well as all the related travel and material purchases involved, we want to work out what it the best point system and credit card to work with. I spent some time yesterday looking into the benefits of both Qantas and Velocity and have been a bit stumped with what feels like a complicated system for a new-user. Hoping to get some guidance here and pointed in the right direction where I can find the information I need.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
 
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