Opinions

[Drago_au]

I understand that everyone has different circumstances and I'm very new to this so I'm looking to the experience and knowledge here for suggestions;

Background -
I am not the main grocery shopper in the household but do buy periodically (could be anywhere between $20 - $100 /w). I have one vehicle which is filled between $40 - $80/month. The standard things like Phone / Internet / Insurances / Membership Fees etc are all siphoned onto Credit at the moment. My current earnings would be sufficient for all cards mentioned and credit rating should not be an issue. To take full advantage of the points earning I would be putting most of my spend on Credit (always paid off in full).

Qantas (Bronze) - My main awards program is the Qantas FF program, with a tally of about 125,000 points, currently earned mainly through CC signup bonuses and EDR plus the occasional flight. I currently have the ANZ FF Card (Visa / AMEX) and Qantas Premium AMEX. EDR are currently being earned at Woolworths and Caltex (but I don't have any particular loyalty to these brands, its just they currently are the most convenient).

Velocity (Red) - Very small (> 5000) in Virgin Velocity program.

One possible option I have been looking at is the AMEX Platinum Edge and Citi Rewards Platinum VISA and then transferring points from their respective programs into another program (Velocity / AA / KrisFlyer etc)

I am not a frequent flyer and have no loyalty to any particular airline, but am getting to the point where travelling may become more frequent and would change my shopping habits to take advantage of offers (eg grocery / fuel) to maximise the points.

All things considered, do you think it better to stay where I am and build on what I already have, or change to something else that is more suitable?

If there is anything I haven't covered , questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mooingchicken]

The thing I don't like about Qantas is they are all opt in or nothing this is not a problem if you just want to fly Qantas though.
Other cards you have mentioned you can warehouse points and transfer to whichever airline you wish when you are ready to book, so more flexibility...

Really it depends who you prefer to fly with, Qantas have all of the one world, their taxes are higher than virgins, but virgin have smaller partner airlines (SQ taxes are also high). I don't know much about AA but it seems good for some people
SQ have really good award availability it seems, but higher taxes and award rates.

Where will you be flying to a from? to america flying SQ you have to go the long way, not so with AA/Qantas/Virgin. Europe is probably all pretty even

 

[Alanslegal]

At the upper end of $100/week for groceries and $80/month for petrol, your spend amount is quite small to make good benefit from many of the frequent flyer cards available.

With an Edge card for example, you will be receiving 300 points per week from supermarkets and 160 points per month from petrol, that works out annually to be around 17,520 Edge points.
You can double dip by shopping at Woolworths where you get 70 points from Qantas each week (1 point per $1 over $30) and buy petrol from BP where you get 2 points per litre, assuming petrol averages $1.5 per litre, $80 per month works out to be 53.3 litres, so 106 veolcity points per month .... that works out to be 3,640 qantas points and 1,272 velocity points every year.

Therefore you will receive on $100 groceries per week and $80 petrol per month:-

17,520 American Express Ascent points (can covert to Singapore Kris Flyer at 1:1)
3,6420 Qantas points
1,272 Velocity points (that can convert to Singapore Kris Flyer at 1.35:1)

Personally, I would be looking at credit card sign on promotions to top up your points balance faster and/or relying on buying airlines points when they have promotional specials on. This would be the quickest and easiest way to earn points fast to - so you can fly to where ever you want to go to.

 

[Drago_au]

Thanks for your responses so far. At the moment most of my flights have been domestic or short distance Int. The next planned flights will be Asia followed by some flights to the US, so there may be more points earning potential there but i would obviously rather get good strategy now to build on. I guess for now I will stick with what I have until i find something more suitable.

 

[Alanslegal]

To earn Velocity points fast - you can sign up to a couple of credit cards right now and earn 140,000 of them. American Express Velocity has a current promo that gives you 80,000 of them (it was 110,000 just last month) and a NAB Velocity Card that gives you 60,000 points. Sign up one for yourself, and if you have a partner - two cards for them too, that's a combined 280,000 Velocity points for not too much work. The cards do have annual fees of $349 and $150 respectively, but earn the points, cancel the card within 12 months and you are good. You also get a free return domestic flight with Virgin Australia too.

You can also choose to transfer the 240,000 velocity points to Kris Flyer at 1.35 to 1, so you would net 177,777 KF That is 2 x one way from Australia to Europe in Business Class, with some points left over.