Points for taxes still very high?

[Warks]

Hey there flyers.
I've been very infrequent through here in the last year due to lack of flying so apologies if this topic is buried here somewhere. I find it very difficult to find much in this forum due to something wrong in my head that doesn't quite meld with the layout of these pages since it changed a few years back. But that's my fault.

Anyway...
I was just looking at a QFF award flight SYD-MEL which of course is still 16 000 points. The taxes on this fare are now $24.18 - I think it was quite a bit more with the surcharges a while ago. However the option to pay these taxes with points is another 11 000 points!
If you value the ticket at $198 (red-E deal price) that's 80.8 points per dollar. For the taxes that's 454.9 points per dollar!
I know this is not rocket science to you guys and you'd be mad not to pay the cash but I wonder if this is something that Qantas has not yet updated in line with the decline in surcharges?
I flew SYD-BNE a couple of years ago and paid the taxes with points as at the time I had plenty of points but very little money. I'm sure it was a better deal than this at the time!

Carry on!

 

[serfty]

Actually, Qantas announced yesterday they were dropping the amount of point required for domestic segments to 3000.

For the last few weeks it had been 5,500 and this was down from the 6000 cost of the last year or two.

This is a 50% reduction in the point cost since mid last year - still not good enough when you consider the average

for a domestic segment has reduced by over 60%.

FWIW, I have always felt these Points for

options were never really good value - they are now even worse value. :-|

 

[Warks]

Thanks serfty, just got that email. So if I searched now it would be a lower number of points as it came into effect at midnight.

You're right - still not worth it.

 

[nlagalle]

You're right - still not worth it.

The problem is, that in the classic awards there are no real $$ value attached to the points as the points are based on distance.

On the amex travel site the points are based at 1point = 1 cent (10,000pts for $100) so you can use the slider bar to determine points v cash to pay. Perhaps Qantas need to do a similar thing (as they have in the store) so you can pay the taxes with points but based on a $ value as opposed to flat rate amount.

Nick

 

[dajop]

If anyone is seriously considering paying 3,000 pts/sector for taxes associated with an award booking for domestic flights (except for perhaps places like AYQ which have exhorbitant airport charges), I'll happily be someone's First Cousin/Uncle/Nephew/Brother-in-law and you can transfer the pts to me and I'll pay for your taxes on my credit card

This way I could get 6,000 pts for something like $25 (as are the taxes on a return MEL-SYD flight), and that would make a return business class to Europe only about $1K. Illustrates how ridiculous this is.

 

[JohnK]

Still not worthwhile using QFF points to pay for taxes and surcharges even at 3,000 QFF points per sector.

Not much we can do and I am sure some people who earn QFF points from huge credit card spend will see value in burning QFF points anyway they possible can.