Program recommendations needed for travel within Australia and to SE Asia

[SARoberts]

in my new job i will be doing alot of travelling over the next 12-24 months:

- domestic Australian (4 trips)
- Australia to: Indonesia, Malaysia, NZ, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, Vietnam (over a few separate trips)

i want to earn points primarily to redeem for upgrades as i will have to travel economy (ouch!)

having previously been too bargain obsessed (hello garuda) to ever accrue points - i have no idea how to assess programs on offer - i have been assiduously reading posts but the jargon and accronyms are confusing for this newbie ....

what do people recommend?

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF.

Not an easy question to answer. Do you have a choice of carrier? I assume with 4 domestic trips that these will be on Qantas.

The places you listed are not all possible with Qantas or Oneworld so in order to accumulate points for upgrades you will need to stay loyal to an alliance like Oneworld or Star Alliance. Since you have domestic flights as well as the international flights your best bet would be to join the Qantas frequent flyer program and start accumulating points with any Qantas flights, partner and Oneworld flights, hotel stays, credit cards etc.

I would recommend that you spend a fair bit of time studying the ways of earning and spending points on the Qantas website.

I hope that helps and if you need further advice it would probably be better to ask specific questions as you may receive much more detailed information.

 

[Keith009]

For your needs, I think the Qantas scheme might suit as Qantas does fly to quite a few of these places. Qantas codeshares operated by partners count as Qantas flights for all intents and purposes of QFF accrual and status credits (though not for upgrades using points).

Actual Qantas flights:
Singapore
NZ
Thailand - BKK
Indonesia - Jakarta

Interline/codeshares:
Malaysia - fares are offered to Malaysian cities via SIN, you go onwards to Malaysia on SQ or MH on the same ticket
Vietnam - codeshare operated by Vietnam Airlines

Additionally Jetstar flies to coughet and Vietnam - if you can convince the powers to be to pay up a little for Starclass you'd get business class accrual and status credits on QFF.

Your only snag is the UAE, but Cathay Pacific, a oneworld partner of Qantas does fly to a few places in the UAE.

Your other option would be to split domestic and international flying into different programs, and consider a Star Alliance carrier for your overseas travels. Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer does allow upgrades using miles and when combined with points from a credit card scheme can be an effective scheme for your needs. Though with recent 'enhancements' your chances for an upgrade are dwindling as they've barred upgrades into certain premium cabins on select aircraft types.

Thai Airways' Royal Orchid is another possibility but has a very unattractive burn rate - though they do give you upgrade vouchers when you hit Gold status, which can be used on Thai flights.

Others around here also like the NZ program which I understand has a variety of upgrade options, however I am not familiar with that program.

 

[SARoberts]

thank you both very much for your responses - i have 'direction' now