QANTAS redemption rates

[bob342]

At the moment I get the majority of points from my Credit Card spend and the odd business class trip to Asia, Europe or the US (probably only once every 18 months).

I was looking at getting a QANTAS CC and aligning myself QANTAS, I like flying with them, and it would be kinda nice to not have to do the 'do you take amex' dance anymore.

I went onto the QANTAS website and punched in some dates in August and September next year to see what the reward flight situation in business was - it was abysmal. The dates I punched in had no availability with QANTAS at all. I tried about 4 different dates and the closet was QANTAS to HK and then Cathay to London....on the way back the options were bad.

Went onto Singapore air, bam - flights to London and back with Singapore - first go, no issues. 232k points.....If I did find a flight with QANTAS it would have cost 50k more points!

Other than just having a rant, I want to know if is this pretty typical? It seems like it would be POINTLESS to align with QANTAS for reward flights if the redemption rates are awful. I'm never going to be platinum (sometimes I get gold) so any preferential reward flights are simply not going to happen.

 

[Bell21]

That seems pretty typical to me - btw, not only the points you reference, but the fuel surcharges on QF too also make it a not overly attractive to use points with them (but good to have QF as one option in your toolkit)

 

[bob342]

Thanks. I think I'm leaning to just sticking with the AMEX and just transferring the points to the airline at the time. Would be nice to have consolidated onto one card though

 

[Bell21]

It's really the best way to do things IMO - then you have multiple airlines to consider although probably that's a bit dependent on your card choices - if you an Amex plat, then you can transfer to qf or others as suits - if you don't have AMEX plat, then it can be handy to have both a qf and non-qf earning card to give yourself options if your spend allows for it --- I know it's a bit more work. Sq is a useful program to have access to esp if travelling with more than one

 

[RichardMEL]

All good points above and a good strategy.. but also of course with QF status helps to unlock reward availabiloity. If you have little or no status then the pickings will indeed be slim.