SE Asia using QFF &/or Citibank Reward points

[quality]

Hi! Several years ago I had a last chance at transferring Citibank Reward points across to Qantas and I placed a bet each way and moved only some. There appears to have been a marked devaluation in the buying power of each type of point since I last used them about ten years ago.

At the end of the day, I've got hundreds of thousands of both Qantas FF and Citibank reward points, and at last want to use some to leave for SE Asia in the next week or two, staying for 3 to 4 weeks. I've left things to the last minute due to an impending change of employment and the need to take some holidays ASAP after having none for nearly three years.

Destination preferences would include Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong/China, Vietnam roughly in that order (open to other countries though).

Looks like I could go to BKK with Qantas for 72,000 points return PLUS $461.38, or with CB points for around 174,000 points all inclusive (Qantas or MA). That said, CB will trade 18,600 points for a $100 debit card and then I guess I could look on the open market for BNE or OOL to BKK (via MEL if necessary).

Any tips or suggestions as to best approach in what will no doubt be a time consuming search on various flight related websites?


Thanks!

 

[FrankC]

Have you considered transferring points from Citibank to Singapore Air?
You can sign up for a free account with Singapore Air and search for flights there

 

[doctau]

Have you considered transferring points from Citibank to Singapore Air?
You can sign up for a free account with Singapore Air and search for flights there

+1 to this. Perth/Darwin are Zone 8 for SQ, and the rest of Australia is Zone 9. The country you list are Zone 3/4, see http://www.singaporeair.com/pdf/ppsclub_krisflyer/charts/SQMI_OneWayAwardCharts.pdf

You'd definitely want to check availability first, but there may be some SQ Saver awards left. Citi points transfer 1.5:1 to SQ, and you get a 15% discount booking online.

For example Zone 9 to 3/4 is 25k miles in Y, 55k in J and 75k in F each way if there is a Saver award left (plus taxes). That would be 31.875, 70.125 or 95.625k citi points each way. The hard part may be finding Saver fares a few weeks out, but it doesn't hurt to check.

 

[burmans]

SQ are pretty good at late availability so would be my best bet too.

You could always do SQ one way and QF back but I believe SQ has much higher likelihood of availability.

 

[quality]

Thanks for the Singapore Air pointers.

I've just signed up with Krisflyer having confirmed CB can transfer points to the program. The transfer potentially takes a long time but it seems like it usually happens in a few days (though this introduces a risk factor given my time frame). At a glance, it seems that the converted points may be more useful than they would have been as QFF points. A trial redemption gave me BNE-SIN 22000 points plus $258.43 (the 50% off promo seems to have limited availability).

Interesting to see SYD-MNL for $159/197 all inclusive w/wo luggage on some days (wondering about possible cheap connecting flights elsewhere). I'll keep pouring over the options.

 

[Alanslegal]

Singapore Airlines availability - even in Saver awards - poops all over what Qantas will ever release, and if you ever get a seat on Qantas it's probably to a place where you don't really need to go to SQ gets you to most useful places in Asia/Europe with one stop and the scenic way to the USA but hey at least you go there and not stuck at home with Qantas points

 

[Jungking]

You could also have a look at Virgin, I've found the pricing of points between Virgin and Qantas fares are at least 10k points lower on Virgin's website