Spending points/Airline/Getting free QF membership

[PLANT]

Hi there,

Have CBA card with 400,000 points
Want to go Brisbane to Heathrow Business class RETURN.
Which is the best FF club/airline to go with/join?
How many points including TAXES?

Can you transfer CBA points into another family members QFF account?
Can you then allocate the tickets to a another family member name from the QFF club?

Any Free credit cards giving FREE QF frequnt flyer club on join up?
Any cheaper than paying the $80? $90 bucks to join QF?

regards

 

[Commuter]

What sort of CBA card? Conversion ratio to FF points appear to vary depending on the type of card.

 

[PLANT]

Whoops sorry Basic/Standard CBA card.

 

[coyote25]

It's difficult to answer all those questions without knowing the CBA conversion rate and when you want to leave, I'll just cover off on QFF program.

Heathrow Business class RETURN costs 256,000, taxes need to be added onto this.

You can't transfer CBA points to anyone but yourself (or that used to be the case). However you can allocate 100,000 points to another family member from your QFF account per year. Having said that there is nothing stopping you getting an award ticket for a family member from your QFF account.

The only 'free' QFF membership I know of is the Earth card (www.earth.com.au) however you'll need to pay the annual fee. There promotions however also usually come with points so it can still be worth it. Keep in mind it can take up to 6 weeks to get the QFF membership via Earth (took a friend 2 weeks but plan for worst) so this might be a problem depending on how soon you wish to go.

Finally keep in mind it can be difficult to get an award seat to London at any time. It does seem to be a little easier now that the airlines are struggling for business passengers but still it can be hard.

Doing a dummy booking there are seats available 7 May 2009 returning 21 May 2009. Actually there are heaps of dates available but keep in mind you'll still need to be flexible. Good luck.

 

[2muchplastic]

Easiest way of getting a free QFF memebership is registering with a non AUS/NZ address (I used my semi-valid UK address - I still own the place!), then miraculously move to Aus a couple of weeks later and $82.50 is saved.

QF only make locals pay for membership for some reason.

 

[medhead]

NAB offered me free QFF membership as part of the changes in their cards to direct earn with qantas. This was for a gold rewards card.

Otherwise the earth card might be a good deal, annual fee of $75 and you can get 5000 bonus points if you apply by 10 Jan. Slightly better value then buying membership directly.

 

[straitman]

Hi there,

Have CBA card with 400,000 points

regards

PLANT,

Standard CBA card is a 50% ratio so 400,000 points equal 200,000 QF FF points.

 

[PLANT]

If I get platinum will my existing points go across to this card and be used in Frequent flyer 1:1?

 

[serfty]

If I get platinum will my existing points go across to this card and be used in Frequent flyer 1:1?

Yes, presumably I doubled my QFF transfer redemption value should I wish to go there ...

 

[Schebesta]

I was also offered free QFF membership with my altitude card as they were closing up the swap over.

 

[JohnK]

QF only make locals pay for membership for some reason.

There is very little competition to QF in Australia whereas overseas QF needs to compete with local airlines for frequent flyer membership so they waive the joining fee.

 

[2muchplastic]

There is very little competition to QF in Australia whereas overseas QF needs to compete with local airlines for frequent flyer membership so they waive the joining fee.

And I wonder how many people actually pay in Aus/NZ?

It probably works as a deterrent to those people who only take one or two short flights a year, and I can understand Qantas wanting to ensure that they don't clutter up their FF membership databases with the very occasional flyer, who would take ten years to be able to work up enough points for a simple MEL-SYD return.

I guess it's easy to get away with things like this when you have a virtual monopoly really.

 

[JohnK]

And I wonder how many people actually pay in Aus/NZ?

With 5,000,000+ Qantas frequent flyer members I would say the percentage that have paid for membership is quite high. I had no hesitation paying the membership in 2003.

 

[2muchplastic]

With 5,000,000+ Qantas frequent flyer members I would say the percentage that have paid for membership is quite high. I had no hesitation paying the membership in 2003.

I personally would find it rather galling to have to pay, knowing that every other country around the world apart from NZ get the membership for free. They can get away with it purely due to their almost monopolistic position in the country.

My feeling is that you have to entice me to become a loyal customer, and the wrong way to do that is by slugging me with an $82.50 joining fee.

 

[Mal]

My feeling is that you have to entice me to become a loyal customer, and the wrong way to do that is by slugging me with an $82.50 joining fee.

Credit cards use the same stunt, and then charge forex conversion fees, high levels of Interest, late payment fees and the rest ... I don't see them as being much different (just a different type of pond scum maybe!).

 

[2muchplastic]

Credit cards use the same stunt, and then charge forex conversion fees, high levels of Interest, late payment fees and the rest ... I don't see them as being much different (just a different type of pond scum maybe!).

Coming from the UK, and not that long ago, I find it very different here for banks/credit cards and finances in general.
In the UK, there are generally no CC annual fees, no monthly bank account fees, no joining fees for loyalty schemes, and clearly all of those institutions still make money. (And before everyone starts telling me that I should bugger off back if it was that good - it wasn't. That's why I decided to move my family 11000 miles, but while most UK-Oz differences are Oz positive, this is probably the only negative)

I guess that it is very difficult to change the status quo with the existing players. It needs a new entrant to shake things up a little, but who have a business plan that can take into account the small but spread out population of Australia and still make it pay.

 

[tuapekastar]

I personally would find it rather galling to have to pay, knowing that every other country around the world apart from NZ get the membership for free. They can get away with it purely due to their almost monopolistic position in the country.

My feeling is that you have to entice me to become a loyal customer, and the wrong way to do that is by slugging me with an $82.50 joining fee.

I joined QFF in 1996 and cannot recall if there was a joining fee (I suspect there was), or how much it was, but there was a a short period (only a year or two) in the late 90s/early 00s where they charged an annual fee!! ($20 IIRC, though I think others here may recall a different amount).

 

[serfty]

The short lived (~18 month?) annual fee was $25.

There was a joining fee in 1995 ... I'll see if I can find what it was.

 

[Dave Noble]

Coming from the UK, and not that long ago, I find it very different here for banks/credit cards and finances in general.
In the UK, there are generally no CC annual fees, no monthly bank account fees, no joining fees for loyalty schemes, and clearly all of those institutions still make money. (And before everyone starts telling me that I should bugger off back if it was that good - it wasn't. That's why I decided to move my family 11000 miles, but while most UK-Oz differences are Oz positive, this is probably the only negative)

I guess that it is very difficult to change the status quo with the existing players. It needs a new entrant to shake things up a little, but who have a business plan that can take into account the small but spread out population of Australia and still make it pay.

Maintaining a balance of $5000, I pay no bank fees on my account and NAB has a gold account which charges no fee if you deposit $5000 a month, so free banking is available

As far as fining people for debt cards go... there are various cards around which do have no annual fees

Dave

 

[2muchplastic]

Maintaining a balance of $5000, I pay no bank fees on my account and NAB has a gold account which charges no fee if you deposit $5000 a month, so free banking is available

As far as fining people for debt cards go... there are various cards around which do have no annual fees

Dave

I seen that the fee-free cards and accounts are available, they're just not available to a "new entrant" (I tried and the computer said "No"). So I just have to smile and pay the fees for a another year or so until I have enough of a history to be able to get what I want.