You gotta find the absolute basic award availability… not the dynamic ‘any seat for points’, the latter which just converts the airfare into points and charges accordingly.
Thanks. I’m pretty disappointed, given the effort I made to switch from QFF and churn a few cards. I need a return flight to LOS next year and paying with Velocity points plus cash via Qatar is almost as much as buying a regular ticket from TK!
This is a good point. I was only talking to my wife about this the other day. We have always saved our points for international travel and now (especially with the new system) I think we might do as you have suggested and do it in reverse. Last year we spent $13000 on domestic travel $6000 on international. I am pretty sure after t doing the sums we will be better off paying for our international travel (in J) and then using the points for domestic travel.
My regular - weekly - flights used to be MEL-SYD business class, $700 for the return. Using point for those flights was pretty easy and meant the $620 saved (after VA charges) would buy me 30k aeroplan points when on sale. 45k aeroplan points gets you one way to anywhere in southern asia business class. Redeem 3 MEL-SYD returns on points and I had a return business class to Bangkok on thai or singapore airlines.
The value, if you can find it, is in premium fares, not economy. And because VA has such tiny premium cabins, finding award space internationally is very hard. You can fly on partner airlines such as Singapore… you could maybe redeem points one way on Singapore airline business class to somewhere, and fly Scoot or jetstar back?
So you mean transferring Velocity to Kris, or booking SQ flights with Velocity points?
Best to compare both but for me, seems better value (looking for saver on points) transferring VA to SQ then booking through SQ. That way also guarantees seat choice.
That’s the trip I’m (still) more interested in!
Thanks - more great advice!The other issue you’ll have is trying to find five reward seats if you want to all fly on the same flights.
A number of times I’ve used points to fly one member of the family and the others on a cash fare and I’m only booking for a family of three. Five seats together is rare. Another option is to travel separately, potentially even via different routes to get to the same destination. When we’ve gone to Europe in the past I went via SIN because I wanted the cash fare on SQ to earn me status, but the rest of the family went via MNL. It just depends what’s available around the dates you need.
I guess you haven’t got to West Africa yet?
Sorry but 350,000 is not a lot of points to try and do reward trips for five people
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
It does to a certain degree depend on the type of fares you’re redeeming domestically. If someone was mainly buying cheaper economy fares, the savings might not be there. But if you’re flying business or highly flexible fares then the savings can be substantial for as little as 15k ff points.I was redirected here from this AFF article:
Is Redeeming Points for Domestic Flights Better Value Than International?
Many frequent flyers save their points to use for long-haul Business Class flights. That's a sexy redemption, but does this strategy it still make the most sense?
It opened my eyes definitely - I've been doing the opposite - paying for domestic, and trying to upgrade in international and not usually succeeding - I will now try this technique of doing the opposite...
It's on my radar and I'd be interested to hear more of your travels, eg independent travel or tours, kids ok or not, etc.
Following the logic of the article, those 125k VA points would bank you $620x4 =$2,480.00. You only need $1800 for Aeroplan points SYD-DOH. Plus $200 taxes.
For me, it's purely a 'points value' equation - I have always used points for domestic reward travel when prices are high and I can get circa 2 points / $ value - eg, going SYD-MEL return shortly and the prices were circa $500+ pp return Friday night -Sunday vs decent 'classic reward' seat values (and that was for 6 of us, so the overall saving was very decent as well!)I was redirected here from this AFF article:
Is Redeeming Points for Domestic Flights Better Value Than International?
Many frequent flyers save their points to use for long-haul Business Class flights. That's a sexy redemption, but does this strategy it still make the most sense?
It opened my eyes definitely - I've been doing the opposite - paying for domestic, and trying to upgrade in international and not usually succeeding - I will now try this technique of doing the opposite...
