Wasted award redemptions

[kamchatsky]

Not sure if this thread already exist. But I just want to share my experience of wasted award redemption. More like a rant to get it out of my chest, I hope you understand my frustration:

Rant start

I just booked the following trip for 2 in August:

CX Y SYD-xHKG-LHR
AY Y LHR-HEL
AY Y HEL-ZRH
CX Y AMS-xHKG-SYD

for 280K points (2 * Y OneWorld Award) and 1500AUD taxes total.

Whilst I am happy that we are going to Europe (never been there), I know that with the points available, I could come back via New York or even South America, but no, my better half doesn't want to do this and also worried about US swine flu.

I discussed that on per person basis, Australia would have highest swine flu cases in the world. But she didn't buy it. So I ended up using OneWorld RTW award on simple Europe return plus 2 intra-Europe flights. With tickets to Europe so cheap these days ($1400 return) I felt that I have wasted my points. But she insisted that we burn the points since we have so much from last year's Amex promo. I understand where she is coming from, but I know that I have just burned 280K points for $1300AUD .....

Right now I have some backup with 2 * Y SYD-xSIN-LON (71500 points) and 2 * J AMS-xSIN-SYD (112500 points) Krisflyer Saver Award waitlisted on Singapore Airlines. If it actually comes through, then even with J from Europe, and redeeming points separately in Europe, I would still come ahead on Qantas FF.

May be I should be grateful that I can actually book award tix to Europe in peak season. The plus side for this is that I am going to stay 13 nights Europe on PriorityClub PointBreaks so I do feel a lot better.

Rant finished

Now I feel much better. I hope others won't have the same frustration as I have. Thank you for reading.

 

[medhead]

Really, this is an issue with your other half. What I do in these situations is randomly bring up how we could have done better and we wasted all thsoe points for the rest of my life. For example, I think we could have done a few thousand dollars better on buying our house. But the other half insisted we buy it for more. So now every 6 months or so I just start a conversation about how we could have done better

On the question of price - have you actually priced the trip, not just picked up the headline sale price? I'm looking for flights to FRA and despite the headline $1470 price the best I can find is $2000 to $2500 within a few days of the desired dates.

 

[albatross710]

In my experience, I find that I notch it up to experience and feel better for having learnt the lessons. The more experience I have, the more expensive the lessons. I think about how many points I will save in the future having learnt the lesson this time.

I method I have used is similar to "there were only flights available via USA"

 

[dajop]

CX Y SYD-xHKG-LHR
AY Y LHR-HEL
AY Y HEL-ZRH
CX Y AMS-xHKG-SYD
.

Your are right, a waste of points. However, with the assumption you won't be able to change your other half's mind you still have two stopovers and 11,000 miles unused.

Use this for another trip in 11 months time, that's less than 5,500 miles away (ie Asia, NZ or Australia). You just need to start the trip from somewhere other than SYD (eg CBR) - and pay for a fare to get to CBR to start the trip. Then your return to SYD can be used as the fourth stopver (ideally you'd reroute CBR-MEL-HKG or CBR-BNE-HKG as you can only transit SYD twice, and it could restrict your options for where the second trip goes to).

 

[kamchatsky]

I just had a new thought. We still have 500K Amex points from last year's promo. I just checked Amex and it looks like I can just buy the QF/BA/SQ tickets online with Amex MR points (eg SYD-LHR return on Y for 2 is 288862 points, which is a little bit more than Qantas OW RTW Award but I don't think I need to pay the taxes.

If that is the case, then I can arrange intra-Europe flights/trains (LHR-HEL-ZRH, AMS-LHR) using points and save myself at least 1000AUD.
Just wondering whether these tickets purchased in Amex using points earn Qantas points or not, and whether anyone else have issues with this before? Also I assume purchasing tickets with these points is that these tickets are non-refundable? Of course I am aware I am losing the flexibility of these Amex points that can be directed to everywhere else.

From Amex website I also noticed that Etihad and Virgin Atlantic are also on sale.

 

[harvyk]

Yeah, you've really gotta wonder about some of the ways you can "use points". I'm looking at doing an SFO trip again in a couple of months. I have two choices, fly over there for $1200 return and get 20k points, or fly over there on an award booking costing 40k points, and then fly back on a normal fare costing only $2000. So one way I'm 20K points and some $$ better off, the other way I'm 30K points and $800 down.

I've decided in a mute point anyway. Once you include taxes with points your paying nearly as much as discount Y. I'm personally saving them for a J ( \ U) or F flight to the US, which I'll simply pay for outright with points. (I've played lotto once, screw it, I'd rather simply purchase the fares on points)