Which is more economical -FF points or shopping around to find best deal?

[joyvee]

Having read many AFF posts, I wonder how effective it is to use FF points. Seems fine if you fly a lot on business, tie it to a lot of shopping points or have to pay income tax ( ie not PAYE) and can accrue lots of points. However if you fly infrequently, consume carefully and don't have to pay extra income tax, is it worthwhile building up a stash of points?
Seems most people here use AA or QF points. Am I correct in my assumption?

As a person who flies interstate about 6 times a year and would go overseas about once a year, although it has been twice p.a for last two years, I think it is better for me to use sale fares domestically and shop around for international flights leaving from an Asian hub.

However I have not worked this out mathematically. Think Choice magazine may have done points analysis in past.

So my question is, what is most advantageous way of affordable air travel? Points or direct sales from airlines or various expedia sites or ?????
thanks for your input. Joy

 

[stewiejp]

Depends on what you value your points at. Personally I prefer a bargain over points and I'm in the same boat as yourself regarding flights. IMO I'm better off buying my fruit and vegies at the local market and getting better quality than paying a premium for Woolies or Coles "fresh" food, with or without bonus points. Having said that, I like a good bottle of wine here and there and I see value in joining and earning points at Epiqure as well as Cellarmasters every now and then which nets me a good deal of points for the $ I would have spent at Uncle Dan's anyway. We also put most of our expenditure on the Qantas card which gives us a few thousand points a month + whatever we get at Woolies, fuel etc. Having said that I wouldn't recommend ever paying interest on a credit card, that would negate any points gain.

In regards to flights you simply need to work out what each point is worth to you, and if flying the points carrying airline (in my case Qantas and Jetstar) costs more, see if the points are worth it. Status Credits (which most on this forum see as more valuable than points) are another matter. 6 (return) flights + 1 international a year should give you a few points and SC's if they are on the same airline/group, especially if flying business.

 

[joyvee]

Trouble is that I usually fly whichever domestic flight is cheapest on the travel date - QF is invariably much more expensive as it is on OS flights. Fly Y domestically and now fly Y from here to BKK and J from there to Europe. Haven't got any margin to accrue many points - but am happy to be proved wrong.
this site seems best suited to verry frequent flyers who use QF or AA from my reading of the posts. Any hints to enable me to fly more economicallyor more often are welcome. Joy

 

[Joshua]

To answer the original question, there is no answer it just varies between what you want, where and when you're going and what's available. What you're doing internationally sounds fine, you could potentially improve it by getting a one way to Asia then booking it in reverse. Sometimes you may be able to combine your domestic flights with international itineraries as large stopover if you know your dates ahead of time.

There are plenty of ways out there to maximise your personal situation, I remain a comfortably poor student but have been WP for several years now, stick to flying J/F internationally - it can be done with points and cash. So I would them as mutually inclusive to getting whatever suits your desires. And if you're flying relatively infrequently then probably ignore the status junket, just fly cheap domestically and pick the best offering at the time internationally.