Which points are more valuable... and for what?

[ffhound]

Hi all

I was just reading the thread about people cancelling credit cards and noticed one of the posters had cancelled some cards to concentrate on a card that accrued Krisflyer points.

Personally I have concentrated on Qantas and Velocity points with my cards. Qantas have a bigger network but of course Virgin don't charge fuel surcharges.

But Krisflyer? Are there advantages to going with krisflyer, or Airmiles, or any of the other possible schemes one can accrue miles/points on.

Dollar for dollar which is the best program that one can accrue miles/points with an Australian credit card on and why?

cheers Peter

 

[BacchusMarsh]

Hi all

I was just reading the thread about people cancelling credit cards and noticed one of the posters had cancelled some cards to concentrate on a card that accrued Krisflyer points.

Personally I have concentrated on Qantas and Velocity points with my cards. Qantas have a bigger network but of course Virgin don't charge fuel surcharges.

But Krisflyer? Are there advantages to going with krisflyer, or Airmiles, or any of the other possible schemes one can accrue miles/points on.

Dollar for dollar which is the best program that one can accrue miles/points with an Australian credit card on and why?

cheers Peter

For starters, one thing to consider is the Membership Rewards points that come with an Amex Platinum Charge card, which can transfer to any of the programs you've mentioned. That way you can hit each program in its sweet spot.

 

[ffhound]

For starters, one thing to consider is the Membership Rewards points that come with an Amex Platinum Charge card, which can transfer to any of the programs you've mentioned. That way you can hit each program in its sweet spot.

What are the sweet spots for each program? If you could accrue miles/points on one airline program from an OZ credit card, which would you accrue? And why?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Dollar for dollar which is the best program that one can accrue miles/points with an Australian credit card on and why?

That's impossible to say. It will depend entirely upon what people want to spend the points on.

For me it's Qantas because they have the flights that I want to use points for.

 

[ffhound]

In terms of Qantas v Velocity I recently wanted to book a flight to New Caledonia. And Virgin don't have a partner that fly there. So that was an easy choice. But if Virgin flew there I would used my Velocity points because I would have saved on fuel surcharges.

There is an upside. I get to see what Aircalin service is like. Mind you, if I had miles in Air France's mileage scheme I would have had another option to redeem points.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In terms of premium award availability, both business and first, Singapore airlines is pretty good. The sheer number of flights generally means you can go where you want, when you want. In the Qantas program, only Emirates comes close-ish in terms of availability (unless you have status to ask QF to release seats on QF flights).

SQ's redemption tables are also fairly generous... fly first class on SQ's A380 for just a few points more than QF's business class prices.

But SQ points may be more difficult to come by.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't fly often enough to share my "loyalty" around, so Qantas gets it all. So far we have done well with QF and OW carriers (earning and burning) when flying long haul. Sure the QF redemptions are a little heavy on the taxes etc, but we have redeemed points on other carriers and that works well enough.

 

[amaroo]

Airlines are cunning. Qantas has linked status with award / upgrade availability .... where one goes, the others will follow.

 

[tgh]

As retirees ,our primary source of points is everyday spend but they do mount up.
The elephant in the room is clearly the linking of Status with seat availability.

As a bronze you can fly almost anywhere in Y , (+ a hefty tax) , but try finding J to a popular long haul destination and you have Buckleys.
We are flying J BNE>JFK in a few months ; at the time of booking swmbo was gold and I was back to silver.
There was no availability for a silver even at 350 days x min and y seconds (or whatever that magical key date is , I have forgotten) , but gold had good availability.

Next year we will probably both be back to bronze as we will not pay for the roo to Europe , preferring the EK product
We are still earning qff points, but if we ever have to pay for a card to do that , it's game over.

 

[get me outta here]

As a lowly QF LTS but only bkg a single seat, I am usually lucky if I book the max days out. I have no status on VA points and they have always gone toward SQ. Next year, am returning to JFK via FRA on SQ F.

Returning on CX bkd via QF JFK - HKG - SYD in J.

 

[JohnK]

That question has different meaning for different people.

Some can generate points faster than others.

Some decide to generate points in the program where they do most of their flying.

The easiest way to answer the question is to know what you want to achieve. For me it was Oneworld awards so it was a no brainer to accumulate QFF points. Also I don't mind the occasional business class flight so it makes sense to accumulate miles in MileagePlus or KrisFlyer.

 

[Limewood]

The problem is Qantas outrageous fees and charges when going award long haul out of OZ, reason we usually do a Y to HKG then out in J, virtually zilch CX fees and find flights plentiful to so many USA and European cities, Ok to USA its the long way around, but we love HK anyway, have few expat mates who reside there, and we can get direct CX award flights to a host of US cities and Canada and miss LA and the stopover.

 

[cove]

If you all promise to keep this a secret Kris Miles are worth about twice a QF point based on Qantas metal availability. I just picked up our youngest son this morning where he flew home from LAX in J on Saver miles. He did get First class on the way over.
I used QF points to get my eldest son to Russia and back on Emirates in First.

 

[TonyHancock]

There is no one size fits all when it comes to FF programs.

At the moment Avios are the highest value points for me, but I am sure that will change if and when my flying patterns change.

 

[LA10]

There is no one size fits all when it comes to FF programs.

At the moment Avios are the highest value points for me, but I am sure that will change if and when my flying patterns change.

Agree. I'm liking Alaska at the moment.