Hey, Frequent Flyer point experts...?

[Andona]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

Calm down, I'm sure at this rate every Oz and NZ DISer will be a member of every FF program known to man by the end of the year. Then we can all have a gigantic meetup in WDW using our collective points to get us all there

Oh wouldn't that be luverly!!

And for all those award programs - Love keeping track of my points with awardwallet.com ( and their app while out and about) It's not just the Airline Awards memberships it the hotel ones too! When you travel in the USA a lot it really is worth signing up with them all - just love those hotel chains...

Andona

[Kangarucci]

Originally Posted by australiankaren

Oh GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOO..

ok, head is back between the knees....feeling faint.....oops there I go

I meant was the TA from FC as they are worse than useless!

[battymum]

Just to add, ia signed up my whole family to QFF last year before our trip (use woolworths rewards for no joining fee). You can then transfer the points once per year to a single account (mine). Anyway we hadn't collected points any other way and it was enough to save about $750 off our Japan flights using points plus pay! Winning!!

[JessNewbs]

Originally Posted by Kangarucci

Flight Centre?!!

Yep sure was, I guess I shouldn't ask how did you know then?

I will def. look into that Lounge too that sounds too good to pass up, $90 for all of us? Could help out a lot since we have eight flights in total!

Apparently all of the FF points are sorted but I will need to double check them of course and then I need to work out how to choose seats for all of our Hawaiian flights since we booked with flight centre!

[alicia1506]

we signed up for virgin ff points before our last trip, and we earnt approx 17000 points for our bne-lax flights... which i think is enough to get us from bne to maybe cairns, domestically. we cant combine our points, and we don't belong to any other points based programs for hotels or anything else...

thinking that maybe for our trip next year we should book delta as they codeshare with VA and could earn some extra ff points there.

we tend to stay onsite for disney/universal/wdw so wouldn't be eligible for any points usage there, and in the past we've used southwest, who won't allow us to join their ff points program as we're not usa citizens

[australiankaren]

Originally Posted by JessNewbs

Yep sure was, I guess I shouldn't ask how did you know then?

I will def. look into that Lounge too that sounds too good to pass up, $90 for all of us? Could help out a lot since we have eight flights in total!

Apparently all of the FF points are sorted but I will need to double check them of course and then I need to work out how to choose seats for all of our Hawaiian flights since we booked with flight centre!

https://www.delta.com/traveling_chec...ions/index.jsp

the lounge pass is great, especially for internal layovers..which by the look of things you may be doing a few

30-day membership Customers who have purchased a 30-day membership, which includes access to Delta Sky Club locations, Virgin Australia Lounges, and Alaska Board Rooms, as well as select Midwest, Air France, and KLM operated lounges. Starting Aug 1, 30-Day members and members holding a temporary membership card will no longer have access to the Virgin Australia Lounge.

30-day membership: Two, or spouse or domestic partner and children under 21

NOTE: it is valid from the day of purchase, so dont buy it in advance..either get it the night before you fly out, or at the desk at the first skylounge you visit.

[JessNewbs]

Originally Posted by australiankaren

https://www.delta.com/traveling_chec...ions/index.jsp

the lounge pass is great, especially for internal layovers..which by the look of things you may be doing a few

30-day membership Customers who have purchased a 30-day membership, which includes access to Delta Sky Club locations, Virgin Australia Lounges, and Alaska Board Rooms, as well as select Midwest, Air France, and KLM operated lounges. Starting Aug 1, 30-Day members and members holding a temporary membership card will no longer have access to the Virgin Australia Lounge.

30-day membership: Two, or spouse or domestic partner and children under 21

NOTE: it is valid from the day of purchase, so dont buy it in advance..either get it the night before you fly out, or at the desk at the first skylounge you visit.

Wonderful Thankyou!

[australiankaren]

have i mentioned how i hate soup..well I do....

i hate diets, exercise and the cold

soup suxs

glad to help re delta club, and they DONT have soup

[Marlea98]

Originally Posted by alicia1506

and in the past we've used southwest, who won't allow us to join their ff points program as we're not usa citizens

I just signed up with Southwest's Rapid Rewards. Isn't that the same thing as the ff's?

I'm having troubles with Delta signing up hubby and kids (long story, missed out on points for them last year ) as I keep getting messages they can't process my request and try again later

Can someone give a list of great airlines etc to sign up with that you've had success with?

I signed up with pretty much every hotel we stayed at on our last trip. I booked with Radisson in Buena Park for our first lot of accom on our last trip and signed up with them at the same time. It saved us money on checking in early when we got there at 8am - they saw we were members and waived the fee.

[JessNewbs]

I have had no problems with signing the whole family up with delta online. If you do , as australiankaren told me get them on twitter. I did that too and they can sort it out for you online while you wait!

and yay for no soup....I hate soup and I'm not even dieting!!

[Minniemum]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

I was reading an article in the paper yesterday and was stunned to find that the US domestic carriers don't add on ridiculous fees for 'fuel surcharges' and other taxes when you use FF points for flights with them. I was under the impression you'd get slugged like you do here with Qantas.

I always knew the extra charges in flying to and from the US with our points were going to be big, but they are getting out of hand now; $1679.48 quoted on just TWO seats and there are five of us!

It's made me rethink our big trip in 2015 and what we will use our points for. We have a large number of points and our original plan was to use them for the return flight to the US, but now I'm thinking we're better off buying cheap fares with whatever carrier we can and using our points for our domestic flights in the US. I just did a quote on the Qantas site and flying LA-MCO return will cost us only $25 (for the five of us) flying AA! We'll have to pay for luggage on top of this, but GEEZ!!! We already have more than enough points to do this, and I'd love to visit maybe SF or Washington as well which will be easier to do if we go this route.

So, a question for all you FF experts (Karen?), are we missing some fees, or is that REALLY it would cost us? Another question; is it worth flying First Class rather than Economy for the domestic flight, or should we save the points for the next trip?

I feel your pain and frustration

Firstly, I need to say that we used to have Qantas blood running through our veins but we don't anymore. We particularly don't like the way the fees component makes up almost half of the cost of the flight. They are now public enemy number 2.

Secondly, we feel completely frustrated by Flight Centre. They are our public enemy number 1.

With this in mind this is what we did...

NERD ALERT

Cost of Qantas frequent flyer points MEL-MCO via DFW is 128,000 points
If paying, same flight is $1739 (cheapest off bestflights - love them). Breakdown is $864 flight and $875 fees, taxes, charges etc.

Therefore 128,000 = $864. Of course this value is more if you are travelling at peak times.

Out of pocket $875.

With this in mind we cashed in our QFF points for Westfield gift vouchers. For 125,600 points you get $800.

We got Flight Centre at a Westfield to price match our bestflight virgin flights. Currently bestflights Virgin flights are $1529. Take off the $800 Westfield gift vouchers and you would be...

Out of pocket $729.

Sure you take a $64 hit on the value of the QFF points but you get freedom to choose your airline & price match (read screw Flight Centre over). We chose Virgin because when redeeming points their charges would only be about $250 for the same number of points. Hence the value of the points we will be earning are of much greater value.

This scenario won't play out the same way for everyone but it may be an option for some.

[Tara2004]

So whats the best way to rack up points, all we have is NAB qantas cards. ??

[Andona]

Originally Posted by Minniemum

With this in mind this is what we did...

NERD ALERT

Cost of Qantas frequent flyer points MEL-MCO via DFW is 128,000 points
If paying, same flight is $1739 (cheapest off bestflights - love them). Breakdown is $864 flight and $875 fees, taxes, charges etc.

Therefore 128,000 = $864. Of course this value is more if you are travelling at peak times.

Out of pocket $875.

With this in mind we cashed in our QFF points for Westfield gift vouchers. For 125,600 points you get $800.

We got Flight Centre at a Westfield to price match our bestflight virgin flights. Currently bestflights Virgin flights are $1529. Take off the $800 Westfield gift vouchers and you would be...

Out of pocket $729.

Sure you take a $64 hit on the value of the QFF points but you get freedom to choose your airline & price match (read screw Flight Centre over). We chose Virgin because when redeeming points their charges would only be about $250 for the same number of points. Hence the value of the points we will be earning are of much greater value.

This scenario won't play out the same way for everyone but it may be an option for some.

MinnieMum, this is genius!!!

We have a massive amount of Qantas FF points racked up and in previous years we could always get good value from them but things are just not the same anymore. Their ridiculous fees and pathetic offerings of "Classic Award" seats over busy times have driven us to look elsewhere for our flights and pay out of pocket.

I'd been thinking the only way we would be able to use our points was to cash them in for Qantas Travel vouchers or to use them on "Any Seat" awards or 'Points + Pay" - all of which still confine us to flying Qantas. However, your Westfield solution is brilliant! Our local Westfield has Escape travel and Travelex as well as Flight centre - hopefully they would also accept Westfield vouchers.

Thankyou

Andona

[Minniemum]

Originally Posted by Tara2004

So whats the best way to rack up points, all we have is NAB qantas cards. ??

There is an editorial at http://www.pointhacks.com.au which has a variety of ideas.

[Minniemum]

Originally Posted by Andona

We have a massive amount of Qantas FF points racked up and in previous years we could always get good value from them but things are just not the same anymore. Their ridiculous fees and pathetic offerings of "Classic Award" seats over busy times have driven us to look elsewhere for our flights and pay out of pocket.

We were in exactly the same situation - a stack of points that continued to be devalued. It seems that Qantas's FF program was once a reward for loyalty but now just reeks of tokenism. OK, rant over.

You should have no problems redeeming the gift vouchers at any of the travel agents at Westfield. We only chose Flight Centre because we could also redeem our credit card rewards there.

Really hope it works out for you.