[QF009]

Originally Posted by lovetravellingoz

At Krispy Kremes...you get a free coffee after every 5 paid cups (and the 5 can be a mixture of milkshakes...or coffees).

The cafe around the corner from my house gives me a free coffee after every 5 paid coffees. So for me it's a free coffee at least once a week as the place is just conveniently on the way to uni/work.

The one at the law school also gives a free one after every 5, and after filling up a card (10 paid cups) you get to enter a draw to win a coffee machine. Though I suspect they have to be so generous to tempt people into drinking their crapolla coffee... I myself prefer to walk 100m up the road where I get much better coffee but *shock and horror* no coffee loyalty program.

[crazydave98]

Originally Posted by vet

But Velocity seems to require payment in only points: If I'm 1 point short, the other 93,999 points are useless for that trip. Qantas' FAQ suggest one can pay money to top up a shortfall.

Qantas on the other hand flies Melb-SFO direct.

Qantas doesn't fly direct to SFO from MEL. Between these city pairs you have at least one stop regardless of which airline. With Virgin Blue and/or Hawaiian you have two stops (in SYD and either HNL or LAX).

Someone else already pointed out that with Velocity you can pay taxes in cash, but I'm not sure that answered your question. IWith Qantas you can buy "top up" points if you are short on points (before having to pay cash for taxes) - which I have to admit was a handy feature when I sent my parents to New York on the red rat. Velocity does not yet have this feature.

You mention availability - as long as there is an unsold seat on Virgin Blue, V Australia or partner airlines such as Hawaiian you can "buy" the seat with points. Qantas has copied this feature (although it doesn't extend to any seat on partner airlines such as American) but will almost invariably cost you significantly more points than Velocity for the same routing.

cheers

CrazyDave98