Best Loyalty program.
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OK, its ACA, but there is a story at NineMSN about the top 5 loyalty programs. Not surprisingly Amex Rewards came in at Number 1, with Velocity coming in at number 2.
Watch the video for Luisa and Phil with their sound bites!
I have 98k in Velocity, 108k in Qff and an Amex csr says my 5k/5t points of 115,000 should be thru in 6 weeks, ie by mid December and just in time to book ff flights in mid January 2010.
I want my family of three to go to Lake Tahoe, 4 or so hours drive from San Francisco, in January 2010, returning in late January in time for high school. I assume getting ff seats is hard in peak times.
Is Velocity the more certain option with Hawaiianair from Sydney-Honalulu-SFO return for 94k of points per person. That avoids going to LA and driving some 10 hours, sometimes in snow dumps in hired 4x4s without tire chains. But it means paying Virgin Blue for Melb-Syd. At least that's in $AUD or points, whereas LAX to Reno involves up to 5 hours of delays at the airport, 1.5hrs in the air on say Alaskan, and then 1-2 hrs drive from Reno.
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. (But for how many points???? I have trouble with their website). But what are the odds of getting three ff seats in school holidays to an airport that is a jumping off point to ski resorts in Canada, California and Utah. Also, I've been burnt with Jestar/Qantas dumping flights to Nagano Japan next year, was on a plane with 'incidents', and feel Qantas isn't the same company it was.
Unfortunately Amex won't be awarding the bonuses in time to get 25% extra Velocity bonuses: an extra 25,000 points would be very tempting.
I'm only interested in flights to California so Qantas or Velocity seem to be the most likely recipients of my amex ff points.
Member of: AA Gold, QF PB, UA 3P, HH G, Hy, PC G, SPG G
Posts: 925
Re: Best Loyalty program
Check availability on United/Air New Zealand/Air Canada using the ANA tool.
Check availability on QANTAS using Qantas.com.
Not sure how you check availability for Hawaiian. Maybe on the Hawaiian site?
If you haven't used the ANA tool, read this thread on Flyertalk.
Assuming you can find availability, then you might actually be able to book something (assuming points actually post when you expect them to).
I have 98k in Velocity, 108k in Qff and an Amex csr says my 5k/5t points of 115,000 should be thru in 6 weeks, ie by mid December and just in time to book ff flights in mid January 2010.
I want my family of three to go to Lake Tahoe, 4 or so hours drive from San Francisco, in January 2010, returning in late January in time for high school. I assume getting ff seats is hard in peak times.
With QF..and I am not sure what City you live in...SYD - San Francisco return is 96,000 plus taxes for one person.
So three is 288,000.
You expect 108K + 115K = 223K or need another 65K.
Top-up points, are extra points that you can purchase if you're just a little short of the points required to redeem an Award. How Top-up points works
Points may be purchased in blocks of 500.
Minimum 500 to maximum 20,000 points per purchase.
Points may only be purchased with a specific Award in mind.
Members may not purchase more than 15% of the points needed for the Award.
Points must be purchased by the member on their own behalf.
Each member may only purchase points once every 12 months.
So you as a maximum can buy 15% of 96k each. This means you are short about 22K.
To buy = 14,000 points is A$437.50 = not cheap!!!
OK how to get more points:
Look at the Earth CC and if you qualify for Earth Platinum you can gain 20,000 points for $125...but note they may not post in time..
If your wife qualifies as well...20K each.
Otherwise the normal Earth Card gets you 10K each...
If your wife does not have a Maximiser..and qualifies there is a deal to get 10,000 points..but you have to pay the yearly fee perhaps.
With your current Amex....spend more if you can.
Other options:
* Redeem for two and purchase one. This would be most likely cheaper than buying points (which you are short of being able to do anyway).
* As family can transfer points. Do you have any family that can transfer points to you? If yes you could offer to transfer the same number back to them at a later date.
You can add an additional 12,000 Qantas points to your account by signing up for an etrade account. They give you 1,000 points per trade for 12 trades with no brokerage fees.
The only problem with this is you must open a new etrade customer.
I'm not 100% sure on the viability of this, but why don't you try transferring some of your amex points to velocity, and book 3 one way flights to SFO with Hawaiian Airlines, or to LAX with V Australia. Then transfer the remainder of your points to Qantas FF, and redeem another 3 one way tickets from SFO to SYD.
OK, its ACA, but there is a story at NineMSN about the top 5 loyalty programs. Not surprisingly Amex Rewards came in at Number 1, with Velocity coming in at number 2.
Watch the video for Luisa and Phil with their sound bites!
Thanks for all that, especially LovesTravellingoz for the detailed analysis and the maths and the fine print.
"Taxes" plus flights on special for Melb-Syd plus Vblue's conflicting advice on ski bag costs = a cash flight for me which is tax deductible. I'll go back to paying cash instead of using Amex.
Re: Best Loyalty program
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