Qantas Frequent Flyer - Qantas frequent flyer program questions

Are QF miles thought to be valued at par vis-a-vis other 1W partners like BA and AA? I understand that most international long-haul F awards cost the same on AA and BA, for example a JFK-EZE in F (in 3 class of service metal) will cost you 125,000 AA or BA miles. Can I get the same JFK-EZE flight on AA in F using 125K QF miles?

The reason Im asking this is that today is the first time Ive bothered to look into the small print of the Starwood Amex card. Since this card will give you 1 Starpoint for 1 dollar, and SPG continues to offer 2 QF miles for 1 Starpoint (plus the 5K bonus for every 20K transfer)... maybe now I understand everyone's craze with this credit card.

I dunno, there's gotta be a catch somewhere, or am I just missing out on the scoop?


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Gaucho100K

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Gaucho100K:
Are QF miles thought to be valued at par vis-a-vis other 1W partners like BA and AA?
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Qantas oneworld award table is within 10% of the AA values (and is sometimes cheaper -- it depends on the distance). The problem with the QF plan is that it has a sharp step function (cost versus distance is not smooth) and this makes some flights very expensive and others cheap. LAX-LHR is bad in QF plan and JFK-LHR is much better in QF plan (compared to AA). Lots of special cases and it took me several hours to figure it out, but in the end the QF plan is really good. But you need QF Platinum status to do well in it (and for that you must do the flying on Oneworld, if not QF). I found it sufficiently attractive to earn QF Plat (will make it next month).

What do you mean QF Plat is required to 'do well'?

Where QF shines versus AA and BA

All comparisons are based on converting 2 QF miles into 1 AA/BA mile

domestic US award
Coach
-short haul (0-2000 miles RT) AA 25K QF 10K
-long haul (2001-5400 miles RT) AA 25K QF 15K
First
-short haul AA 40K QF 15K
long haul AA 40K QF 22.5K

US-Europe (except West Coast, sorry!!)
Business (5400-10000 miles RT) BA 80K QF 55K
First BA 100K QF 67.5K

There some other less compelling routes where QF mileage is les than BA/AA, but these are the highlights IMHO

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mindgame:
What do you mean QF Plat is required to 'do well'?</font>
QF awards are notoriously hard to get. Not hard if you are QF Platinum. Big difference (Platinum is much harder to earn than AA EXP so rarer, thus QF can give it better treatment, and worth getting over Oneworld Emerald, if QF priority matters to you).

I'm QF Platinum and I wouild say that QF awards are still notoriously hard to get! Getting upgrade wards is easier, for sure, but I'm not aware of any diff for other awards - if a seat is available for an award booking, it is available for any QF member, Platinum, Silver or whatever...

Ha, ha upgrade awards!! I am pretty annoyed at Qantas. I am a Star Alliance flyer and was considering changing my allegiance to One World/Qantas because I need the Australian coverage. I have recently booked a Singapore - Darwin leg on Qantas for March next year. I have enough points to upgrade and rang for the upgrade, only to be told no seats available. Frankly, I am amazed that this far-out they have no upgrade seats available. It certainly makes me think twice about changing my carrier. Does anyone have any advice about getting the upgrade or any knowledge about the capacity they offer.

Cheers!

On a 767 flight like SIN-DRW, with only 25 BC seats available, you can be pretty sure that no upgrade seats would be allocated at all until 48 hours before flight time. Prior to this you can waitlist upgrade requests. Unlike some other airlines, Qantas actually like to sell their BC seats!

Thanks for the info about them not making business seats available until 48 hours before the flight. Doesn't that mean then that a new Qantas flier (like me) with no status has no way to use their miles for an upgrade?

FF's with no status can still register for the upgrade waitlist between 7 and 14 days before flight time..if it comes through they will only deduct your points then.

QF won't register the request for wait-listing until they have a ticket number in their system. This makes it hard if you only pay just before travelling!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gbogo:
I'm QF Platinum and I wouild say that QF awards are still notoriously hard to get! Getting upgrade wards is easier, for sure, but I'm not aware of any diff for other awards - if a seat is available for an award booking, it is available for any QF member, Platinum, Silver or whatever...</font>

Not true. Platinum and Golds have access to different availability... which is the same for most 1W airlines.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bruceb:
Not true. Platinum and Golds have access to different availability... which is the same for most 1W airlines.</font>
Huge difference in availability on some routes. For the routes I am interested in availability is close to zero for silver and below status, fair for gold status and excellent for platinum. QF knows how to reward top-tier, in fact their system is tilted in favour of Platinums much more than AA's. I've come to like the QF plan, it is very different from AA and even BA but has advantages -- provided you can keep Platinum status. Luckily that is easy to do with their status point structure. AA is still my primary FF plan but QF is a nice complement to it.

How does an AA EXP/OneWorld Emerald get prioritized on the upgrade waitlist when flying Qantas -- in comparison with Qantas status and non-status flyers?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GUWonder:
How does an AA EXP/OneWorld Emerald get prioritized on the upgrade waitlist when flying Qantas -- in comparison with Qantas status and non-status flyers?

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Very low -- which is why I am getting QF Platinum, as AA EXP is just not enough. Officially Emerald is above QF Gold and below QF Platinum, but somehow Gold gets there first (lot of human processing at QF and I suppose the agents look at QF status first). It is only CX that really honours OneWorld status faithfully.

As far as I'm concerned, AA's reward MEL-NY is 60,000 miles, and QF is 110,000 miles. Nearly double!

goodo

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by goodo:
As far as I'm concerned, AA's reward MEL-NY is 60,000 miles, and QF is 110,000 miles. Nearly double!</font>

And for MEL-SYD you will earn 1000 points in discount Y, thus needing to make 110 of these trips to qualify for the MEL-JFK flights, or 55 if you book on-line and using fares other than red e-deals.

In the AA program you will earn 70% of 495 miles, i.e. about 350 points, thus you will need to make 172 of these flights in order to earn your MEL-JFK flight.

Granted, this is an extreme example, but it does illustrate how you cannot just look at one aspect of a program and make blanket statements based on that one fact. You need to look at your own flight patterns and use that to determine what is best for you.

Dave

"In the AA program you will earn 70% of 495 miles, i.e. about 350 points, thus you will need to make 172 of these flights in order to earn your MEL-JFK flight"

Actually, it would only be 120 flights thanks to the minimum of 500 miles per flight, but the concept is good

Dave

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dave Noble:
"In the AA program you will earn 70% of 495 miles, i.e. about 350 points, thus you will need to make 172 of these flights in order to earn your MEL-JFK flight"

Actually, it would only be 120 flights thanks to the minimum of 500 miles per flight, but the concept is good.</font>

I thought the minimum only applied on AA flights.

Dave

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by thadocta:
I thought the minimum only applied on AA flights.

Dave</font>

Nope, it applies to Qantas flights too.

Dave