Hi there,

I'm a newbie to this forum and have been reading the FAQs, perusing the incredibly helpful (and extensive) posts, and also through the Qantas forum, particularly. I'm hesitant to post incase I've totally missed it and if this is the case - please feel free to point me in the right direction and simply wait to berate me when my back is turned.

I'm a lowly bronze member, alas, and don't have a job that requires extensive travel, so my FF points accumulate mostly via savvy purchasing with linked cards such as the EDR card, our Amex credit card, shopping at the correct grocery stores (Woolies/Safeway, Caltex gas station, Big W) etc.

Hubby and I return to live in Los Angeles approximately 18 months from now and it is a very, very long dream of ours to fly first class just once in our lives. Thus, I'm embarking on a goal to try and achieve this via points if possible so wanted any further suggestions from you wonderful folks on how to try and make this a possibility?

We have a linked American Express (and Master Card) credit card via NAB that gives us points, I've just signed up for our rent (just waiting for them to add my realtor) and have started paying all utilities, just about everything I can each month, on the credit cards and then paying them off straight away. But that said, I still don't think it's going to be more than 3000-4000 per month.

After looking at the point requirement (144,000 points p/p) I need to try and make around 14K in points per month to reach this goal. I am on a tight budget as we plan for our relocation back to the States so we won't be able to really utilize things such as the hotels, car rentals etc. We don't really do stocks.

Can any of you please recommend anything else we can do? I've been googling the "Hack Travel" sites, and also found this forum to be incredibly helpful but any further advice would be so gratefully received.

A friend said even if I had the needed points today you have to book those sorts of FF award seats 18 months in advance - hopefully that's not true.

Lastly - forgive my ignorance here and many thanks to all who have posted such helpful stickies for newbies like myself - I'm finding them immensely helpful.