Originally Posted by Traveloguy
Dave, you have hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately there is a huge number of people out there that make most their miles out of credit card spending. Whilst there are still a large number of cards out there that offer 1.5 points per Aussie dollar, you can see that the QF programme even with all the thievery last year is very competative. In the UK for example, the best that I can get is a 1.5 miles per pound and the US 1 mile per US dollar.
Unfortunately the QF programme is becoming more and more aimed at frequent shoppers. Sad but true.
Which is why I am now booking my flights to AA and will retail CC earn in QF for use as QF upgrades. AA is way better earning and burning rate for points/miles earned by flying (especially with my flying patterns). I have QF Lifetime Gold status so that gets me part way up the upgrade waitlist to burn my QF points on QF flights.
Note that the last time I redeemed points for QF domestic award flight, it cost me 25,000 points and $72 Fuel Fine for one-way BNE-ADL-PER (and similar for the return). Compare with 20,000 AA points and not Fuel Fine and I am way ahead using AA.