<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by thadocta:
Not a really good way to look at it - taking a rocket bottom red e-deal SYD-MEL for example at $100, your 5000 points will cost you $500, so based on this it is quite good value.
Also, a lot of people don't use their points for award flights, rather for upgrades, so this would depend on what elevl of upgrade you are looking at.
Dave</font>
Yes, you are right (as no-one reading this would be surprised to hear!) and I knew my first post was rather simplistic. I still think however that even though the cost of earning the points is lower than average, voluntarily spending an extra $350 just to earn around 5000 points seems unlikely to be a good idea. I can certainly see situations where it would be justified; you mentioned upgrades and that is a good example - if I were a few thousand points short of a SYD-LHR Economy to Business upgrade then $350 for 5000+ points would be an absolute bargain!
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Craigo:
From what I understand talking to Thredbo ski school (who run the course in partnership with the Austrian Bundessportheim), the first two days are acclimatisation anyway, as most of the Aussies fly in with Lauda on the morning of the first day of the course.
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That's good to hear. As a long distance runner (not competitive - for fitness only) I have to be really careful not to overdo it after sitting in an Economy seat for 24 hours. It takes quite a while to get back to peak performance. Not sure if it is just the immobility or whether the cabin air also has some effect, but it is really noticeable.