expostfacto

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum but was hoping for some advice. After making a probably stupid decision I have accumulated quite a few Qantas FF points as a UK resident (UK - AUS flights). Can anyone suggest methods and options (particularly credit card deals) for a UK resident wanting to rack up some Qantas points? Or would there be an option to somehow transplant these miles onto a program (e.g. BA) that I could actually use? I'm at a loose end, and have received only the most perfunctory of responses from Qantas customer services.

Thanks very much in advance!

Globaliser

QFFF really doesn't care much about those outside Australia. There are virtually no deals for UK residents. No UK credit card (although I think that there may be an Amex Membership Rewards route for charge cards). And no way of moving the points.

The best advice that I can offer is to find good ways of burning these, and collecting in a more UK-friendly scheme instead. That's what I'm doing, having effectively moved from QFFF to BAEC.

nux

You can credit any OneWorld or Qantas partner (Emirates among others) to QFF.

You can redeem Qantas points on OneWorld or partner flights, such as BA (although with high fees).

I've done the same as Globaliser, switched fully to BAEC and slowly reducing my QFF points.

expostfacto

Thanks very much nux and globaliser, really helpful. This seems to be a non-starter.

Globaliser could you elaborate at all on the Amex route? Would this work with a UK Amex do you know?

nux

None of the UK issued Amex's can transfer points to QFF. I believe you can open an Aus Amex as well, and transfer MR points across, and then to QFF from Amex Aus.

expostfacto

Thank-you again! They definitely aren't making it very easy..

Top of climb

+1.

mandolino

+2
I've just started to do the same. I'm just a bit slow on the uptake.
I'm also reluctant to let my Qantas Gold , and chances of lifetime Gold, slide while I embark on the slow climb from BAEC basic status. However, my QF gold will be renewed for a year in May, so I've started flying as a BAEC member already. Not so much for the points - I have loads of Avios from Amex, but for the status.

Aisle Seat H

+3, sort of, as I've done a runner to AA instead (for reasons much discussed in another Thread).

It was bad enough being a Uk-based QF FF before the EK tie-up but has got way worse since - it is so bad in fact that QF's senior UK staff openly apologise for it, and are well aware that there is very little they can do locally to make QF an appealing FF option, especially for 'elites'.

The local team have tried to do what they can but with a FF scheme basically ignoring you if you are not Aus based they know there is little they can do - there is no direct phone number or dedicated staff for the vast majority of UK FFers/flyers to access, you can't enter competitions or use the FF store (if for some odd reason you want to! ), no local credit card options etc, etc, etc, etc... and now (despite significant lobbying from QF UK) the powers that be back at home base are keeping the '4 flights on QF' rule despite how hard it now is for many to actually do so on a QF flight number from the UK unless you are actually visiting Australia.

This is not to mention the general erosion of the programme for all of us (e.g. the now even stingier Loyalty Bonus, replacing the incredibly ungenerous one that was already in place, etc, etc, etc).

So Life Gold could not have come at a better time for me, as QF FF is now a right turn off (generally, but especially for those of us based in the UK).

My advice to the OP is to get the AA credit card - there is a great deal at the moment http://www.americanairlines.co.uk/i1...p?locale=en_GB that will help rack up the points, plus the card earns a generous 1.5 points per Ł spent on the Amex and half that on the Visa you get too (and with no fee) - you can still earn and build up QF points otherwise if you like, but will also have AA miles quickly racking up that you can use to book QF and BA and AA flights etc but at much better rates and while paying far fewer Ł in taxes/fines on the redemption tickets.

mandolino

I was feeling your pain up until that! Hanging on grimly for mine.
Still, I do ABZ-LHR-BNE/SYD-AKL-MEL-PER-LHR-ABZ twice a year so will meet the QF flights requirements.

Aisle Seat H

Good luck with your own Life SG quest!

And, out of interest, is ABZ ever a good starting point for finding cheaper fares? Have started in MAN and EDI before which saved a few hundred quid, but never actually looked at Aberdeen.

Globaliser

This was part of the breaking point for me.

Not only is this a harsh rule for those in the UK, but complying with it requires a leisure passenger to do a bit of planning for each membership year. QF effectively introduced the rule without notice in the middle of my companion's membership year, wrecking our QF requalification plan in that year after having captured a number of flights that would have gone towards qualifying at the equivalent level in BAEC instead. The sting of that could have been reduced by an exercise of understanding and discretion, but we just got "We don't care" replies from QFFF.

I have also suggested a way of ameliorating the problem without undermining the policy behind it: Through flights between Europe and Australia should count as two flights. This would mean that (at that time) you could get in your four qualifying flights by flying LHR-SYD on QF2 and SYD-LHR on QF1, in the same way that you could if you did LHR-SIN on QF10 and SIN-SYD on QF6, and then returned on QF5/QF9. But they just weren't interested. So, rapidly, neither were we.

This disconnect from the non-Australian customer seems in retrospect to have occurred at about the same time as the beginning of the serious rot in QF. The philosophy was perhaps taken to its ultimate conclusion in last year's advertising campaign when they added the letters "ns" to the slogan and turned it into "The Spirit of Australians" with a tag line "You're The Reason We Fly". I wonder whether QF really did mean to tell the rest of the world that as far as QF were concerned they could **** right off and that QF was not interested in business from others.

mandolino

No. It's chocka with business flights. Unless you qualify for "marine" or "offshore" fares and have a business account with a travel agent that holds them.
"rack" right off is the appropriate Aussie vernacular, I believe :-)

ABZ is mid-point for me - for years my itineraries have been AKL-ABZ-AKL with my Australian domestic stops in between on the one ticket. That way I always hav a "live" return leg to MEL en route to AKL, should I need to escape UK :-)

Back in the day there was significant price differential between this route bought from my NZ travel agent so that I could fly biz class at a price that raised no eyebrows in HQ. No longer, so I go premium economy most of the time, and upgrade to Biz for the longer legs.

Next week will be my first trip in the New EK Era, and it's proving impossible to book a QF from Perth to ABZ online or to see what that would do to my points or SC.

However, next week will

thadocta

If looking at flying to MEL rather than SYD, and given a willingness to change flights en route (as displayed) this is still possible, QF2 to DXB and then change to QF10, with a QF9/QF1 shuffle on the way back.

Dave

Globaliser

Yes, of course. But given QF's route network, the phenomenon is a particular demonstration of QF's lack of interest in encouraging UK QFFFers.