TheJetJock

Morning all,

I am travelling to Sydney every week from Brisbane or Toowoomba Wellcamp (new job) and think QANTAS might be the better option to gain Silver/Gold status and to get the point balance looking good to take the family away. Would just like some advice from the experts on here. Ive look at flying with Virgin but I don't think I will get good value, however, Virgin availability seemed a little better than QANTAS (earn miles with Airbnb/Woolies etc)

Ive started flying already (6 flights last month), got 13 flights booked with QANTAS in March, and probably some more to come, in march as well.

I was looking at getting an ANZ Amex credit card with the 75,000 bonus miles, but I believe I have to take out a new membership? plus I was looking at buying the lounge pass, but the lady at ANZ said this can be affected (probably talking sh*t)

Is Gold tier worth all the hassle with QANTAS? ill be flying to Japan, New Zealand and UK/Europe this year and next, do you get upgrades, looked after etc?

Do QANTAS ever reduce there business class fares? I keep checking and it seems to be never, and one last question, QF availability doesn't seem to look good travelling to UK, is it any better with EK?

Look forward to any replies....please be gentle

David

sxc

Are your flights in economy or business class? And your profile says you are a BAEC member - do you have any status with them?

TheJetJock

Hi,

Just a blue member with BA, so nothing special. I am looking at doing my international flights in J, but can't see the point on domestic flights in Oz, unless there is a special etc. I have had upgrade offers via email for my last few flights, 3000 miles + $176 to upgrade to business, but couldn't work out if I got more status points and miles out of it.

I am completely new to frequent flying, have flown loads in Europe before I moved out to Oz last August, but always cheapest or flying different types. Never been a position before where I have had to fly to get to work. Just trying to work out best way of doing it to try and get to the elusive Gold membership, and miles to take family away on holidays.

Cheers

Mwenenzi

TheJetJock Welcome to FT (Aussie branch)

Have you credited the 6 flights last month to QF or BAEC?
Have you joined the QF ffp? (avoiding the $$$ joining fee is easy)
You can retro credit flights taken 30days(?) before joining QF ffp
Aust credit card sign up bonus and spending can be a good source for QF points. Better than shopping at a supermarket
Some people fly QF and credit to other ffp's

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

sxc

So if we look at status alone, one sector between BNE/WTB to SYD is 10 status credits in discount economy. So a return trip is 20 SC.

To achieve QF Gold, you need 700 SC in your first year, and then 600 to renew.

Let's say you have 4 return trips a month, you would get to Gold in 9 months.

Since you are such a frequent traveller on short domestic flights, I would say Gold is worth it because you'll get lounge access and in any cases of flight disruption, they will look after you better than a standard passenger.

As for the question about redemptions, I'm not an expert on that except to say each return work trip is 1600 miles. And a return to London is 120,000 miles to redeem.

TheJetJock

Hi, thanks for the responses. Don't use my BA exec club anymore. I have a QF UK membership, but have seen that I have to pay for a QF membership here. My current points and status credits are on my UK QF membership.

Ive just emailed QF to see if I can merge my UK membership with an Australian one and everything transferred over.

Yep, I've worked out I should bee gold by October, going to AKL with EK in J class soon, and Tokyo with QF but in cheap economy (80 tier points for that one return). As well as all the domestic flights I have lined up.

How do I not pay for the QF aussie membership, and would I be stupid not to pay for the yearly lounge access now for the $500?

IMOA

Just keep your UK QF membership, you shouldn't open a new one, just change the address to your Australian address

sxc

Someone more qualified than me can probably confirm, but I don't think you need to change QF accounts. You can just change the address on your current UK account.

Mwenenzi

As above, just change your QF ffp address from UK to Aust. Should be able to do on line. I think its against the QF t&c’s to have 2 freq flyer accounts.

Keep your BAEC address in UK. For some reason BAEC did not(does not?) allow members from Australia. Probably a carry over of the expired BA-QF agreement.

If your EK AKL ticket has an EK flight number you will not get QF status credits.
If your EK AKL ticket has a QF flight number you will get QF status credits.

For $500 lounge access assume you are considering joining the Qantas Club. Many corporate's have a discounted joining & annual fee (as does AFF). Up to you as for its value, but when you get QF gold you get lounge access. Any paid QF club membership goes on hold until you drop back down to QF silver.

TheJetJock

Cheers for the replies people. I have changed the address to my oz one. Defo will book the emirates flights under the QF flight number. Thanks for the info on the pass, ill see if my company has any discounts on it.

NZbutterfly

If you're flying every week or 2 I personally would pay for the Qantas Club pass given it's going to take you most of a year to get to gold for free access. Free food, more relaxing space - might make airports a bit more bearable.

serfty

^ This ...

You can get a discounted 'Corporate' Qantas Club membership if you join "Australian Frequent flyer" as a Gold member - cost is $75 but the saving on a new membership is much greater. [More here.]
.

Jase76

This. I did the reverse and moved from Oz to the UK. Just an address update and all was fine.