og

"With Altitude you can redeem your points for any airline seat that's available for general sale." (from WBC Web site)

Does anyone have experience with this? If so, what booking classes are used and will points / SC be issued?

I appreciate that transfer of points to QF FF is more efficient, but it seems a way of getting a seat (at a premium) at short notice when X class is all gone.

ozstamps

It is not what it seems. Long story, but call and ask.

In short a SYD-MEL will run you about $1000.

willyroo

MEL-SYD $1,000 - sounds cheap to me

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum39/HTML/001393.html

ozstamps

In brief, my understanding was they take specific slabs of Altitude points and give them a $ value.

THEN they "sell" you tickets to wherever you need - in revenue Y or J etc at pretty much full fare based on that arbitrary dollar value. Hence they can more or less promise you tickets anywhere - anytime.

So you do not pay "cash money" as such, but the conversion rate is DREADFUL.

For example is you want a $1000 ticket (i.e. a full Y domestic on some routes) it might cost you 150,000 Altitude points or something insane. The actual figures I did not write down so do not hold me to that, but suffice to say for anyone HERE we would all laugh about the numbers.

Plenty of less knowledgeable folks do I am sure use this deal to travel in peak seasons.

lokijuh

I think the conversion rate is the same as it costs for other vouchers ie 12500 points = $100. (compared to a valuation of QF points @ 1.5c per point would give $187 value for 12500 points.

Where they may come in handy is if they can get a web special for you eg MEL-SYD retn for 16500 points they are quoting, which I assume is not including tax. ie 16500 points = $132 + 30-40 tax.

thadocta

Whilst the conversion rate might be dreadful, just remember that you are booked as a normal passenger, not as an award passenger, and you DO get FF points if applicable for that fare type. So, if you want to fly in F from SYD to JFK arriving the night before the US Open final, and then fly back the night after the final, and you want to book this a week in advance, and there is a seat in F available on both flights, then it is yours (provided you have the Altitude points) AND you will get the QF FF points for the F flights.

Not ideal, but better than trying to redeem an award on QF in those circumstances.

Dave

d00t

Your better off transferring your westpac altitude points over to the QF program and using them that way.

Same goes for commonwealth awards, transfer to QF for MUCH better conversion!!!


Qantas did put a value on points recently.

50,000 points = $1,500 AUD

og

...and if they sell a $100 shopping voucher for 12500 points (I think..without checking for accuracy), that makes the AUD 1,500 travel worth 187,500 points. I wonder if anyone has actually done that - what a way to waste points (unless I can find a rich insurance executive to put their company's expenses on my Amex - and then pay it for me too..)

Needless to say, thadocta's comment is relevant. At least the Bank programs give you the option to shift points to the airline.

ozstamps

Let me see.

A First Class full fare ticket to NYC runs about $A15,000 last time I looked on UA, and I suspect QF is not too far away from that. Lets use that as a rule of thumb figure for this comparison.

If we take as correct:

"50,000 points = $1,500 AUD"

I get the feeling your Altitude points debit will be about 500,000 miles, i.e. a card spend of about $A500,000 to get those miles.

YES, it does get you to NYC, but what a cost. As I posted, I doubt any savvy FT'er would even dream of spending points in that way.

Spend half a million dollars and get a free airline ticket.

Point Lover

I suspect that Altitude value their points much closer to 1 cent each.

I am interested to find a copy of the article where Qantas valued QFF points at 3 cents each. Any help would be appreciated!

NM

Ozstamps, if we use the purchase power of points (rather than the value to the airline) based on $100 shopping voucher costing 12,500 points, then that $15,000 F fare is going to need 150 of those $100 voucher, or 1,875,000 points!

One is going to need a real scam to earn that many point in a credit card program.

ozstamps

That's a LOT of bus trips, for sure.

The Altitude girl gave me a figure last month for Biz SYD to Port Moresby and it was reallllllly high. Well into 6 figures each IIRC even for that little flight. Glad the QF tix at 45,000 each came through the next day.

ALSO we keep our Altitude miles there for possible award use in future on Air NZ or Malaysian etc where they are both usable.

thadocta

I know that my example - SYD-JFK-SYD in F - was a tad far fetched. My point still stands though, that Altitude flights are from normal availability, rather than award availability, and you accrue miles on those flights. If needing a free flight at a time when we know that award flights are almost impossible to obtain, then this *might* be an option.

Dave

leroy11

Hello all
Does anyone have any experience with when Qantas bonus points for opening a Westpac Altitude card and spending x amount are credited to QF? Is it the full 60 days (as per terms and conditions - up to 60 days) ot generally in line with statement periods?

og