To Sell 360,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points or Use for a Booking?

Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 17:04
Last edited 11/01/2017 - 17:08

Hi,
First up I know selling QFF points is against the T&C and probably not wise, but I've had them for an age and am NEVER able to find good value out of them for flights.
Either nothing is ever available or the taxes end up so high it's almost the same to just buy a ticket outright.

I have 360,000 points and would love to use them for a booking. I can get our family one way to europe for about 300,000 points plus $850 fees.
The one way return flights are then about $4000 for all of us, making close to $5000 PLUS all of our points.

It seems to me that with return flights costing $1300 each / $5200 total, I'm again left in a situation where using our points seems a complete waste.

BUT I've read a lot about Qantas cracking down on the dodgy transfer of points due to selling them to non-family members.
I haven't transferred any points out of my account ever, but have put a few in from a family member recently.

What I have read though, is that the buyer tends to be the one taking the risk, not the seller. If I sell all my points, well, what can Qantas do to me other than close my account?
I'm happy to sell and make it clear to the buyer that there is some risk involved.

My understanding is that the 360,000 points are worth about $3,600 at most.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Travel

Comments

  • mt19 on 11/01/2017 - 17:17
    +1

    Use points + pay and book through Qantas site onto Cathay Pacific to reduce the taxes/fees ?

    • Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 17:50

      Sweet I'll check it out and see what comes up thanks!

      EDIT:

      Bleh even worse. Use up all my points PLUS $5200 doing points plus pay.

      • mt19 on 11/01/2017 - 20:53

        Your right, just tried a bunch of flights and they they all sucked, if it was 2 of you then there was some good PE/Business options but for 4 in economy you'd be better off selling if you can get away with it and put the cash against buying the fares.

  • djkelly69 on 11/01/2017 - 17:24

    Is the 300k plus taxes to Europe one way in economy or business?

    How many people are you travelling with?

    • Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 17:50

      Economy for four people
      :(

      • djkelly69 on 11/01/2017 - 19:36

        That seems like a lot for four people one way in economy. From memory SYD to LAX is about 110k return in business, so yours seems off.

        Are you looking at reward seats or just converting cash fares into points?

        • Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 21:28

          It's high season, school hols so very poor availability. 70,000 pts each via Hong Kong and only to Amsterdam.

        • robbo135 on 14/06/2017 - 20:24

          SYD-LAX one way in business is 96,000.

  • Foxtail on 11/01/2017 - 17:32
    +1

    I understand your situation, Qantas charge huge fees when making an award booking long haul out of OZ, the trick is to use points or buy flights to say Hong Kong even in Y (economy) its a day flight then do a separate booking from there to Europe return to OZ or via HKG in say Y or J using points on OneWorld airlines like CX (Cathay), QR (Qatar), AY (Finair) etc. virtually no fees and a plethora of destinations to choose from.

    I've done this numerous times both via HKG to Europe and the USA 2 pax in J (bus. class).

    There are Award airline seat finders like this well known one

    http://frequentflyer.com.au/member/award-flight-assist/

    Join AFF great members, info and advise is free!

    http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/forum.ph…

    Keep in mind if you sell you take the chance of losing the lot!

    • Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 17:51

      Thank you.

      Isn't the risk with two separate bookings that if one is late you have no recourse for recovering your lost connecting flight?

      EDIT: Hmm no award flights on the return leg from HK anyway (end July). That was my recollection as well, all the hubs returning from europe have no award seats (Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong) - investigated as I found it odd that I couldn't get a return out of anywhere in europe!

      Regarding the risk of losing the lot, isn't that on the buyers side?

      • lainey13 on 11/01/2017 - 18:08

        Then be sensible and leave a day or two between flights so you can enjoy your stopover destination for a bit.

        • Hoju on 11/01/2017 - 18:12

          Yeh just checked and nothing available anyway. Not a bad idea though.

          Are there any other hubs that could work with qantas partners (considered emirates and dubai, qatar and doha, cathay and HK but may have missed something). Finnair?

          EDIT: tried singapore hub. works out to 224,000 points plus $4700. Doh

  • JIMB0 on 11/01/2017 - 19:16

    You could wait for a sale on the Qantas store. Last time it was something like 20% off most things and 10% off gift cards.

  • Randxyz123 on 11/01/2017 - 22:22

    What dates are you going?

    I put in out of interest Dept 1 Aug return 20 aug and got 60,000 points each way + $656 in taxes each.

    I take it you are going school holidays/ Summer where classic reward seats are VERY hard to get. Flights are also really expensive. Keep trying every day. It's only January so more flights will come up!

    Cathay always charges more for points bookings.

    Don't sell the points. It's illegal and you'd be better off using them for business class upgrades for yourself and leaving the kids in economy,

  • Foxtail on 12/01/2017 - 08:53

    Try award flights in/out out of SIN or BKK or DPS (Bali). Try into one city return from another. We had same prob las Sept. getting J seats so came back via DOH stop 20hours /PER stop overnight) then to then home port of BNE.

    Finnair are supposed to be an excellent airline from reports Ive seen.

    Cathay don't use any more QF award points booking a OneWorld flight has been my experience, they do have zilch charges though.

    As I understand it the seller and buyer loses the lot if found selling points and award membership cancelled, but as you can see on OZB some do sell.

  • Miffy888 on 12/01/2017 - 09:35

    Have you considered using points to buy return tickets for maybe 1- 2 family members and then cash for the remaining family members? Or just use points for upgrades? I have a family of 5 so it's hard to get 5 award tickets- so that's something I have considered doing.

    • Hoju on 12/01/2017 - 17:02
      +1

      Yeh that's the problem. None of the hubs that come back to sydney from Europe have any availability during our return period, so we can't book any returns.
      I'd never personally use points for upgrades, just not my style or something I'm that fussed about. (eg. Heading home from overseas soon, jetstar, sleeping in the airport using a towel as a blanket)

  • djkelly69 on 13/01/2017 - 12:43

    Can you pick another travel period?

    Best time to book reward seats is ~355 days in advance when the seats are first released, so maybe look at 2018?

  • Miffy888 on 13/01/2017 - 14:09

    Yes i agree. High demand dates go as soon as they release. It means you have to book one way (outgoing) first beause if you try to wait for the return trip date come up to book in one transaction, the outgoing date is gone. Also putting in an alternate route might help too. You may need to be creative as they don't provide all options automatically eg via Singapore, HK, vs Bangkok etc or even the city you want to fly to. When booking multiple award seats is hard. I've been lucky able to score 5 economy to Europe at one time (june 25 2015 QF to CPH and then July 21 2015 return Virgin from LHR). There are only so many award seats they release per flight. :(

  • Miffy888 on 13/01/2017 - 14:18

    There are also some companies you can use for a fee who can help you find these award flights. I've never used them so I can't recommend any one of them specifically.

  • Hoju on 13/01/2017 - 14:19

    Nah sadly school holidays and an almost impossible combination of leave requirements across three families mean this is like a once every five years trip, all meeting in europe.

    Point is that I've tried travelling to many destinations using the points, in and out of peak periods and never found them to be of any value.

    • djkelly69 on 13/01/2017 - 22:35

      Have you tried looking at two groups of two rather than one group of four?

      • Hoju on 14/01/2017 - 03:51

        For one way 2 x 2 or return x 2 on pts and buy other 2?

        As above, unfortunately there are no return trips from anywhere in Europe as all the seats from hubs back to Sydney are taken until early August and our leave is only until end July. Tried every city in Europe to get the return leg until I realised I wasn't where I was trying to leave from, but where the flights were transiting through that was sold out.

        • Miffy888 on 14/01/2017 - 08:52

          To get my Europe award seats I had to book in August 2015 for the following June/July 2016 trip. If you are looking now for July 2017- it's probably too late. Plus I think they have more block out dates nowadays. For our return we went with Virgin cos Qantas blocked out dates went further into school term. Award seats to a future USA trip may be easier- seems to be more availability for that route, I know that's not what you want right now. But yeah, Europe is hard and especially when your plans aren't that flexible. :( Had friend who scored 5 award return to LA in October for a January school holidays trip.

        • djkelly69 on 14/01/2017 - 09:22
          +1

          I mean searching for two seats rather than four. Opens up a lot more availability.

          Eg. Mum and one child travel on one flight, and dad and other child travel on another flight.

        • Hoju on 14/01/2017 - 16:43

          @djkelly69:
          Ah yep my expectations are so low that I first start looking for award seats for just one person.
          Not even a seat for one unfortunately.

  • Foxtail on 14/01/2017 - 11:13
    +1

    or 2 down back and 2 upfront, or try QR (Qatar) out of Hong Kong, QR award seats wont show on Qantas site, have to call Q to book and as you cant be done online they can't wack you the 6000 points fee per pax. If you join Award Nexus (cheap) it will tell you what OneWorld airline seats are available.

    Excellent article here on subject.

    http://www.pointhacks.com.au/where-to-search-for-points-seat…

    or use this service:

    http://frequentflyer.com.au/member/award-flight-assist/

    • Hoju on 14/01/2017 - 16:43

      Oh thanks looks interesting!!

  • capslock on 14/01/2017 - 17:51

    If the alternative is a cash fare of $1,300 per person, I can't see a way that you can use your points towards this trip and get anywhere close to 1 cent per point in value. Also, trying to use your points will involve split bookings which may have risks in terms of sitting together or flight connections. A cash fare also has the advantage of earning you more points.

    Other than it being against the rules, selling the points seems like the best value you can get out of your points. Maybe just save them for a future trip?

  • JuryWheel on 14/06/2017 - 15:52

    Hi All,
    Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who still buys points - looked on gumtree but no go
    Cheers

    • Peck on 14/06/2017 - 18:48

      Search Classifieds.
      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/306305

      • thestig on 26/09/2017 - 07:21

        Do you happen to have the username of the user who runs this business purchasing points? Was planning to contact him but the mods have unpublished it for being a business. Trying to find someone reliable to sell points to whether a business or not.

        • Hoju on 26/09/2017 - 07:52

          Tuvz is your man.
          Very professional and yes it is a business but a good one!

    • Bellachino on 26/01/2018 - 12:11

      Yes I do how many points do you have ?

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