I am currently trying to assess the best value Points programme to join to work towards return flights to London from Sydney. There are a few deals around offering 100k Qantas or Amplify points, but since I haven't used point programmes before, I am unable to decide which is best.
I am easily able to put $1000 a month on any card and have a good credit score.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
In terms of income, that isn't a problem to meet the requirement.
Looks like someone is going ok
Can you do ANZ visa + Qantas amex ? Depends when you wanted to go.
Syd to LHR is 65,000 points and $300 or so in taxes
I'm happy for any combination. Does the point cost change depending on the time of the year?
So even when you use points, there will be a slight excess you have to pay in cash?
There are always taxes yes
Are you wanting to fly business class to London? You generally get the most value for your points by booking premium class travel, not economy.
Does the point cost change depending on the time of the year?
No, but you will almost always want to be making your reward bookings ~355-330 days in advance (as that is when they release the reward seats, depending on the airline). Reward seats go quick, particularly on popular routes.
So even when you use points, there will be a slight excess you have to pay in cash?
Yes. Points cover the airfare component, but the taxes still need to be paid in cash. This is why you don't get great value using points for economy fares, as the taxes you need to pay mean you could have almost bought a sale economy fare for the same price. Also Heathrow has some extra taxes on top on other airports, so if possible you would want to try and avoid it.
Yes Heathrow charges more in taxes but if you want to be in London you’ve gotta get there somehow. I’m not sure how much you’d save by flying into CDG (Paris) over LHR… If you then got a Eurostar to London thats probably an extra $150.
Annoyingly qantas doesn’t have a way to compare taxes on flights easily.
Points fares are good value in peak times. Even economy fares. I got business flights from Europe to the US pretty cheap though!
I got flights in June on points booked a couple of months before. I was really lucky though.
The best way to accumulate points is by getting bonuses for minimum spends within a certain time period. The best is the ANZ Frequent Flyer Black Card (75K QFF + 2 Lounge Passes) because there is no annual fee for the first year - the only stumbling block is the relatively high income requirement ($75k IIRC).
Assuming you can meet the minimum spend ($5K), the St. George offer is pretty good with 90K QFF + 2 Lounge Passes for $139 but again has a relatively high income requirement ($75k).
If you don't meet the income requirements of some of the more premium cards, the ANZ Platinum which will get you 65K QFF with no annual fee for the first year and only has an income requirement of $35K.
Naturally, these methods are only worth it if you were going to spend the money anyway (e.g. weekly shopping, petrol, bills, spending money, etc.), if you're spending unnecessarily just to accumulate points - you might as well just buy the tickets (or points) in the first place. Without some serious spending, the only reasonable way to accumulate a large amount of points is to constantly churn from one offer to another.