I’m looking at booking a last minute flight to South Africa from MEL. I have the following dilemma I have a good Qantas balance 500k+ I built up but only Red, Kris flyer about 200K+ transferred my velocity across.
A. Pay 3.5k for emirates flights economy and gain about 200 status.
B. Redeem Kris flyer to Dubai and then book cash fare $700. Redemption about 90k going there and 50k on way back. I want to also use the feature to redeem points for a family member. Redeeming them at 2c at economy per point.
I want to stick with qantas and gain silver or gold to use my point on future reward seats.
I plan on travelling to Bali, Asia and again to South Africa.
I missed on paying 2.8k for the tickets as the flights are full now.
Can you provide pro and cons and what would be the best decision.
I’m curious if you have Qantas Points Club, or Club Plus membership. If so, that can really change your decision making process because they actually give similar benefits to Silver and Gold status.
I think I get what you mean. You want to have status with Qantas first before you use your Qantas points. Buying emirates flights will get you a long ways there to Silver status. That’s basically two lounge passes and an extra bag. You’ll have to think about whether you want to spend your points or your actual cash right now.
I think the benefit with going with Emirates is that its just a one stop itinerary rather than 2 stops or more if you are flying via Singapore and then Dubai etc. And prices are high right now, which IMO would be a good opportunity to burn some Qantas points with a good cents per point value. Always earn and burn.
You can certainty redeem KF points to Dubai and then buy a ticket. But that introduces some uncertainty. What if one of your flights gets delayed? If they are on separate tickets, airlines aren’t obliged to re-accommodate you and could put you out of pocket for a new ticket! And that more complicated itinerary I talked about. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just redeem your KF points straight from Melbourne to South Africa via Singapore. There’s no need to stop over in Dubai unless there’s another reason? That simplifies your routing and clears your KF balance (which expires in 3 years no matter what!).
The best decision really comes down to what you want to spend: your Qantas points, your KF points or your cash. Use Qantas points for emirates, KF points for SIA, and cash well… whatever is the cheapest.
I don’t have either. I missed out last year I was so close. This year I will be getting 100k and will need about 45k to join by march 2022.
The passes are okay but I got like x4-6 in my account now.
Does the club give you entitlements to better classic reward tickets? This is a major benefit. I saw they earn status and points on classic rewards which is a game changer for status runs.
The plan has changed slightly.
We’re going to Addis Ababa instead.
Option A kris and cash
I was thinking via Singapore and do a free stopover for 1 day or 2 on the way. Then spend a 2-3 days in Dubai and book seperate ticket to addis via Egypt (cheaper) and try to spend 2 days on the way. On the way back spend another 3 days in Dubai and straight back to Melbourne no SIN stopover.
Option B Emirates
3 day stopover in Dubai and 2-3 on way back. Helps get me the status.
Both option will be paying for x2 passengers including me.
Been paranoid about wasting on points plus play redemption. So I rather sit on the balances instead. I try to get 2c per point or more with any membership. However the kris flyer scares me with a 3 year hard burn.
If the points sit there I can always redeem them for around the world trip book very early in advance for maximum value but I see the point of earn and burn tho.
Side note I would rather redeem via velocity unless the ticket is cheaper and do the velo to kris and book.