Are frequent flyers programs worth it?
April 13th 2008 06:00
Category: No Category
I am lucky that I had joined the Qantas Frequent Flyers when joining membership was still free. If you want to join now I think it's a $89 lifetime payment to start earning you points.
Besides Qantas, I am also members of frequent flyer programs of Virgin Blue (free), Malaysia Airlines (free), Singapore Airlines (free) and Eva Airlines (free I think). Not that I really travel all that often on any of them, as most of my decision rest on the price of flights at the time I want to travel, but some how I feel if I am not accumulating points for my flights, I am 'wasting' them.
It's all good if the programs are free. For example now that I am spending my time split between Coffs Harbour and Sydney, I am flying on Virgin Blue once every two weeks. Unlike Qantas, joining their program is free but it's really painful to accumulate a lot of points as they accumulate by how much you spend on your flights and not per miles (and I always get the cheapest flights). So for me to manage to save up 6,900 for a one-way flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbour (or be a little more ambitious and save up 19,000 points for a one-way ticket to Fiji...) is going to take a long while.
Last year I went along to a market research discussion about these frequent flyer programs. We were asked about what we look for in a frequent flyer program and almost everyone's answer was points that are easier to earn and never expire. Well, besides Singapore Airlines which has a 12 months expiry for their points, the rest I think do not expire as long as you have an active account. However when it comes to actually earning the points, it's now getting harder and harder.
Overtime, many airlines are making it harder to redeem flights (requesting more points for a flight than before) which means it is now harder to earn and use our points as we wish. More and more restrictions are being put on award flights now so we are now questioning - are these frequent flyer programs really worth it? Or are we just wasting our money and time?
Besides Qantas, I am also members of frequent flyer programs of Virgin Blue (free), Malaysia Airlines (free), Singapore Airlines (free) and Eva Airlines (free I think). Not that I really travel all that often on any of them, as most of my decision rest on the price of flights at the time I want to travel, but some how I feel if I am not accumulating points for my flights, I am 'wasting' them.
It's all good if the programs are free. For example now that I am spending my time split between Coffs Harbour and Sydney, I am flying on Virgin Blue once every two weeks. Unlike Qantas, joining their program is free but it's really painful to accumulate a lot of points as they accumulate by how much you spend on your flights and not per miles (and I always get the cheapest flights). So for me to manage to save up 6,900 for a one-way flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbour (or be a little more ambitious and save up 19,000 points for a one-way ticket to Fiji...) is going to take a long while.
Last year I went along to a market research discussion about these frequent flyer programs. We were asked about what we look for in a frequent flyer program and almost everyone's answer was points that are easier to earn and never expire. Well, besides Singapore Airlines which has a 12 months expiry for their points, the rest I think do not expire as long as you have an active account. However when it comes to actually earning the points, it's now getting harder and harder.
Overtime, many airlines are making it harder to redeem flights (requesting more points for a flight than before) which means it is now harder to earn and use our points as we wish. More and more restrictions are being put on award flights now so we are now questioning - are these frequent flyer programs really worth it? Or are we just wasting our money and time?
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But then again - it does give us the opportunity to travel more like you said