What is the Best Frequent Flyer Program?

Frequent Flyer Programs
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AMEX explorer has choice of:
Asia Miles
Emirates Skywards
Etihad Guest
Malaysian Airlines Enrich
Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
THAI Royal Orchid Plus
Velocity Frequent Flyer

Qantas is 48,000 per person Fraser Coast -> Adelaide return. Business on Bris->Adl leg of flight given other leg is a dash.
Virgin is ~80,000 points for the same flight!

Some of these allow Qantas redemptions which seem to be the way to go. Which is best, given I only want to use for Qantas? Although obviously no-one has a crystal ball so can’t forsee any changes to partner programs.

Are the flights also equivalent of 48,000 points or is the redemption rate different?

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Hi,

There is no fixed “Best” FF program. The best one is the one that has availability when you want to travel at the appropriate point costs. Hence, it is different for everyone and for different circumstances. Which is why flexible point programs like Amex are very valuable as it gives you many more options to get from A to B rather than being stuck in say Qantas (having 1 million Qantas points but no availabilities on your desired dates of travel). Even though 1 million Qantas points is very good to have ;).

For reference, BNE-ADL return costs:

Krisflyer 35k with Virgin Au

Asia Miles 40K with Qantas

Velocity 47k with Virgin Au

Qantas 48k with Qantas

Enrich 54k with Qantas

*Note: The exact point/mile costs may or may not be current. It’s just an illustration of how different the costs can be across different FFP for the same route.

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agree. there is no “best” program and it depends on individual. not just value for redemption but also ease of getting seats.

for example, if you like stopping over in a certain Asian city then an Asian airline program would be better suited.

some airlines offer discount for reward redemptions, some airlines allow a “free” stopover whilst Qantas does not.

etc. etc.

for example, I mostly prefer Qantas because of the ease of earning points from multiple sources, of course balanced against ease of redeeming.

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