We asked our Facebook community the following question:
What is the worst-value points redemption that you have ever made? Don’t be shy
Gift cards and coffee machines featured prominently:
I’m ashamed to admit it was a Nespresso Pixie coffee machine. It was before I began the points game in earnest, and it is a great coffee machine but I still feel the shame. Luckily they were Qantas Points, my least favoured currency – Daniel D.
Using points for coffee machines, toasters and gift cards might not be giving you as much value as you hope
However, Daniel has literally redeemed himself:
I’ve since redeemed Business Class flights to Europe on Singapore Airlines for my wife, daughter and me, as well as to the US in Cathay Pacific Business Class – Daniel D.
as has Nicole after her trip to Hong Kong:
Points and Pay to Hong Kong in Qantas Economy. Needless to say, I quickly learnt from my mistake (thanks to Point Hacks) and my next redemption was in Emirates First Class on the A380! – Nicole L.
Sleep easier knowing your points are being put to good use
Buying a $25 gift voucher from the Qantas online store for over 4,000 points in order to stop my son’s balance from expiring – Sharon B.
For readers in a similar situation, you can keep your Qantas Points from expiring and increase your balance by buying wine through Qantas Wine or purchasing something through the Qantas Online Mall. A longer-term solution is to sign up to Qantas Insurance.
Does letting a six-digit number of Qantas Points from a family member expire count as well? – Melle S.
If your Qantas Points do expire, here is a way you can get them back.
The following reader must have gotten confused between searching for a saver seat instead of a standard seat:
Blowing 70,000 points on a crappy Business Class flight from Melbourne to Brisbane – Shaun G.
Whilst other readers were disappointed with specific airlines:
San Francisco to Miami in American Airlines First Class. Terrible value – Isaac R.
It is a long trek between the US East and West Coasts but American Airlines often has substandard service and, unfortunately, lie-flat beds are uncommon.
One of our Point Hacks contributors, Brandon, even piped in, showing you have to start from somewhere!
Jetstar Business Class from Cairns to Osaka – Brandon L.
Jetstar Business Class may not be the best use of your hard-earned points
This reader summed up exactly why we posted the question in the first place:
This feed is making me feel better about my previous mistakes—it’s a learning curve! – Julie M.
It certainly is!
If you have not had the chance to yet, you may consider signing up to our free introduction to the world of frequent flyer points email course to understand concepts like:
- why you get more value from redeeming points for premium cabin travel rather than Economy
- how to search for award space most efficiently
- why it is probably worth just forking out the cash for a ticket rather than using your Qantas Points to fly Economy Class to the US
How have you learnt from an experience of not using your points to their maximum value? Feel free to share in the comments below!
Neighbour was broke and needed to get home for an emergency. I used 58k of my precious krisflyer miles to fly him home from BKK to BNE in J. (booked a few hours before a 30% discount promotion came out) but he flew the next day anyway, he also happened to take too many sleeping pills so he missed the flight in the A350 sleeping through the short layover in Singapore. (this was salt in the wound)
In return he offered to book me on his Skywards miles as he has 60k of them… without research I did the deal with him but then learnt that 60k skywards miles gets me F All in return and huge taxes costs.. 🙁 🙁
atleast I did him a favour.
Sounds like a less-than-ideal situation but this post may give you some inspiration.
My worst redemption was a Y class return to Europe – SYD-HKG-HEL-FRA on QF/AY using QF points and back CDG-SIN-SYD on SQ points (via amex MR). Had I just booked a revenue fare – it would have only been $250 more than the taxes I paid … and I would have been 130k up on mileage.
Booking any Qantas Award flight out of OZ in J/F (if you can find any) to USA and the fees they charge, like $2,000 for two!. Booking CX award flight out of HKG to JFK return under $200 and lots of award seats to boot.
I say for myself is redeeming J class for MH from SYD – KUL return at 65k QF points one way during Christmas. The number of points for redemption required is too high and could have used my AAdvantage at 40k miles.
Enjoyed the J class though but I got through to the QF call centre to book and would hate to lose the J seats if I hung up and call AAdvantage instead. Knee jerk reaction as I was looking for Y class instead and Christmas is a very high season ($1500-$1800 return on Y class).
I suggest quite often the Qantas Assure app is a great way to make sure your Qantas points will never expire as you can set quite low step targets to ensure a constant feed of points into your account even after the app’s trial.
Good point. I have added that in!
65k AAdvantage miles RT from YUL to LAS, in economy!
Nooooooooooo! Thanks for sharing, though.