Author: Matt Graham
Kota Kinabalu on Points
Our member froggerADL recently visited the Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu. The city is located on the island of Borneo, which is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The entire trip was paid for using points, from the flights out of Adelaide to the accommodation at the destination. The reason for the trip? To check … Continued
Qantas Point Upgrades: Good Value?
Qantas recently increased the number of points required for a flight upgrade to Premium Economy, Business or First class. An Economy to Business class upgrade to Los Angeles, for example, increased from 72,000 to 90,000 points. So, do Qantas point upgrades still represent good value? The short answer is that upgrades are still good value for … Continued
Abandoning Virgin Velocity
This week a Platinum Velocity member is seriously considering abandoning their loyalty to Virgin Australia. Until now this member has flown Virgin exclusively. But after recent devaluations to the Velocity program and poor experiences with Virgin’s partner airlines, they’re on the lookout for greener pastures. Qantas’ superior international network is one reason for jumping ship. … Continued
South America and Back… The Long Way
This week’s trip report takes us to South America and the Pacific islands, as our member RooFlyer flies, drives and cruises around Chile, Argentina and French Polynesia! The trip began with a flight to Santiago on LATAM Airlines. This flight was direct but our member would be doing some “island hopping” on the way home, stopping in … Continued
Qantas Phasing Out Lounge Passes
Qantas is phasing out the card-sized Qantas Club lounge passes that come with certain credit cards and are given out to Qantas flyers with Silver-level status. These physical passes will instead by replaced by digital passes that can be accessed online. The reason for the change would appear to be to combat the sale of lounge … Continued
Qantas Platinum Status Shortcut
Qantas has begun offering its frequent flyers the option to “purchase” Platinum status using their frequent flyer points. Multiple AFF members have been contacted by Qantas over the phone with the targeted offer. The asking price? 100,000 Qantas points. In each case, the contacted member had already held Platinum status for several years but had … Continued
Northbound to Alaska
It was a trip five years in the making and it certainly did not disappoint! Dog sledding, the Northern Lights, a train trip through the wilderness and a flight north of the Arctic Circle were all highlights as our member Justinf travelled with his sister to Alaska. So I just returned from a two week … Continued
Virgin Boosts Extra-Legroom Seats
Virgin Australia will re-brand its extra-legroom Economy seats as “Economy X”, adding additional benefits including priority boarding and dedicated overhead locker space for Economy X passengers. As part of the new product launch, Virgin will reconfigure its Boeing 737 aircraft to offer three rows of extra-legroom seating at the front of the cabin. This is … Continued
Qantas Tipping Scam Returns
The tipping scam plaguing Qantas’ Los Angeles lounge appears to have returned, with Qantas flyers reporting falling victim to the scam as recently as last month. The scam, which was first reported on AFF two years ago, involves the showers in Qantas’ First and Business class lounges in Los Angeles. When showing lounge guests to … Continued