Dear OzB hivemind,
I (barely) take one international flight in a year but wanted to look into the option of cheap upgrades to business class or save money on airfare in general. A friend suggested getting a CC that helps in accumulating points that I could use later for travel.
Any recommendation for Credit Cards that do not have exorbitant fees and might help with international travel with accumulated points? I don't plan on paying interests for purchases.
Your advice is much appreciated!
Many thanks! That's a great resource!
Ozbargain > Deals > Financial
Scroll through and take your pick.
Thank you!
If you really want someone to give you a recommendation, you need to provide more detail. eg. The best card would be different if you were spending $10,000 spending per year vs $100,000 spending per year. Also your breakup of spending (eg do you have much international spending? how much at supermarkets? etc). If you don't spend much on your credit card, you can get more from credit card churning instead.
qantas points gets you fuk all internationally atm.
best is to accumulate virgin points and then transfer to krisflyer points. singapore airlines has legendary availability on premium cabins and its premium cabins shit all over pretty much everyone else but qatar at the moment.
I picked up 2x first class return tickets to singapore for january next year on the A380 with their new first class cabins
This, I planned on using my velocity points to fly to Canada (since they partner with Air Canada), except all the flights have literally one available rewards flight - therefore I can't use my points for the two of us. Only economy flights too.
Checked Krisflyer points today and bam, there is a million flights. Via Singapore, but there's also availability for a stopover and I've never been to Singapore before.
I spent the last 20 years flying business or first, mostly on points … sometimes paid cash such as RTW ticket starting outside of Australia.
Accumulating points is the easy part.
Using those points, you generally need to be very flexible and often book out a long time in advance. You always plan your holidays around the flights you can book, and rarely the other way round. Sometimes you fly into a city that is not your preferred but if it means flying business / first for 24-30 hours and then slumming it 1hr on a domestic economy flight .. then so be it.
Now, if you are booking for two, makes it a little more difficult … and anything more than 2 people, forget it. Its possible but you need to be savvy, I have done it. I have had 4 tickets on First Class once and it was a good party onboard.
I (barely) take one international flight in a year. Do you travel to a specific place for family/social reasons, or desire to explore widely as a tourist?
…cheap upgrades to business class. There's no such thing, as you'll have to purchase a full economy class fare only to find upgrades have been redeemed by high-status flyers
…save money on airfares in general. OK perhaps for Virgin domestic where redemptions are fully inclusive of taxes
…getting a CC that helps in accumulating points that I could use later for travel. Best to choose a single awards programme initially, otherwise you'll have small balances across several programmes that can't be redeemed for anything useful
…recommendation for Credit Cards that do not have exorbitant fees. Aim to earn one point per dollar spent, for which you'll incur a card fee as you'll be getting sometthing in return
Many thanks for your detailed response. I plan to travel mostly to Asia in general and sometimes to North America/Europe. :)
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