2013 Point Spending Spree!

Most girls I know enjoy a good shopping spree, especially when a sale is on, be it to buy shoes, clothes, handbags or all. Exhilaration and hysteria is experienced as beautiful items are purchased, money 'saved' and the credit card is handed over to get its workout. As life would have it, I am not most girls - exhilaration and hysteria is experienced when I am sitting at my desk comfortably accumulating 'points', particularly those bonus points that come from new credit card applications, upgrades and referrals! (That is not to say I don't enjoy a good sale either). After years of consolidation and treasuring my beloved American Express Membership Reward points, this year I went on an unintentional point spending spree.

This is how the point-spending blow out occurred:

• 20,000 points for a One Way Economy Class ticket – Melbourne to Sydney on Jetstar
• 46,750 points for a One Way Business Class ticket – Sydney to Shanghai on Malaysia Airlines
• 46,750 points for a One Way Business Class ticket – Kuala Lumpur to Sydney on Singapore Airlines
• 51,000 points for a One Way Business Class ticket – Paris to Sydney on Malaysia Airlines
• 40,000 points for a One Way Business Class upgrade – Paris to Sydney on Malaysia Airlines for my travel partner

Total Blowout = 204,500 points!!

Now that is quite a spending spree and all in one calendar year, but hey, I probably saved thousands of dollars with the business class trips I took :)

In the interest of full disclosure, I did use some personal funds to supplement the point-spending spree as well.

• I applied for a David Jones American Express card this year which came with 20,000 sign up bonus points for a $99 annual fee. Those points funded my one way Melbourne-Sydney Jetstar flight which was a pretty good deal since I was purchasing the ticket one week before a long weekend! (FYI: I used my own money to purchase the Sydney-Melbourne ticket) I made the flight redemption by using a cool feature in Webjet to 'redeem' my points. However, I do not recommend this strategy unless it is last minute! Also, I don't think the DJ Amex points are really worth all that much...but hey I wanted to save some money.

• Since 2011, I have been paying $99 p.a for my American Express Platinum Edge card. I get a discount on the annual fee as I am a member of the ICAA (Institute of Chartered Accountants). The best thing about this card was my sign-on bonus of 20,000 points! Additionally, I have been referring family, friends and colleagues this card and I have pocketed another 70,000 points from that. Another awesome feature of this card is the 'free' domestic flight you get each year - I managed to fly to Launceston for free this year so well worth my $99!

• Each flight redemption triggers surcharges & taxes. For the Asia trip in earlier in the year I spent about $600 on those taxes & surcharges; and for the Paris-Sydney flight on Malaysia Airlines A380 business class I spent about $580. These surcharges do sound hefty, but when you compare it to the actual dollar value of a business class flight and the utility consumed, I think it is well worth it!

So what is the deal with buying one-way tickets everywhere?
I wanted to do a few 'open jaw' trips this year, and a lot of the online flight redemption booking tools do not allow this. To overcome this issue, I bought one way tickets and it allowed more flexibility in choosing my reward flights and carriers. Another reason for this decision is that I lacked points to complete my Europe trip wholly in business class this year + upgrade my travel partner, so it was easier to buy a one way economy ticket combined with a one way business class flight redemption. (The sacrifices I made!)

For example, this is how I structured my short 8 day Asia trip this year

1. Sydney-Shanghai via Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines Business Class - 46,750 points  + $352.71 in taxes & surcharges
2. Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines - bought one way economy ticket for $237.31 - it was cheaper to buy MAS than Air Asia at the time. 
3. Kuala Lumpur-Sydney via Singapore on Singapore Airlines - 46,750 points + +$252.60 in taxes & surcharges - and it gave me a chance to try the A380 cabin!

Total = 93,500 points + $842.62

A Sydney-Shanghai business class flight on MAS is about $5,500, so I definitely think this point redemption was value for money! Not to mention the additional comfort of a lie-flat bed, fantastic champagnes and wines to indulge on, proper headsets, a huge screen to watch my movies etc. To provide some perspective, 95,000 Amex Membership Reward points only convert to a $750 gift voucher. It still puzzles me to learn people would rather use points for a gift voucher instead of treating themselves to a business class flight you otherwise can't afford ordinarily!

I could have avoided the point blow out if I had known that I was going to be flying overseas twice this year. I was only planning on doing one trip this year (hence my logic to blow out points on Asia), but sometimes life takes a turn and new opportunities arise. Sure I could have found a better way to utilise my points to the max, but I am thankful that I had such a healthy balance of Amex Reward points to treat myself another time this year.

The point blowout obviously means that I am not sitting on a healthy Amex Membership Rewards balance anymore, nor do I see any bonus points coming my way soon. (If anyone in Amex is reading this, please feel free to send some bonus points my way!) For my upcoming travel endeavours, I will be going back to my 'purchased' US Airways points to make a redemption. Once you've sat in business class a few times on a long haul flight, it is pretty hard to go back to Economy.

Meanwhile, I am diversifying my points portfolio and really hoping the HSBC Platinum Qantas card I have applied for will be approved so I can start building on my Qantas Frequent Flyer points! Always good to have options when it comes to travel and point redemptions :)