Perth to London: How to Save $673 on Fuel Surcharge Fees

Are you, or do you know a friend that is traveling to London using Frequent Flyer points? Better read this.

Recently, there has been a flurry of activity on the Qantas Frequent Flyers website as members redeemed their points to take advantage of a loophole which potentially saves them up to $600 in fuel surcharge. It has come about as a result of Qantas' alliance with Emirates, who have a significantly lower fuel surcharge than Qantas.

Here is an example of a booking Perth to London on the same day. One booking uses only Emirates flights and the other one uses Qantas and British Airways. Both options cost the same in terms of points with a Perth to London return trip costing 112,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points in each case.

However, when you look at the cost of fuel & taxes, you would be pretty upset if you booked with Qantas and British Airways. The Emirates flights cost $423.58 on top of your 112,000 points but the Qantas / British Airways option costs $1097.16.

That is a saving of $673.58 just by checking your other options when booking. Of course, one flight option goes through Dubai and the other goes through Singapore.

Click on the image to enlarge

Click on the image to enlarge

Alinta Does it Again

Every three months I make the same mistake. I log in to Alinta's website, click on payments, type all my credit card number details in, payment number etc only to be told the payment number is not valid. It's not 11 digits .After a while I realise that as a WA customer, I should be going to another website to process the payment. It is probably not that hard for them to just give me the right website first time right?

It's not a major issue but it is a regular waste of ten minutes. Perhaps bookmark the WA website or put it in your calendar to appear every three months. The WA Alinta Gas payments website is here. Or are you switching to Kleenheat Gas for 10% off?

Dick Doesn't Do Deals

I went into a Dick Smith asking them about a printer that I wanted to buy. It was much more than I expected and I told them that I would like to find out what the best price can be as it was being sold in another store for a certain price. The girl said that they don't do price matching and the best price is the normal price of that printer as displayed. The thought "Dick Does Deals" flashed into my head and left me confused with what she just said. Anyway, just so you know.

Wait.. You're still paying monthly bank fees??

I used to pay $5 per month for a bank account that did nothing more than temporarily hold my money before my online saver account or my home loan got it. Then I found out about Bankwest's Hero and Zero accounts. I made the switch and posted about it here. Two years on, looking at the big bank profits, I think people still haven't switched. Even though they do the same, one account charges you interest, and the other pays you interest. Since switching, I would have earned about $120 with the Hero account. With the Lite Transaction Account, I would have instead paid $120 of monthly fees. That's $240 for the switch.

Like most transaction accounts, the Hero allows you to get free unlimited number of over the counter and ATM withdrawals. It also pays you 3.5% interest on any balance you have in the account (up to $5000) calculated daily.

The Bankwest Lite Transaction account still charges people $5 / month and pays virtually no interest (well, 0.01% to be exact). So why do they have this account? Because not everyone researches their options.

I noticed that Bankwest has been pushing their Zero account quite a bit lately. The Zero acount allows you to withdraw cash without fees from any ATM amongst the big four banks - ANZ, CBA, Westpac and NAB. Perhaps you didn't realise, Bankwest customers can already use any Comm Bank ATM for free? Unless you live in a place where there are no Bankwest and Commonwealth Bank ATMs (and where would that be), why would you choose the Zero account? Even if you do, just don't be on the Bankwest Lite Transaction account.