After reading all the posts about problems with FF points, I was almost ready to accept that I'd never be able to use the damn things.
I was idly farting about on the qantas site and realised that if I transferred all my points from various cards, I had enough for a one-way ticket to Bali. I'd been trying to see how many more I needed to get to Jakarta, but at best the flight from Melbourne goes via Hong Kong -- sometimes via Brisbane and Perth first -- at a cost of 36,000 points. Whereas Bali is still only 25,000. (I thought it went up to 30,000 when they changed the scam... I mean scheme.)
Anyway, I'm off in November on a direct flight.
Taxes were $114 (one way). So if I add the cost of tax to the FF joining fee and point-earning credit card fees, I think I saved about $20. Whoo-hoo! It was satisfying that of all the points I've accumulated, only 1000 were earned by flying Qantas.
So if anyone's interested in using points from Melbourne in November, I thought I'd let you know that the Saturday morning flights on the 5th, 12th, and 26th are available and direct from Mel-Den. Every other day takes you somewhere else first, and some of the routes are totally bizarre.
I have no idea about return flights. I think I'll just hang around in Indonesia till I earn enough points to get home again. Sounds like a typical Cliff plan, huh?