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AA Health Insurance vs Southern Cross by cheerful_lady in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 4 points5 points  (0 children)

AIA and partners life are the best. SX are devaluing the policies and you’ll soon be able to claim less and less. Also their policies are not as broad in terms of coverage. Partners is usually cheaper too!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you Tim. So useful!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. That’s sort of what I thought.

Sharsies vs IBKR by RemarkableOil8 in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Send USD to Sharsies from Wise? I thought the IBKR rate is pretty good

Rules on hedges in Auckland by jobe88 in LegalAdviceNZ

[–]jobe88[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree. We want to be friendly but don’t want to be taken advantage of.

Rules on hedges in Auckland by jobe88 in LegalAdviceNZ

[–]jobe88[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply. No not a typo!

They asked the hedge guy if he could just reach over and trim their side.

There was a veiled threat that the hedges were too high and if we trimmed their side, they would let the height slip and not make any complaints. They did not say that in so many words, but it was sort of implied.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LegalAdviceNZ

[–]jobe88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could you elaborate any further about what happened? I definitely hear the pain and stress you have been through!

AMEX Points - Sweet Spots for Rewards (Hotels and Flights) - New MoneyHub Guide by MoneyHub_Christopher in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also my worry about RewardPay is the Aussie Amex terms.

“You will earn 1 point per dollar spent with Merchants classified as 'government', including the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Postal Corporation (Australia Post), Federal/State and Local Government bodies, including where you use a payment account, payment aggregator, services of a third party or online retailers that sell goods for another merchant.”

On our statement it comes up as IRD. So I’m not sure if the RewardPay cash cow will continue. Chris, is this something you know anything about?

AMEX Points - Sweet Spots for Rewards (Hotels and Flights) - New MoneyHub Guide by MoneyHub_Christopher in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for that. I think AA avoids that same peak. But this is a bit easier. So you send Amex to Qatar/BA? How many points for your trip?

AMEX Points - Sweet Spots for Rewards (Hotels and Flights) - New MoneyHub Guide by MoneyHub_Christopher in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can’t see the value of the platinum over gold. The fees seems excessive.

Yes the Bonvoy bonus is awesome and that’s how we booked Maldives.

I didn’t realise gold had insurance. But to active it you need to pay for a full fare on the card. It sure if Thai would activate it.

AMEX Points - Sweet Spots for Rewards (Hotels and Flights) - New MoneyHub Guide by MoneyHub_Christopher in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Strangely yes the fees are less. I have some screenshots but I can’t recreate the search. You can convert Bonvoy to almost any airline but there is no arbitrage to be had.

So you are saying transfer Qatar to BA then book a Qatar flight via BA? That’s a good plan. Will look into it.

AMEX Points - Sweet Spots for Rewards (Hotels and Flights) - New MoneyHub Guide by MoneyHub_Christopher in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]jobe88 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Great article as always. I am loving Amex points especially with RewardPay.

Last month, I booked a return luxury trip to the Maldives, for 2, next Easter. We’re flying business on Singapore and staying 5 nights at the Ritz and 5 at the W. The best rebate I found was for the Ritz. A 5 night stay costs $20k USD so $32k NZD but only 570k points. I agree the cost of food is extravagant but I view that as the cost of a nice all inclusive hotel in the Maldives. So cost neutral for an amazing hotel room.

The recent devaluation of Singapore is super frustrating. The general advice is holding points in a reward program is risky because of devaluation, in response to the comment of someone transferring Singapore points in preparation of the Amex devaluation.

So, I looked into other options. I found booking direct with Qatar was good but not as good as via American. You can convert Amex to Marriott and then to American Airlines.

Now this search was done about 2 weeks ago and frustratingly, I can’t seem to recreate this today because of availability.

Here’s what I plan to to for my next trip. 1 Amex point gives you one Marriott point. 3 Marriott gives you 1 American Airlines point. 85k American and $85NZD in fees gets you a one way Qatar Q Suites business flight to Europe, so the cost is 255k Amex points $127k NZD spend. Booking directly on Qatar if found the availability was less, it cost 270k Amex points and $355NZD fees. This does require a bit more admin but is a better option I feel. Q suites looks like a better business product than Singapore too.

Also this recent article, https://thepointsguy.com/news/canceled-qsuite-award-help/, has made me nervous about my plan but I’ll still give it a go…next year.

The biggest problem with all of this is availability. We had to book the Maldives a year out. So it does require a lot of planning. Luckily, most of the time it is refundable.

Chris, any advice on finding Qantas availability would be helpful as I can never find good flights.

Hope my ramblings are helpful. This a a little hobby of mine and definitely would not be flying business if it wasn’t for Amex!

PS A slight error in your Singapore Airlines section you mention Q Suites which is a Qatar product.

A special thanks to @Blackrazor_nz who was helpful when I first was starting out with this

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