Ive been doing alot of reading in regards to cards and the points that can be collected.
Due to my income not reaching some of the higher cards like the anz black FF and Amex Explorer cards i am unable to create one under my name (i could use my parents then just use the card as my own but thats another thread haha)
Im currently looking at the Qantas Premium Platnium with the 75k Bonus points and 149$ fee and the ANZ rewards Platinum with the 65k bonus point.
Which card provides more value for points?
I know that for the ANZ card each $ equates to 0.5Krisflyer/Asiamiles and 0.75 velocity points. The Qantas card earns 1 point per $ but what does the Qantas point equate to in terms of the other airline points??
Or would i be better off signing a card under my parents name for the Amex explorer and using it as my own, but then how would transfering the points etc work? Would i lose points changing it to my name when i book flights??
Sorry for the questions haha,
Any help is appreciated
My own approach as been to get points in the form that I would spend them, but I redeem mostly on domestic flights. My own really simple calculation for value is to divide the amount of bonus points by the first year annual fee. I don’t like introducing too much complexity into my own calculations.
I shop around and change card regularly to take advantage of sign-up bonuses. I can make some general points that your own research might support.
I collect both Qantas and Velocity points, and I recently decided to focus on hotel loyalty rewards with IHG. I travel domestically for work every few weeks.
Until recently I had an Amex Platinum credit card, which accrued 3 Membership Rewards points per $1 at supermarkets and 2 points per $1 spend at petrol stations. I would save my MR points until the 15% bonus conversion period arrived, such as is on now, and convert to Velocity.
For Qantas points I used to have the Qantas Discovery Amex card. No annual fee and 1 QFF point per $1 spend.
I recently closed both Amex cards so that I can qualify for Amex sign-up bonuses in 18 months time.
In the meantime I have Westpac Altitude Black cards (Mastercard & Amex) to collect QFF points and I have a Coles Mastercard linked to Flybuys to accrue Velocity points and Virgin status credits. I shop at Coles for groceries and petrol because its handy and earns points. I pay the $79 annual fee for the 2 FB points per $1 spend and fee-free international transactions on the Mastercard.
If your income level doesn’t qualify you for ‘black’ cards, I reckon the Qantas Amex Discovery card and Coles Mastercard with Flybuys are worth investigating as a good way to start down the point hacker journey.
I collect both Qantas and Velocity points because my employer shops around for airfares between the two carriers, but if you can concentrate your efforts on one program you’ll be flying sooner. For domestic travel I think Virgin offers better redemption value than Qantas, but I recently travelled around the world with One World courtesy of the QFF 140,000 point per seat redemption offer. I’d love to have done that in Business Class but the family of four would have cost me close to a million QFF points, which I didn’t have.
no point collecting points for a program that doesn’t suit your needs.
Personally I found SQ Krisflyer the best for my needs, with great availability to my most often used destinations (EU and Asia mostly). Therefore I went with the explorer when it first launched (before there were any bonus points on offer)
I couldn’t tell you if QFF or AMEX would be better suited to your lifestyle, however the explorer doesn’t allow direct transfer to QFF, you could transfer to Asia Miles and book Qantas flights that way.
