Which program to transfer and store my bank points in for later?

Hi guys,

As part of my banking package, I had a Westpac Black AMEX + MC and an ANZ Travelers Rewards AMEX fee free. I’ve accumulated 150k ‘bank’ points in each one, which can be converted to a variety of frequent flyer programs (KF, Velocity, Enrich, Asia Miles, etc, etc).

My banking has moved to BOM/STG where I have a new fee free Amplify Visa, and I’m wondering what to do with these WBC and ANZ points (I have no planned travel).

I’m planning on cancelling these cards and moving the 2x lots of ~150k points into a program.

Which would be a good program to change to? I thought KrisFlyer as Singapore business class is nice, has good options to Europe and Asia and the points can also transfer to Velocity (at a loss). However, these KrisFlyer points expire so I’d need to be mindful of this (I can set an alarm for three years, and hope I’m still using an iPhone in 2021!).

I have no planned travel, so I’m unsure which program would be best. Potentially I’ll go to Thailand, perhaps Europe/Russia one day. KF is appealing as it’s hard to earn points in their program for Aussies, although I wonder if Velocity is the safer option with no expire and easy ways to earn in Australia.

Alternatively, is there something else entirely I should think about?

Thank you!

I would wait for the next Velocity 15% bonus and then transfer the points to Velocity.

With Citibank, which I have and you do not, they onlt offer 0.4 points per $ to KF and 0.5 point per $ to VA.  With the 15% bonus, that means I can transfer the points from Citibank to Virgin Australia, at 0.5 per $ with a 15% bonus and then transfer the points to Krisflyer at 1.35 to 1 (a 35% cost on transfer) and still be ahead, with the bonus that the VA points do not expire as long as you earn points every 18 months? or so.

So that is what I am doing, not sure if WBC and ANZ have differning exchange rates to KF and VA as Citibank does, but even if not, I would still do it, as they do not expire, and you can use them for VA (with 15% more points) or KF flights (at a 35% exchange cost/loss of points).

Hope this helps.

Thanks.  From memory the transfer rate to KF and Velocity is the same for my cards.  I am still debating internally which is the best program here that will provide the most flexibility going forward (I put KF and Velocity above the other programs because I can transfer between them both).

I’m leaning towards putting all in KF, I already have a some in Velocity, and then go some Velocity sign on bonuses - essentially splitting my points across both KF and Velocity (ensuring to xfer them over before expiry).

Your suggestion to wait for the next 15% bonus is a great one and would be the decider on this one.  I just wonder when that will be.  Seems to be twice a year or so.