0:01
Since my last video where I discussed how I earned 900,000 points with Qantas, I've been busy spending those points. I've been from Sydney to London and back in business with the upgrade paid for points and I have booked flights for myself and my whole family to Japan and back again with points. But despite all that spending, as of today I've actually got more points than before 934,000 points.
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In this video, I'm gonna tell you how I got the upgrades, how I earn those points. I'm also going to discuss some changes coming to the Qantas system which will make it both more difficult and more straightforward to earn points going forward.
0:41 How to get upgrades
The first thing we're gonna talk about is how I managed to get the upgrades between Sydney and London and back in business. Now there's a couple of things that influence the chance of you getting a rewards upgrade when you apply for one with Qantas. And aside from how sold out the flight is and how many spare seats there are, the biggest contributing factor is your status with Qantas - Gold, Silver, etcetera
1:02
Now I'm currently Platinum with Qantas, which makes me the second highest priority aside from Platinum One for getting a rewards upgrades on the flight. Now I don't normally fly enough with work or in my personal life to achieve platinum level status. The way I managed to do it was by having a child. Now I know this isn't something that everybody can do but if you have had a kid recently or you have one on the way and you're going on parental leave from work then you can use that as a reason to lock your status with Qantas.
1:29
If you're going for leave above a certain period of time, you get a letter from your company, you send it in to Qantas, they lock your status. The benefit of locking your status is that while it's locked for that two year period you continue to earn status credits and they don't expire. So a few trips home to Ireland and back in the first couple of years of my kid's life managed to get me platinum status which made me high priority for the upgrade. That's something worth looking at.
1:50
Aside from that, travelling in smaller parties, travelling on your own makes an upgrade more likely and in this case, I booked premium economy and upgraded to business. So that gives you a better chance than if you just book economy.
2:05 How to earn more points
Those two business upgrades cost me about 70,000 points each way gone from my account. How do you replace the points when you're using the points? Well the main way I did it over this last three months was with shopping and with purchasing wine firstly with Qantas Wine. Look for cases on Qantas Wine's website that come with bonus points particularly around sale periods or stock clearance periods. You can get up to 25,000 bonus points per case.
2:29 What you want to make sure is you're not paying above odds for those points. So you want to check the prices of all the wines in the case versus availability elsewhere. That can be pretty time consuming. But recently I found that ChatGPT does a pretty good job of doing the price checks for me.
2:44
So that's one way to earn points that covered one of the upgrades for me over the last 3 months and the second way is via shopping, by converting my Woolworths points to Qantas Points. For more details on that, you can check my previous video. But also by shopping and spending via my American Express Ultimate card which costs $450 a year in an annual fee.
3:05
But you get all of that back in Qantas travel credit. It earns 1.25 points per dollar which is one of the best earn rates on the market and that's been the main way I've been earning points.
3:13
for the last few years now, it's worth noting Qantas program changes. There are some changes coming to the Qantas rewards program. Some good, some bad. Basically, it breaks down into four different changes. First of all, Qantas are adding more reward seats on partner airlines like KLM Hawaiian Airlines and Air France which is good because it means you can use your points to book business or economy seats on other airlines, which might have better availability than Qantas.
3:38
The second change is Qantas is now going to be offering more points earned on domestic flights. They say about 25% more, though I gotta be said, it's gotta be said flying doesn't generally earn you that many points anyway. A fraction of the points I earn actually from flying. But if you're flying domestically regularly that could be a good way to earn extra points.
3:56
Third change is that they are going to make it cheaper to book rewards seats with Jetstar. So that's a positive. But the drawback, the fourth point here is from August, Qantas are going to make it more expensive to book Classic Reward seats. So you have to spend a higher percentage of points to get those seats.
4:13 Virgin status match vs Qantas
Overall, it's a bit of a mixed bag. You can check out an article from Angus Kidman on Finder which I'll link in the description below. For more information on these changes, finally, it's worth noting that there is another major airline in Australia. I know we really should have more than two, but Virgin Australia is also available and the benefit of being high status with one airline is you can often use that to match your status with the other
4:37
so I managed to get Virgin to match my status with Qantas. Not quite match. I got gold with Virgin and I'm platinum with Qantas but getting gold with Virgin allowed me to fly on Virgin with status and use their lounges. I've done a domestic flight and I've got a international flight coming up.
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So in future, we will do a video looking at the difference between the flying and club experience between Qantas and Virgin and answer the question "Which is better?". Which is worth spending your time investing in?
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Thank you for your time watching this video you can find more frequent flyer news on finder.com.au.
Hello,
If I was to apply for several credit cards, make the first purchase to obtain frequent flyer points and then cancel them after say 6 months, will i be penalized by the lenders?
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your question.
You might not be penalised by the lenders, but there are normally terms and conditions in place to prevent that from happening.
Also, too many credit inquiries on your credit history may look unfavourable in your application, which reduces the chances of your application being approved.
Cheers,
Shirley
I’m currently looking for a credit card that can be linked to my QFF, i currently travel a lot for work so want to start earning points not just through my flights but with everyday spending.
i do prefer VISA or mastercard
interest rate doesn’t bother me as it will be paid off monthly.
annual fee low?
i want as many points for my spendings but don’t know what to look for with hidden fees.
what card would suit me best?
Hi Mitch,
Thanks for your question.
You can compare Qantas Frequent Flyer cards to see your options. You can sort through the cards by their annual fee and points earning rate. Some fees to look out for would be currency conversion fees, as these are charged if you make payments in a foreign currency. Before applying, please ensure that you meet all the eligibility criteria and read through the details of the needed requirements as well as the relevant Product Disclosure Statements/Terms and Conditions when comparing your options before making a decision on whether it is right for you.
Cheers,
Shirley
I have been a platinum ff with anz for many years, have no-other connections with any bank, I have both visa and American express cards.
Spending around $1k to $2k per month, I only use this for flights and free medical overseas , up to now satisfied.
BUT?
ANZ bank /cards have a REWARDS card were more points can be got for same spending, its also cheaper than my Qantas f/f card,
QUESTION ?
same points required? or more points required by one card than other?
COULD you give examples by both cards (No’s required)
i’ve flown from BALLINA (home) to PHUKET SEVERAL-TIMES, USING SAY DATES :: 7th November 2014 AND 7TH MARCH 2015 NEXT YEAR .
Hi David,
Thanks for your question.
With the ANZ Frequent Flyer Platinum card you directly earn Qantas Points, whereas with the ANZ Rewards card you earn ANZ Reward Points which can be redeemed for a variety of airlines.
To give you an indication, a flight from Sydney to Melbourne one way is;
-22,390 ANZ points with Virgin airlines (approx $14,926 spent on the ANZ rewards Visa)
-8,000 Qantas points with Qantas airlines (approx $16,000 spent on the ANZ frequent flyer platinum)
Please note that these are just indications are subject to change. You can see that it is more expensive for the Qantas flight, but if you prefer to fly Qantas then it’s up to you whether the price difference impacts your decision.
Best of luck with your comparison.
Cheers,
Shirley
hello, just wondering with the american express
platinum reserve card, are there any banks that have this card or do I have to deal direct with american express. cheers. thank you
Hi Helen,
Thanks for your question.
To our knowledge there aren’t any banks that offer this card; it’s likely that you’ll need to apply through American Express.
Cheers,
Shirley
hello
i am a kris flyer but don’t have a credit card linked to my kris flyer membership
i am a very high spender and would like to link a card
could you help me
i pay off the card every month so an uncapped card for points is what i am after
i already have a qantas card and plenty of points
but i am interested in singapore airlines
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your question.
You can compare our Krisflyer credit cards. When you click through to our review, please scroll down to the bottom where you’ll see “rewards program”. In this tab, you’ll be able to see if the points are capped, or if they expire after a certain period.
Cheers,
Shirley