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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
Hi all of these credit cards earn different points per $ spent, and then usually there is another conversion rate when transferring to Qantas or velocity points. Which card earns the highest overall points after conversions?
Hi Elise,
Thanks for your question.
Some of these cards are ‘direct earn’ cards that allow you to earn Qantas or Velocity Points without the need for a conversion. Points earned on these cards are directly credited to your frequent flyer account.
For the other cards, the conversion rates differs depending on the program you’re transferring the points to and the card you earn them on. One program that gives you a transfer rate of 1:1 for most airline programs is American Express’ Membership rewards, but this is the case for other cards’ rewards programs as well, and these cards may have a higher earn rate. By comparing the cards and reading the reviews you’ll have a better idea of the earn rates and conversion rates to the frequent flyer program of your choice.
I hope this will help.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
I am currently using Qantas for my FFPoints and I found that when you go to convert them the flights required are unavailable.
Example – I wish to get Business Class return tickets to Europe and thought by booking a year ahead with flexible times throughout September would be straightforward This is not the case, no flights available which seems to be a wrought having worked and paid to build up the required 600000 points.
Is this a general problem with FFP or are some schemes better than others.
I wish to try another scheme next year if there is a better option out there.
Hi Phil,
Thanks for your question.
For Qantas Frequent Flyer, and all rewards programs, booking Awards flights is subject to availability. There’s no easy way to compare this availability so it’s hard to say whether one scheme is better than others in that respect. You might want to get in touch with Qantas to see if there’s another way to search or book flights, or if there’s a way they can help you in this case.
You might want to do a search of flights in the same time period for other programs and see what their availability is like to see how Qantas compares and if another program might be a better option for you.
I hope this has helped.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
I fly every year with Emirates what’s the best card to use to get points? Also I heard that I can use Qantas frequent flyers to use on Emirates yes or not true?
Hi Georgia,
Thanks for your question.
I can’t recommend a specific card to you, but you can see what Emirates credit cards are available on this page. You’re able to use Qantas Frequent Flyer Points to book flights with Emirates, and you’ll have more choice when it comes to credit cards that earn Qantas Points. You can compare these cards on this page.
I hope this has helped.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Apart from American Express what Visa/MasterCard programs incur Singapore Airlines frequent flyer points?
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your question.
There aren’t any direct-earn currently available, but there are a few rewards cards that let you transfer points to the KrisFlyer program. As you’ve mentioned the American Express Membership Rewards cards allow you to do this, as do Citibank Rewards cards, as do cards linked to the ANZ Rewards program.
I hope this has helped.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
I have just purchased a telecommunications business whereby I will be buying a lot of stock and wish to pay the ATO with my credit card/AMEX. I was considering the Westpac Earth Black but have since learnt they have changed the conditions. Which card is best for me?
Hi Karen,
Thanks for your question.
Some American Express cards allow you to earn rewards points for ATO payments, so a comparison of these cards may be a good place to start. I’m unable to suggest a specific card for you, but just to let you know the Westpac Earth Black is no longer available for new card applications. You might want to read through the article for more information about earning rewards points on tax payments.
I hope this has helped.
Thanks,
Elizabeth