My expert frequent flyer points secrets revealed (the Woolies one is amazing)

Earning points and using them is easier than you think - here's how.

Frequent flyer points aren't just for business types with massive travel budgets. Everyone has to buy food, and everyone can earn frequent flyer points while doing so - but not everyone knows that.

Earlier this week I chatted with Renee Krosch from ABC Radio Sydney about the best way to use frequent flyer points. She was very surprised to learn that you can earn loads of bonus points from Everyday Rewards and Flybuys - and you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to do that.

Here are the highlights from our conversation.

RENEE KROSCH: It's time for our life hack segment for a Monday and tonight it's all around frequent flyer points. You know about them, and you know how to earn them, I guess. But how do you best use them? Angus Kidman is the international editor at large of Finder. That's the comparison website of products and providers. Angus joins us now at Evenings. Now frequent flyer points. They used to be worth a lot, didn't they?

ANGUS KIDMAN: They did used to be worth a lot. And you know what, they're still worth a fair bit. There's been a perception that the value of them has dropped over time and we have seen that you do need more points now to get a free flight than you used to, but they're still a good way of getting a cheaper travel and they're still definitely worth hunting down.

RENEE KROSCH: So in terms of earning them, is the best way to earn them to fly with the airlines?.

ANGUS KIDMAN: Definitely that's going to be a good start, and you're going to have to pick an airline loyalty program. But that's not actually the best way for most people to earn points into those programs. Your best option there is to either have a loyalty credit card, so everything you're paying for on your credit card is earning you points, and as long as you're paying off that credit card every month and not running up interest, that's a great way of getting extra points.

The other good option, and the one that I think everyone can take advantage of is, you can actually convert supermarket reward points into frequent flyer points. Both the major supermarkets have a partnership with one of the airlines (Woolworths with Qantas, Coles with Virgin). So I think that's an opportunity that a lot of people miss that what you can actually do is convert those points and they're worth more if you convert them into frequent flyer points and then get free flights with them than they are if you just get the 10 dollars off, which is what I think a lot of people do with their supermarket reward points,

So you really can earn quite a lot of them even if you're only going to fly once or twice a year. So it's not just the case that you have to be a corporate high flyer who's constantly heading to the airport in order to actually build up a decent bank of points.

RENEE KROSCH: OK, but to earn the $10 off at say Woolworths or Coles, you have to spend like $2,000, don't you?

ANGUS KIDMAN: Generally you do. Unfortunately with the price of groceries these days even that doesn't take that long for a lot of households.

The other trick to take advantage of when you're looking at the supermarket, is to really look at bonus points offers where they'll give you a lot more points for your spending. So instead of it just being, you know, one point for every dog you spend suddenly, you get 200 points because you've brought a particular tin of tomatoes or something like that. If you take advantage of those offers, you can build up your total a lot faster.

Bonus points offer like this one from Coles can boost your totals much faster.

The secret is not to become obsessed with it, and buy things purely for the points. There's no point buying something just to get points. But if there was a product you were going to have to buy anyway, and you can get some bonus points on top of that, you can build those points out a lot more quickly.

This is what I do myself all the time, and I earn embarrassing numbers of points by just carefully scrutinising my apps and looking at the bonus points offers that are going to work for me at the supermarket.

RENEE KROSCH: Okay, I did not even know that existed. Okay, so now you've earned them, you've leveraged off your credit card, you're paying it off each month in time, you're accruing those points. How do you maximise their value today in 2025. What's the best thing to do? Can you fly on an economy flight from say, Sydney to Perth, or do you use it for an international flight? Do you upgrade on a business flight from economy to business class. Is that the best way to use them?

ANGUS KIDMAN: That's that, is that the best way to use them. So all of those are good possibilities In turns out if you calculate the absolute value, then getting the upgrades or taking those business class international flights is the best. You get the most bang for your points when you do that. But there's a big caveat and the caveat is that it's really hard to get those seats.

There aren't very many upgrades, there aren't very many loyalty seats that are in the pointy end of the plane. And when they get allocated out, the most loyal flyers, the people who are Platinum frequent flyers or beyond, they get access to those seats first, so it can be very tricky.

Despite frequent flights, scoring reward seats can be tricky. Image: Angus Kidman/Finder

So what I actually tell most people to do is just think about economy flights, whether that's international or domestic, because the is much better and you're still getting good value out of them. And I think it's better to say well I know I've got a chance of getting these rewards then spending hours on the airline website and the flights just aren't there.

So I think the sweet spot is actually in those economy flights. And it can even be in the domestic ones, especially for families, where your chances of getting more than one set in business class are really low. But if you're organised and plan your holidays, you could potentially get all of your family's flights or at least half of them using points rather than having to pay cash.

RENEE KROSCH: Okay. So how far in advance do you have to book to be able to get a frequent flyer seat?

ANGUS KIDMAN: So for the actual best options it can be as far as much as 12 months ahead, it really can be that some of them go that quickly. But again for a lot of families realistically you know when the holidays are going to be. You know when school holidays and when things are going to happen.

Having said that for domestic flights you still get pretty good availability going right up to about six weeks out. So there is that potential to do something that's a little bit more last minute. What you can't generally do is something you just come think oh I want to take a flight tomorrow, because the seats just won't be available.

RENEE KROSCH: So in terms of what they really worth, how many points in 2025 do you need to say fly from Sydney to Melbourne? If I jump on the website and look at say Jetstar, I might be able to find a flight for around 60-80 bucks. Is it worth using my frequent flyers to do that domestic leg?

ANGUS KIDMAN: Not if you can find the $60 flight, no, because that will still be cheaper for you. It will vary a little bit, but typically, you're looking at probably between 6,000 and 8,000 points for a one-way flight between Sydney and Melbourne.

And on top of that, you'll potentially pay some fees and charges, about 40 or 50 bucks. So if you can find that $60 Jetstar flight then that's probably better. The trick is that those flights can be a lot more expensive if you use frequent flyer points to get a flight a Friday afternoon, at that point the cheapest seat might be $400 and at that point the points are worth it. So it definitely makes sense to do what you're suggesting and shop around a bit and compare what you pay for the actual airfare to what the points are getting you so you make sure you get the best value.

Virgin and Qantas are the main competitors in Australia's frequent flyer market. Image: Supplied

RENEE KROSCH: So if you know that you want to fly down to Melbourne for say the AFL Grand Final you should have booked that last year.

ANGUS KIDMAN: Given that we pretty much know what date that event's going to be on and if you think that they aren't happy to go and I don't really mind if my team's in there then yes I would be looking at trying to get that fight, certainly if not exactly 12 months out, then pretty much at the beginning of the year. That will be a high demand period obviously, so you might still battle a little bit to get that, but the earlier you get in there, the better your chances are going to be.

RENEE KROSCH: So do you still think that the frequent flyer point system for the two Australian airlines are value for money?

ANGUS KIDMAN: I still think that if you use them intelligently, they can be a way to get cheaper travel, You do have to put a bit of effort into that and I appreciate it for people who don't enjoy planning travel then maybe it's not worth doing that in that context.

So if the ten dollars offer is working for you, keep doing that. But I do still think there's value to be had there and there is a way to save some money on travel and travel hasn't gotten any cheaper over the last few years. So any chance to do that, I still think is worthwhile.