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Qantas Frequent Flyer and Afterpay: Everything you need to know
You could earn frequent flyer points with the popular buy now, pay later service – here's how it worked.
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In 2020/21 Qantas Frequent Flyer and Afterpay had a partnership that let you earn up to 1 Qantas Point for every $1 spent using Australia's most popular buy now pay later service. You couldn't buy Qantas flights with Afterpay but it was good news for those of you trying to boost your Qantas Points.
The partnership ended on 8 March 2021. We'll update this page if the partnership resumes in the future.
How did it all work? Here's everything you needed to know to make the most of the deal.
When could you start earning Qantas Frequent Flyer Points with Afterpay?
Qantas and Afterpay announced their partnership on 6 July 2020 and said that users would be able to sign up that week. Customers were able to link their accounts from 9 July 2020. To link your account, you needed to sign in online on the Afterpay portal. The initial batch of registrations only ran until 9 September 2020.
How did you earn Qantas Points with Afterpay?
The partnership offered two ways to earn points.
If you hadn't used Afterpay previously, you got 500 Qantas Points signing up for a new Afterpay account and then linking your Qantas Frequent Flyer account. (If you haven't got a Qantas Frequent Flyer account, it's easy to get one for free.) After linking, you were able to earn 1 Qantas Point for each $1 spent with Afterpay, up to a maximum of 5,000 Qantas Points per membership year.
Existing Afterpay account holders could link their account, but didn't get any bonus points. After linking, you could earn 1 Qantas Point for each $1 spent with Afterpay, again up to a maximum of 5,000 Qantas Points per membership year.
In both cases, you needed to spend that amount by 8 March 2021.
There were two big catches for current Afterpay customers. Firstly, only the first 50,000 people who linked their accounts got to earn points. Qantas Frequent Flyer had 13 million members as of July 2020, while Afterpay had 3.2 million users in Australia. That means a lot of customers were going to miss out.
Secondly, you could only earn points after you'd already spent $1,000 with Afterpay. So to earn the annual maximum of 5,000 Qantas Points, you'd have had to spend $6,000. That meant the effective earn rate was actually 1 Qantas Point for each $1.20 you spent with Afterpay.
5,000 Qantas Points is less than what you'd need for any form of Classic Flight reward with Qantas (the cheapest available was 5,600 Qantas Points for a Jetstar flight). So Afterpay shopping couldn't score you a flight on its own, but it can help top up your total.
Points could take up to 45 days to appear in your Qantas account, so you had to be patient.
Which stores let you earn Qantas Frequent Flyer Points with Afterpay?
Any store which accepted Afterpay could earn Qantas Points once the accounts were linked. That included experience company RedBalloon and online fashion stores like ASOS and THE ICONIC.
Check out Finder's full searchable list of stores that accept Afterpay to see if your favourite retailer was included.
Could book Qantas flights with Afterpay?
Unfortunately, not directly. Qantas didn't and still doesn't offer Afterpay as an option when paying for tickets.
You may be able to book a Qantas fare with a third party site that lets you book flights with Afterpay.
If you prefer booking direct with the airline, its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar does let you use Afterpay. You can also earn Qantas Points on Jetstar flights, but only for certain fare types.
Could I also earn Qantas Points through my credit card on Afterpay repayments?
You can link your Afterpay account to your credit card to make repayments. If that card also let you earn Qantas Points, you could potentially "double dip" and earn points from the repayments as well. However, whether that worked or not would depend on the card counting the Afterpay charge as a purchase. This often happens, but it isn't guaranteed to be the case.
Traps to watch out for when earning Qantas Frequent Flyer Points with Afterpay
As we've already noted, only 50,000 existing Afterpay customers were able to earn points during the initial launch. Fingers crossed the platform opens out more broadly over time - we'll update this page if it does.
Paying off your Afterpay debt as your instalments are due is crucial if you want to avoid late payment charges and other fees. If those fees mount up, they're likely to outstrip the value of the Qantas Points you earn from your purchases.
THE POINTS FINDER TAKE
Regular Afterpay users could benefit from extra Qantas Points on their purchases, and were possibly even be able to double-dip. However, the restriction of just 50,000 members signing up meant lots of potential customers missed out. If you missed out or don't use Afterpay much, using a card that earns Qantas Points remains the best strategy for maximising the points earned while you shop.Want to earn more points? Compare Qantas Frequent Flyer credit cards
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