With less than two weeks until the Amex Membership Rewards devaluation, airlines have been competing for Amex points. Last month, Velocity Frequent Flyer offered 15-25% bonus points on transfers from Amex Membership Rewards to Velocity. Now, Qantas is getting in on the action, offering 15-40% bonus Qantas Frequent Flyer points.
Velocity will probably run another promotion on credit card points transfers to Velocity Frequent Flyer next month. Velocity traditionally runs such promotions every May and November. But that doesn’t help those Amex cardholders that stand to have their existing points devalued at the end of next week.
The current Qantas Frequent Flyer promotion is available to anyone with credit card points that can be transferred to Qantas. As most Qantas point-earning credit cards are direct-earning, this only applies to a small handful of credit cards. But this promotion is squarely aimed at Amex Platinum Charge cardholders earning Amex Membership Rewards Ascent Premium points. Ascent Premium points (unlike other Amex points) can are transferrable to Qantas, currently, at a 1:1 rate. In Australia, there are also a small number of business credit cards which award points that are transferrable to Qantas.
With this promotion, the number of bonus Qantas Frequent Flyer points earned will depend on the number of points transferred:
- Transfer up to 500,000 points to earn 15% bonus Qantas points
- Transfer 500,001 to 1,999,999 points to earn 25% bonus Qantas points
- Transfer at least 2 million points to earn 40% bonus Qantas points
This promotion ends on 14 April 2019, the day before the Amex changes take effect. This is probably not a coincidence.
If you’re a Platinum Charge cardholder and looking for a new home for your points, make sure you do your homework. Transferring to Qantas Frequent Flyer may work best for some, especially with the 15-40% bonus points on offer. But many consider Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles to be more valuable as redemptions are generally cheaper, despite the upcoming KrisFlyer devaluation. Award availability is generally better too for long-haul award flights to places like Asia and Europe.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: 15-40% bonus points on Amex transfers to Qantas
