Since 2009, the only way to earn Qantas points with most Australian credit cards has been to get a direct-earning Qantas Frequent Flyer card. This has just changed, with two credit card reward programs introducing a new backdoor way of converting their points into Qantas points.

Why you can’t normally transfer Australian credit card points to Qantas Frequent Flyer

Once upon a time, Australian banks gave the option to transfer credit card reward points to Qantas – just as they still give you the option today to transfer your points into Virgin Australia Velocity, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or other airline programs. (See our Credit Card Points Transfer Matrix for a full overview of current options.)

Qantas changed its policy in 2009. It gave a deadline of 31 March 2009 to transfer points from most Australian credit card reward programs into Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Since then, if you want to earn Qantas points with Australian credit cards, you either need a co-branded Qantas credit card or to opt-in to have your entire points balance swept into Qantas Frequent Flyer every month. Some banks, like CommBank, even charge an extra fee to opt-in to earning Qantas points.

This was a risky but ultimately very clever strategic move by Qantas Frequent Flyer. That’s because it locked many Australians into earning Qantas points exclusively on their credit card spend.

Over 35% of credit card transactions in Australia now earn Qantas points. Qantas sells those points to the banks, so that’s a huge amount of revenue for Qantas Loyalty!

There have been a couple of exceptions. For example, American Express Platinum, Business Platinum and Centurion cardholders still have the option to transfer the Amex Membership Rewards Premium Ascent points earned on these cards to a large range of airline and hotel programs including Qantas Frequent Flyer. This is the only type of Amex points that can be converted into Qantas points.

There are also a few credit card reward programs in the United States, including Capital One, that allow members to transfer their points to Qantas Frequent Flyer. But these programs aren’t easily accessible to most Australians.

Altitude and Amplify Rewards now partner with Everyday Rewards

Westpac Altitude Rewards and Amplify Rewards recently launched a partnership with Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards program.

Amplify Rewards is the shared loyalty program of St.George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA, which are all owned by Westpac and sell the same products.

Members of both loyalty programs can manually transfer points into Everyday Rewards, or opt-in to automatic transfers. The conversion rate is 3,000 bank points = 2,000 Everyday Rewards points.

If you’re familiar with Everyday Rewards, you’ll understand why this is a big deal. Everyday Rewards points can easily be converted into Qantas Points.

To be exact, there are three ways you can use Everyday Rewards points:

1. Convert to Qantas Frequent Flyer points (2,000 Everyday Rewards points = 1,000 Qantas points),
2. Get discounts at the checkout at Woolworths (2,000 Everyday Rewards points = $10 off your shop), or
3. Bank your points for Christmas (and then use them to save on shopping in December).

For every 2,000 Everyday Rewards points you earn, you can get 1,000 Qantas points. In other words, you can now turn 3,000 Altitude or Amplify points into 1,000 Qantas points.

This is the first new way to convert Australian credit card reward points to Qantas Frequent Flyer – directly or indirectly – since 2009.

The banks intend this as a way to access Woolworths discounts

Westpac is selling this as a way for cardholders to save money off their shopping at Woolworths. In fact, the Westpac media release about this announcement does not once mention the word “Qantas”.

“Our partnership with Everyday Rewards means we can offer another way to utilise points when many people are budgeting for an expensive time of year – enabling our customers to put points towards prawns, pavlovas and even petrol when travelling for family Christmas events,” Westpac Acting Managing Director Consumer Finance & Digital Duncan Woods said.

“We have seen our customers increasingly leveraging their points to make their money work harder. Being able to transfer Altitude and Amplify points to Everyday Rewards points gives our customers more choice in how they want to save and spend, suited to their budget and lifestyle.”

Some Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA cardholders will no doubt appreciate that their points now get them discounts at Woolies. But this is also great news for those who’d like the option to transfer some of their credit card points to Qantas, without being locked in to sending all of them to the red roo.

Is this better value than getting a direct-earning Qantas card?

All of the Westpac and St.George cards that offer Altitude or Amplify points also come in versions that exclusively earn Qantas points. So, if you mainly want to earn Qantas points from your credit card spend, which is the better option?

Let’s compare the earn rates on the Qantas vs the non-Qantas versions of these cards:

Clearly, the direct-earn Qantas versions of these Westpac and St.George credit cards can still earn you more Qantas points than if you go via Everyday Rewards.

But this change at least gives people earning Altitude or Amplify points that option to earn Qantas points – without forfeiting the flexibility to also transfer your points into other programs like Velocity or KrisFlyer. That flexibility is valuable.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.