Beginners Guide to Westpac Altitude Rewards?

[Gav]

Hi guys, bit of a long-time/part time lurker, but my first post!

I've recently acquired a Westpac Altitude Platinum card.

I just wondered if anyone had any hints or tips on how to get the most out of it?

So far I'm just spending everything I can on the Amex card (3 points per dollar) but how much are these points actually worth? What's the way to get the best out of them? I fly about once per month with work and can book on Qantas or Virgin, and have flown once per year Etihad to Europe (maybe the occasional trip across the ditch too). I can choose to book Virgin or Qantas, will either be better with Altitude? I thought they had a link up, but it seems only with Etihad.

I've got bits of loyalty points with all the three airlines above, but nothing special.

Essentially - any tips for a noob, and how do I max the value out of this when I'm booking airline tickets?

Cheers,

Gav

 

[albatross710]

Hi Gav, welcome to AFF. You didn't get too much response .

I've got the Wetspac Altitude that came as part of the home loan offset package. I use the Westpac KrisFlyer card for the bulk of my points accrual as I am interested in international travel.

As for the value of points, I like to start with the end in mind.

What is it that you want to do? Travel, domestic or overseas? Shopping cards? Other?

Then calculate what those rewards will cost in terms of points.

Then calculate the spend that you need to make to get those points. Working out the best way to spend it is easier when I know what I am going to redeem.

In the past, I have used Altitude cards to redeem fro shopping cards at the time it was about 17,500 for a $100 card which suited us. At the moment I warehouse Altitude points without expiry date for later transferring to KrisFlyer which has a 3 year expiry once transferred.

The earn rate can be misleading. For instance 3 pts per $ on the Platinum would convert to 1.5 Krisflyer miles when transferred. This is the same as the direct sweep earning of the Westpac Amex Krisflyer. The advantage the same earn via the Platinum is that the points don't sweep across each month and avoids the ticking of the 3 year expiry.

Welcome to AFF.

Alby

 

[wxxnxs]

All WBC credit cards do not earn points from Bpay transactions.

 

[KLN]

already have Altitude Platinum Visa/Amex, and love it.........have had plenty of use out of it. Mr. KLN is an additional cardholder (it comes from being staff many years ago), but i need Ms KLN Junior who works for us in the office to be able to pay bills etc when i'm away for the next 5 weeks, and if she needs anything else from officeworks etc. my "business relationship manager" offered me a "business card" where the points went to QFF, i said no thanks.........went to my local branch and said that this is what i've got, and i want another set of these. Me the primary, and MsKLN Junior as the additional. Admittedly all our business dealings are with them and always have been, the local branch staff almost tripped over themselves trying to get me in. no problems Ms KLN, you can get another set of those. what's your daughters name...........does she have accounts with us..........no..........St. George...........sort of Westpac. here sign here, 4 days later the new cards arrived........mine anyway, and her's 2 days later....wonderful service
and then...........new account ..........first $300 spend on the new cards and , 15,000 bonus points were there the next day.

 

[cove]

We recently took up the Westpac Platinum cards as additional cards to the Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer cards.
The biggest advantage is the ability to accumulate points (warehouse them) for months to avoid them expiring and then you have the choice of airlines you can transfer those points to when you are getting ready to book.
I would never use the Visa card as it only pays a net half a point on transfer.
The other thing I noticed is Velocity points are way easier to use domestically and often the points for international can be very high.
We have done a lot of redemptions on SQ and getting flights internationally on points is working well for us.
You need to be aware of the high redemption taxes to get ticketed and the three year point expiry with SQ.
Gift vouchers and economy travel tend to be the weakest values for your earned points but faced with getting something rather than nothing I know I would go for something.

 

[k3nnis]

I agree that using points on Velocity FF for international travel is almost like QF! Domestic is a lot better though.