Credit Cards helped us get First Class tickets - A big thank you

[cove]

Have felt like a hamster at times as well. Now we are pretty much on cruise control with a number of credit cards. Going back to coach is not great but we did it to fly once this year in Europe.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Couldn't agree with this more.

One thing I didn't know until recently is simple things like eBay as we buy quite a few things from them is if you login via the Qantas site you get 1ppt for $ spent. So buying on eBay this way and paying with the Amex you get 1 Qantas point and 2 Amex points for every $ we spend there.

There are so many little things that make a big difference over time.

I always check using both the Qantas and Virgin Portals as for ebay Virgin is often best. Both have specials like extra points etc. If you broaden this out to all your online shopping I compare using Qantas/Virgin/Krisflyer Portals and also Cashrewards as the cashback deals (both % and fixed amounts) are sometimes better value than FF points too.

ie 2 online woolworths shops tonight. Both a smidgeon over $100 with each gaining :
-Free delivery deal
-Amex $20 back,
-Cashrewards $1 back,
-WOW 2000 point bonus,
-WOW triple point bonus and so another 300 WOW points

 

[craven morehead]

Mine is a LOT lower than 1000 and I've not yet been refused a card. I'd average 12 card applications a year.

WOW !! That's unreal

 

[cgichard]

One thing I didn't know until recently is simple things like eBay as we buy quite a few things from them is if you login via the Qantas site you get 1ppt for $ spent. So buying on eBay this way and paying with the Amex you get 1 Qantas point and 2 Amex points for every $ we spend there.

Thanks so much, Lawrage. This led me to discover that I can get KF points directly from shopping on eBay via the Krisflyerspree site. I do wish I had known about this earlier as I've made several purchases recently. Would it still work if I use my ANZ Amex card via PayPal, or would it only work if I paid directly with the Amex card? I ask because many vendors only accept payment via PayPal.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I always check using both the Qantas and Virgin Portals as for ebay Virgin is often best. Both have specials like extra points etc. If you broaden this out to all your online shopping I compare using Qantas/Virgin/Krisflyer Portals and also Cashrewards as the cashback deals (both % and fixed amounts) are sometimes better value than FF points too.

ie 2 online woolworths shops tonight. Both a smidgeon over $100 with each gaining :
-Free delivery deal
-Amex $20 back,
-Cashrewards $1 back,
-WOW 2000 point bonus,
-WOW triple point bonus and so another 300 WOW points

Nice stacking

 

[djmalc]

Apologies if I'm being dumb here but I already have a Visa, Mastercard and American Express card. In all the offers for "sign-up" Qantas FF points I've looked at (and that's about a dozen) the small print says specifically (let's say it's for an Amex card) that you must not already own an Amex card. How the hell are you able to sign up for multiple cards of the same type and still get the "sign-up" points? As far as I'm aware these offers are only ever for one or other of those three card types. Very confused as to how you are getting around these rules? What am I missing?

I'm looking at an advert right next to the post I'm writing now for a 100,000 qantas points Qantas Amex card. here's the first sentence in the Terms & Conditions...
1. The 100,000 bonus Qantas Points offer on the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card is only available to new American Express Card Members who apply by 30 January 2017, are approved and meet the required spend criteria within 3 months of the Card approval date. Card Members who currently hold or who have previously held any other Consumer Credit Card product issued by American Express Australia Limited in the preceding 18 month period are ineligible for this offer.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Apologies if I'm being dumb here but I already have a Visa, Mastercard and American Express card. In all the offers for "sign-up" Qantas FF points I've looked at (and that's about a dozen) the small print says specifically (let's say it's for an Amex card) that you must not already own an Amex card. How the hell are you able to sign up for multiple cards of the same type and still get the "sign-up" points? As far as I'm aware these offers are only ever for one or other of those three card types. Very confused as to how you are getting around these rules? What am I missing?

AMEX terms state an 18 month exclusion period after you have cancelled one of their cards. But this is rarely enforced.

With other offerings if it says 'new customers' only, you cancel your current card and then make a new application. This works 100% of the time - provided there is no enforced exclusion period.

 

[Steady]

Apologies if I'm being dumb here but I already have a Visa, Mastercard and American Express card. In all the offers for "sign-up" Qantas FF points I've looked at (and that's about a dozen) the small print says specifically (let's say it's for an Amex card) that you must not already own an Amex card. How the hell are you able to sign up for multiple cards of the same type and still get the "sign-up" points? As far as I'm aware these offers are only ever for one or other of those three card types. Very confused as to how you are getting around these rules? What am I missing?

I'm looking at an advert right next to the post I'm writing now for a 100,000 qantas points Qantas Amex card. here's the first sentence in the Terms & Conditions...
1. The 100,000 bonus Qantas Points offer on the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card is only available to new American Express Card Members who apply by 30 January 2017, are approved and meet the required spend criteria within 3 months of the Card approval date. Card Members who currently hold or who have previously held any other Consumer Credit Card product issued by American Express Australia Limited in the preceding 18 month period are ineligible for this offer.

Further to DrRalph's post - with direct earn Amex you must not have held that particular earning card in the last 18 months (if enforced) so you can apply for a direct Amex velocity platinum if you have never had it before or it was greater than 18 months ago and get the sign up bonus. This then also applies to the Explorer if you have not had a MR Gateway account or an Ultimate if you have not had a direct earn QF card or the other MR accent versions etc. After that - or in conjunction to some of those there are the bank issued amex you can work through. If interested you should start reading the relevant threads and then ask specific questions

 

[djmalc]

Further to DrRalph's post - with direct earn Amex you must not have held that particular earning card in the last 18 months (if enforced) so you can apply for a direct Amex velocity platinum if you have never had it before or it was greater than 18 months ago and get the sign up bonus. This then also applies to the Explorer if you have not had a MR Gateway account or an Ultimate if you have not had a direct earn QF card or the other MR accent versions etc. After that - or in conjunction to some of those there are the bank issued amex you can work through. If interested you should start reading the relevant threads and then ask specific questions

OK here are a few Specific questions. I have a NAB Qantas Platinum Amex and NAB Platinum Mastercard as part of a NAB Choice Pacvage Home Loan. Let's say I want to take up the 100,000 points offer for signing up to a Qantas American Express Ultimate Card. Do I have to cancel my NAB Amex card before that or are you saying that these are two different types of Amex card and so all will be fine if I keep my NAB card? I'm not sure that I can even cancel my NAB Amex card while I've still got the home loan?

I assume MR refers to Mastercard?

Perhaps you can point me to whatever threads are actually relevant and maybe a bit easier to understand! No offence intended, but I found your post quite confusing particularly the last half where you talk about "Explorer", "direct earn QF card", "MR" and "Accent" and the bit about "in conjunction to some of those there are the bank issued Amex" (do you mean "alternatively" rather than "in conjunction").

 

[Steady]

OK here are a few Specific questions. I have a NAB Qantas Platinum Amex and NAB Platinum Mastercard as part of a NAB Choice Pacvage Home Loan. Let's say I want to take up the 100,000 points offer for signing up to a Qantas American Express Ultimate Card. Do I have to cancel my NAB Amex card before that or are you saying that these are two different types of Amex card and so all will be fine if I keep my NAB card? I'm not sure that I can even cancel my NAB Amex card while I've still got the home loan?

Assuming your income meets the criteria - no you don't have to cancel an NAB card - American Express is a different company to NAB so not relevant at all to sign up bonus's.

Be sure to use an AFF referral to get 110,000 QF points and also help the member out with 20,000 to them. (mine is there amongst everyone else's )

I assume MR refers to MasterCard?

MR = Membership Rewards - that is an Amex reward point rather than a QF or VA one. MR points can be warehoused and then transferred to other reward programs

Perhaps you can point me to whatever threads are actually relevant and maybe a bit easier to understand! No offence intended, but I found your post quite confusing particularly the last half where you talk about "Explorer", "direct earn QF card", "MR" and "Accent" and the bit about "in conjunction to some of those there are the bank issued Amex" (do you mean "alternatively" rather than "in conjunction").

Have a read in this section of the forum. There are folders on all the different credit card rewards programs and cards.

There are a few different types of MR accounts and it depends on what type of card you sign up to. The Explorer card is just another model of direct American Express cards just like the Ultimate. The Ultimate earns QF points that transfer automatically into your QFF account every month. The MR points earnt by the "Edge, Explorer, Charge" etc stay in your American Express account until you choose to transfer them.

You can hold some direct amex cards at the same time as you hold some bank issued amex/visa/mc credit cards

 

[prozac]

OK here are a few Specific questions. I have a NAB Qantas Platinum Amex and NAB Platinum Mastercard as part of a NAB Choice Pacvage Home Loan. Let's say I want to take up the 100,000 points offer for signing up to a Qantas American Express Ultimate Card. ....

Don't get hung up on signing up for a QF card. Points earned to Qantas (QF) are not worth as much as they were and difficult to redeem if you do not have QF status. Think about earning Amex MR points instead. When you are ready to use them you can then transfer the MR points to an airline of your choosing. Depending on card this may mean you cannot transfer to Qantas, but there are many good airlines to choose from.

 

[djmalc]

Be sure to use an AFF referral to get 110,000 QF points and also help the member out with 20,000 to them. (mine is there amongst everyone else's )

You've been very helpful Steady so I'd be happy to "refer" you - however I've spent an hour trawling through numerous posts but can't find what I need to do - so if you can advise me of the procedure or point me at a specific post that has your referral details I'll see what I can do. I assume this is something that you do as part of the online application for the card?

Note also that I'm not quite as much of a Novice as my profile may appear and I found booking Award flights with Qantas to be not as bad as some had warned me. I booked a pretty neat QFF Award (it was effectively a RTW trip but called something else which I forget) booking between Feb and Aug 2015 (members on this forum gave me a little help, but mostly did this myself) - I should probably add those flights plus the other 32 extra short-haul flights I took on that 23 country trip to my profile I suppose. Looking into how to do that now. ;-)

 

[Lawrage]

djmalc to use a referral just use a link from the referral section of the forum. Here is the link to the referral page for the Qantas Ultimate Amex Card (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....tas-ultimate-american-express-card-79436.html)

You will find Steadys link at the bottom of page 1

 

[Jeoffster]

My wife and I have looked at these 100,000 point offers, only to be disappointed when you read the fine print. AMEX in particular only extend the offer to those who have never held an AMEX card before. So too bad for me, a loyal 30+ year AMEX customer who is offered diddly squat as a reward for my loyalty of holding Gold and Platinum cards. Sadly, loyalty counts for zero these days. It's all about selling to the next new customer.

 

[Dr Ralph]

My wife and I have looked at these 100,000 point offers, only to be disappointed when you read the fine print. AMEX in particular only extend the offer to those who have never held an AMEX card before. So too bad for me, a loyal 30+ year AMEX customer who is offered diddly squat as a reward for my loyalty of holding Gold and Platinum cards. Sadly, loyalty counts for zero these days. It's all about selling to the next new customer.

Suggest you read the terms again. They aren't always as restrictive as you have indicated.

 

[Lawrage]

My wife and I have looked at these 100,000 point offers, only to be disappointed when you read the fine print. AMEX in particular only extend the offer to those who have never held an AMEX card before. So too bad for me, a loyal 30+ year AMEX customer who is offered diddly squat as a reward for my loyalty of holding Gold and Platinum cards. Sadly, loyalty counts for zero these days. It's all about selling to the next new customer.

Its not just the Amex offers, there are a lot of good offers available at the moment from some of the banks.

Is your Amex a bank issued one or one that you got directly from American Express? If the latter there are still ways you can get the sign on bonuses - have a read through the "Amex Explorer" thread and you will find quite a few of these stories.

 

[SOPOOR]

apologies if this has been answered,

are you on QFF or VA or other program?

I assume you signed up for heaps of cards with bonus points,
were these all fee free??

ive got a some decent points but want to aggressiveivly accumulate points,
I havent signed up for a credit card for 10 years though, but couldnt see thevalue of signing up to cards with annual fees,

obviously cancelling after a year is an option too

I also try and earn as many points using amex 1.2 per $ and 0.62 per $1 ffor MC via CBA

 

[SOPOOR]

ps can I ask you guys seem to be racking up heaps of points,what are your mothly spends like

im a serial points hoader
mine i s about $8k per month, works out to be about 100k per year in QFF

I havent done any sign up bonus though

I would love to do 300k per year

i see some guys here are doing 3 first class trips per year!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

i see some guys here are doing 3 first class trips per year!

Or 13 even

 

[SOPOOR]

Or 13 even

if anyone does that and can show me how to do it (and it cant be because of millions
of dollars of business trasnactions per month), they can have my first born! and my liver!