New Altitude Black has landed...

[ukh]

Customer Relations rang me again today to tell me they are still working on why I only received 1/3 of my double points bonus.
All my ATO spend was personal and makes up about half of my total spend.
Customer Relations seem to be implying that they are trying to help me, as the decision was made by an external contractor which handles Altitude points. This contractor may want to minimise points awarded for financial reasons, whereas Westpac customer relations may care more about Westpac's reputation.
They are calling me again in 2-3 days with information. They are refusing to give it to me by email (they state for privacy reasons...) and only want to discuss this by phone - interesting - I may need to record the conversation....
Yes - I think I am also heading for F.O.S
Will keep you all posted.

 

[mark4217]

Maybe a silly Q, but has anyone who holds a 'Altitude Business Platinum' card been notified advising that no ATO post 9/11........

 

[jastel]

I asked my RM about it and she said "where did you hear that from?"...she is looking into it.

 

[Danger UXB]

Maybe a silly Q, but has anyone who holds a 'Altitude Business Platinum' card been notified advising that no ATO post 9/11........

I have one but it is a very new card and I have not received a statement yet. The T and c's state "0.5 pints for government payments" separate to "0 points for government charges". This is different wording to the new T+c's for the black

 

[cove]

Planning to get started on next months BAS on this card shortly as I may as well cram the warehouse as full as I can process.

 

[BillytheFIsh]

Don't get too excited cove... Westpac Amex (all Amex?) has been down all day.

I've called them and apparently they have no ETA on a fix.

 

[cove]

I am soaking up a day off in Sydney so it is David Jones food hall delicacies and you just made me glad I used my Amex Ultimate.
Put a Moët and a Taittinger in the fridge so no need to worry about too much.

 

[ukh]

I don't think I am going to be getting any more of my double points bonus.
Customer Relations for Westpac emailed me yesterday, then I briefly spoke to them.
To recap, I earned about 1,500,000 points in my first 3 months with Altitude Black. This was during the double point promotion and I was therefore expecting another 1.5m points. I received only about a third of these bonus points and therefore complained to Westpac. They have looked into it and reported back they they are not going to award me any more double points. My ATO payments were all for my personal tax, but they will consider this to be a business expense as I am a self employed (even though I am not a company). There was also some 20% of my total spend on work related expenses which they stated should not have been purchased on a "personal" credit card.

Customer relations would not go into any specific detail with me. The fact that from Nov 9th ATO payments are treated differently implies to me that until that date, ATO payments should be permitted.

I specifically enquired how I could take this further within Westpac as I disagree with their decision. The response was somewhat threatening - that I was lucky to get the initial 1.5m points and the 500,000 bonus points, as some of these should probably not have been awarded in the first place. If I was to take this further, Westpac may take my Altitude points away from me - this may be impossible as all points have been transferred to Krisflyer...

I am contemplating options including going to F.O.S. My plan after Nov 9 was to change to Westpac Krisflyer Platinum card and I am concerned that if I cause more trouble, Westpac may be keeping more of an eye on me. So the other option is to be happy I have my 2million Altitude points and to move on. I am not sure how long the Krisflyer card will be good for as their conditions are essentially the same as Altitude Black although so far they have not specifically excluded ATO payments.

My last option is to go back to flying Qantas (points via NAB platinum Amex) if all Krisflyer options become too difficult.

I suspect it's a matter of time - soon there may be no good options with any bank.

 

[cove]

Interesting that Westpac are choosing the threatening as that is what Citi did to me over a year ago. They suggested that they were willing to review the account right from the start....which was code for we could take a few million points back.
When that happened with Citi I thought about it for about 24 hours and then transferred all of my points to Krisflyer and Velocity.
It changes on November 9th so I did some ATO today because I can.

 

[ukh]

Interesting that Westpac are choosing the threatening as that is what Citi did to me over a year ago. They suggested that they were willing to review the account right from the start....which was code for we could take a few million points back.
When that happened with Citi I thought about it for about 24 hours and then transferred all of my points to Krisflyer and Velocity.
It changes on November 9th so I did some ATO today because I can.

Please let us know if you are still getting points for this. The lady I spoke to implied they were looking at other Altitude Black card holders....
I have a final BAS (5 figure) to pay and would like to use Black for the last time - as long as I am assured I will get my points.

 

[woodborer]

Please let us know if you are still getting points for this. The lady I spoke to implied they were looking at other Altitude Black card holders.... I have a final BAS (5 figure) to pay and would like to use Black for the last time - as long as I am assured I will get my points.

Wouldn't a BAS payment be considered a business related expense? The Altitude terms and conditions provide an escape clause for Westpac in business related expenditure:

(unless your card is an Altitude Business Qantas Gold Card) any spend deemed by us to be for business purposes, which includes, but is not limited to, transactions that relate to the conduct of a business, use of your Card to make purchases that are business-related (including any expenditure of a personal business nature) or use of your Card to purchase goods or services that are not used wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household purposes;

 

[ukh]

Wouldn't a BAS payment be considered a business related expense? The Altitude terms and conditions provide an escape clause for Westpac in business related expenditure:

Many (including myself) have been using Altitude Black and other " personal " credit cards from other banks for BAS/ ATO spend and getting points from this - see ATO thread.

 

[Powerballsam]

Why don't you guys/girls look at the Westpac Busniess Altitude card?

 

[ukh]

I think they have also excluded ATO payments after 9th Nov

 

[diningdecadence]

personally glad i transferred everything out of my WBC bank, but feel bad for those out there with significant account balances - guess you need to way up whether you will/ could use those points within say the 3 year expiry period with SQ.

 

[quokka77]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/due4baytjhvpzee/Screenshot_2014-06-04-22-20-19.png?dl=0

Unfortunately this screen shot didn't have the terms and conditions but it does state that there is a double points offer for new card holders. Good luck fellow travellers. I'm not personally going to chase this one up as it's not worth the effort in my case.

 

[cove]

My points posted yesterday and I have been very busy using this last opportunity.

 

[ukh]

My points posted yesterday and I have been very busy using this last opportunity.

Thanks Cove.
I just tried a small test payment - points posted 2 days later. I will shortly be going into overdrive.
It looks like points post automatically for any payment and it was just the double point bonus which was processed manually and alerted the bank to look at things more closely.
Cove - have you applied / changed to Krisflyer Westpac card yet?

 

[cove]

Both of us have Platinum KrisFlyer cards and we have had them since the triple points starter.
On Black I am paying the account to zero after each major run so there will be no overlap past November 6th to play it safe.

 

[k3nnis]

Hi All,

Apologies in advance, I'm late to the party. What is happening with the black altitube card? Why are you guys transferring point out of it asap and jumping ship ? It got me worried.

Cheers,
K.