Qantas Amex Ultimate card

[BCons]

Amex have called and written to me several times about taking up one of their new Qantas credit cards - these are credit rather than charge cards, available in 3 flavours of 'status' and attracting up to 2.5 Qantas points for every dollar spent - that level being 1.5 for any spend plus a further 1 point for Qantas spend.

I use an Amex card for all flight bookings and I know Amex will stop allowing the transfer of points to my QFF account from end Dec, but I cant see the rationale for discarding one perfectly good Amex card for a replacement.

Has anybody got a proper understanding of this Amex/Qantas shuffle please ?

 

[oz_mark]

I use an Amex card for all flight bookings and I know Amex will stop allowing the transfer of points to my QFF account from end Dec, but I cant see the rationale for discarding one perfectly good Amex card for a replacement.

Where does it say they will stop allowing transfer of points to your QFF account. I am aware that any Qantas Bonus points will expire at this time, but I have no knowledge that they will stop transfers altogether.

 

[serfty]

I use an Amex card for all flight bookings and I know Amex will stop allowing the transfer of points to my QFF account from end Dec, but I cant see the rationale for discarding one perfectly good Amex card for a replacement.

Has anybody got a proper understanding of this Amex/Qantas shuffle please ?

G'day BCons, welcome to AFF.

AFAIK, it's only the transfer of Amex Membership Rewards "Qantas" Bonus points that can no longer occur after this month; next year normal MR points will still be able to be transferred to Qantas at a 1:1 basis (or any of the other partners at varying rates).

So no need to discard you current card; at least you have an option of where to transfer the points with Ascent or Spirit.

 

[BCons]

Tks Serfty and oz_mark for yr comments - its correct that Amex wont xfer any QF bonus points from end Dec - ordinary points remain avail for xfer to QFF, but Amex advise they wont do that over-the-phone any more - we must manage that stuff online ourselves.

Re the new Amex/Q cards: you need fly lots to justify $250 annual fee for the top, Ultimate, card. Thats the fee so long as you keep your current card (meaning 2 lots of fees) but its 1.5 points on any spend plus 1 point on QF spend, all xferred monthly to FF acct. The trick is that QF spend must be direct with Q or thru 'some travel agents' - bet mine isnt one of them.. It also excludes Jetstar spend unless with a QF flight no. Thats a problem from Hobart where its only 2 x daily Melb and 1 x daily QF Syd flights - nvr when you want them..

 

[serfty]

Tks Serfty and oz_mark for yr comments - its correct that Amex wont xfer any QF bonus points from end Dec - ordinary points remain avail for xfer to QFF, but Amex advise they wont do that over-the-phone any more - we must manage that stuff online ourselves. ...

Actually, they will still transfer points or otherwise redeem awards via 'phone call or written requests. It's just that from Feb 15th, they will charge a 2,500 MR point fee to do this.

 

[oz_mark]

Interestingly I received an offer in the mail for the Ultimate card yesterday. Aside from the fact that nowhere in the material does it disclose the annual fee for the product, the interesting thing I noted was that the available routes for the annual freebie domestic flight are less that for the platinum card. Essentially nowhere for Hobart people to go, and no-one can go to Canberra on the Ultimate Card.

Being in Hobart, I am not sure how you would go with the free flight offer from the Ultimate card.