QANTAS Travel Money Card rip-off

[Rick93]

Sick of this ...
It's happened more than once.
My expected 700 - 1,000 points per month, has been 'stolen' by some stupid rule about having money credited to your card.
Instead of earning points ... I lose my month's spending points, and at times, actually lose points out of my account !!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hmmm... the terms and conditions only seem to indicate that:

Membership and the earning and redemption of Qantas Points are subject to the Qantas Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions. Eligible purchases do not include money orders, traveller’s cheques, gambling chips or purchasing foreign currencies in cash. You do not earn Qantas Points when loading funds to your facility, transferring funds to another currency balance or another member’s facility or when withdrawing funds from ATMs or cashing out your facility balance. Purchases that are reversed, refunded or charged-back are also ineligible for Qantas Points earn, in addition to fees incurred. Qantas Points are earned as follows: 1.5 Qantas Points per AU$1 spent in foreign currency and 1 Qantas Point per AU$4 spent in Australian dollars. Qantas Points are calculated using the Qantas Travel Money Daily Rate as defined in the PDS, and may vary daily. For more information see qantastravelmoney.com or contact Mastercard Qantas Travel Money Global Support.​

How It Works | Qantas Pay

Learn how Qantas Pay works. Sign up in minutes, add money easily, and start spending to earn Qantas Points at home and overseas. Simple, secure, rewarding.

www.qantasmoney.com

I would have expected any other earn would remain. Might be worth following up in case there's a bug in the system?

 

[Mr_Tee]

Sick of this ...
It's happened more than once.
My expected 700 - 1,000 points per month, has been 'stolen' by some stupid rule about having money credited to your card.
Instead of earning points ... I lose my month's spending points, and at times, actually lose points out of my account !!

What type of transaction is "having money credited to your account"? Is it (a) a standard sort of deposit by yourself or a third party, or (b) is it a refund of a purchase that was eligible for points earn that was credited to your FF account?

If it is (b) then that is pretty standard across any transaction type account and/or credit card that earns QFF points. If you get a refund, the points that you earned on the original purchase are reversed.

If it is (a) then I would certainly raise the question with them.

 

[Rick93]

Not a purchase as such ( depends on definition, I suppose ).

Hotel deposit.

Cancellations × 3 now, as result of COVID rules.

Credit and refund not in same month.

Can't see why points can't remain ... once credited from previous month, even two months ago ....

 

[Mattg]

Did you earn points for the hotel booking in the month when the deposit/payment was originally made? If so, I think most cards would remove the points for any amount refunded.

 

[mannej]

I would suggest that there is no issue here, the claw-back is as per the T&C's as much as it sucks.

 

[Rick93]

Can only assume so, as any points from such a deposit would be added to a monthly spend total.
This is a negative issue with this debit card ... you never see evidence of any individual spend points allocation.

 

[Rick93]

Sucks alright.

But it raises another issue ....

Ok. I had a suspicion they would steal my points back ....

So I changed my card number in my hotel chain profile. I actually spoke to them over the phone, and they said, the refund will go to " the card on file" ...

How many times have you heard a merchant claim .... 'we don't retain card numbers .... '

Proves they do keep your card numbers for past bookings, regardless of you changing cards attached to your profile.

 

[Port Power]

All credit cards also take back points if a refund is issued, no matter how long afterwards. And it is very rare for any merchant to refund to a different card than the one used to pay. They don’t keep the card number, their bank does the processing.

To be honest, refunding to a different card so you can keep the points is cheating, isn’t it? Then you cash out the non-earning credit card balance. There are some rare occasions where a refund will be deposited into a bank account though.

 

[Robert K]

Pretty sure all points cards work this way...

 

[Daver6]

How many times have you heard a merchant claim .... 'we don't retain card numbers .... '

Proves they do keep your card numbers for past bookings, regardless of you changing cards attached to your profile.

It doesn't mean they keep the card on file at all. They're probably using third party payment gateways. So when you initially use your card, the number is sent to the third party gateway who returned a unique token (random number). This is all then that's needed to to transact with your card to and from that specific merchant.

I also see no issue on them taking the points back if you're given the money back. They haven't "stolen" from you. If you go purchase a new TV from the shop and return it...do you really expect to get your money back and them not "steal" the TV back from you?

 

[Rick93]

Hmmmm. Different perspectives to me.
I don't really subscribe to 'what usually happens' to others.
If I think it's unfair ... I say so.

If the hotel took the booking and pre-payment in good faith of being able to provide the service, and then circumstances change ( COVID stuff ) ... I expected to keep the points. But it seems to be the card issuer, and not the merchant.

Thanks for your impressions ...

 

[Port Power]

Hmmmm. Different perspectives to me.
I don't really subscribe to 'what usually happens' to others.
If I think it's unfair ... I say so.

If the hotel took the booking and pre-payment in good faith of being able to provide the service, and then circumstances change ( COVID stuff ) ... I expected to keep the points. But it seems to be the card issuer, and not the merchant.

Thanks for your impressions ...

Do you also expect to keep the FF points for the flight that was cancelled?

 

[Rick93]

???

There was no flight. Hotel in Sydney, where I am.

 

[mannej]

???

There was no flight. Hotel in Sydney, where I am.

Exchange Hotel Stay for flight - it is the same thing.

 

[CaptJCool]

Refunds I’ve received on any card reduce the monthly balance and thus the points earn......

It would be rare for refunds to be paid direct to a bank account.... perhaps suppose unless the card has been lost or cancelled.


(PS Merchants don’t like to incur the cost but in the scheme of things where “stolen” cards are used to ship to the crook, small bickies

Come to think of it, no, no points for fraudulent transactions, in the main written off by your bank)

 

[RichardMEL]

Sorry Rick, you're in error here. A refund payment is not spend.. or rather it is negative spend in a way.

In fact perhaps you should consider it as negative spend it might make this simpler for you.

They are not ripping you off.

You did not receive a service you paid for, so were refunded the cost to the same card. thus your spend was effectively nullified. Why should you get to keep points for spend you did not actually make ?

Consider what a huge loophole it would be if they did allow this - everyone could just book expensive refundable fares or items.. refund them and pocket points endlessly.

What you seem to think is unfair is common practice and makes perfect sense.

note if you had paid $500 for your hotel but only were refunded say $400 for whatever reasons(this is a pure example and let's not get bogged down here) then you would of course "keep" the points for that $100 of spend.

However feel free to take it to fair trading if you think this is totally unfair and good luck with that

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

For some reason this conversation reminds me of a BankWest thread from a while back...

 

[Port Power]

???

There was no flight. Hotel in Sydney, where I am.

It was meant as a synonym. Cancel hotel but you want to keep points, have a flight cancelled and perhaps you want to be awarded the points you would have earned.

The point is, refund of money = refund of points.

(Thanks, mannej)

 

[albatross710]

For now the world has changed. These points deductions also happened in the past but because the OP had lots of other spend maybe the different between 3,400 points and 3,300 being credited did not register. Now that spends are minimal the amount is actually the -100 as the other regular travel spend isn't happening.