Reduced AMEX earn rates from April 2019

[SOPOOR]

The letter is quite sneaky in that it refers to increasing earned rate when the “effective” earn rate is really dropping. If they were honest, they would have just said we have reduced the earn rate for Supermarkets from 3:1 to 1.5:1 and left the redemption rate alone.

playing devils advocate, they could say that not everyone uses airline miles,
so that they arent devaluing anything if you are going to use your points in other ways

 

[SOPOOR]

Pro tip for getting JB Hifi to accept AMEX without a surcharge. Just use their online store, pay with Paypal (no fees) and pick Click and Collect. It's usually ready to be picked up within about 30 minutes.

I didnt know that jbhifi online had a paypal option, great to know,

however, im usually haggling in store for most of my purcahses

 

[jasonfungsing]

Any DJ Platinum Amex card holder with opt-in for Qantas direct-earn? How your points affected or unchanged?

Current, it's

3 Qantas Points per $ spend at David Jones
2.25 Qantas points per $ at Supermarkets/Fuel
0.75 Qantas points per $ spend everywhere else

will this also be half after the April 2019 change?

 

[theblank]

By "they" here, do you mean AMEX or RewardPay?

you are correct, i misunderstood.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Any DJ Platinum Amex card holder with opt-in for Qantas direct-earn? How your points affected or unchanged?

Current, it's

3 Qantas Points per $ spend at David Jones
2.25 Qantas points per $ at Supermarkets/Fuel
0.75 Qantas points per $ spend everywhere else

will this also be half after the April 2019 change?

Interesting question. I'd like to know the answer too.

 

[wxxnxs]

Any DJ Platinum Amex card holder with opt-in for Qantas direct-earn? How your points affected or unchanged?

Current, it's

3 Qantas Points per $ spend at David Jones
2.25 Qantas points per $ at Supermarkets/Fuel
0.75 Qantas points per $ spend everywhere else

will this also be half after the April 2019 change?

Nothing has been mentioned to DJ cards yet. However, it's a bit complicated with DJ AMEX cards, as it's an alliance card that issued by AMEX but managed by DJ, which means AMEX can't change any card features without DJ's approval. However, since AMEX starts dropping the merchant fees, which means less revenue for both DJ & AMEX, I would expect the value of the point will be devalued in the near future.

 

[kyanar]

Nothing has been mentioned to DJ cards yet. However, it's a bit complicated with DJ AMEX cards, as it's an alliance card that issued by AMEX but managed by DJ, which means AMEX can't change any card features without DJ's approval. However, since AMEX starts dropping the merchant fees, which means less revenue for both DJ & AMEX, I would expect the value of the point will be devalued in the near future.

Maybe not though. If you log into MR, you can see that DJs cards all have inferior redemption rates to MR Ascent anyway, so there's no real reason to need to devalue them (Amex Travel notwithstanding).

QF direct earn cards don't seem to be affected either way - I've heard nothing for my QF Business Rewards charge card.

 

[opusman]

No change yet to the Westpac Black Amex either (touch wood).

 

[Saltywings]

No change yet to the Westpac Black Amex either (touch wood).

That card already went through its own devaluation just earlier this month.

 

[opusman]

That card already went through its own devaluation just earlier this month.

People really need to stop saying this. Once more for those up the back!

The Altitude program may have had a devaluation.

The direct sweep to QFF cards didn't.

 

[60spud]

Am I missing something re Woolies/Coles gift cards, buying before April 3 KF points with edge which is the same as just using card, redeeming after April is only 1.5 KF points.
$1000 3000 kf now
$1000 3000 kf which will be 1500 kf post April

 

[albyd]

The best use of this strategy was to use these discounted GCs to buy other GCs such as the Visa1 to paynotger bills and earn 3x points everywhere. For me, Woolies was the best one and this has been closed off now (can’t pay for a GC with a Woolies GC).

Best opportunity I can see is to prepay supermarket purchases to the level that makes sense for you for one last nite at the generous supermarket earn.

 

[jonboixxx]

Has anyone received advice of any changes to Business Accelerator?
My Business Platinums are moving to the same earn as my personal platinum. The companion supplier cards are staying at the same earn for the moment.

 

[andye]

Has anyone received advice of any changes to Business Accelerator?
My Business Platinums are moving to the same earn as my personal platinum. The companion supplier cards are staying at the same earn for the moment.

It stays at 2 points but changes to the new transfer rates. The Amex table (Business Accelerator Credit Card changes | Amex AU ) implies removing the cap. Even so that wouldn't offer any advantage to me over Plat Charge or Reserve so will be dropped from my wallet in April.
My Accelerator goes into a separate Ascent account to my Plat Charge so I am not expecting balances to be doubled (I might try to amalgamate them though). No letter received yet.

 

[psi999]

For all those explorer / edge holders - last day for 15% additional velocity with historically no bonus transfers till after amex devaluation.

Unless I can think of something that works better for me (no decent travel opportunity in the next 24 months) I'll be transferring to velocity tonight making my nervously high balance even higher. Marriott was looking ok (just ok) but further sums, value just isn't there.

 

[michael65]

It is interesting that we all comments about AMEX on this page, there are all the pop up advertisements for AMEX. Maybe the owners of this website should stop displaying the adverts for AMEX and disassociate themselves from a company such as AMEX which is ripping off members by reducing the value of the MR points. It is time for Australian Frequent Flyer to make a moral stand.

 

[SOPOOR]

It is interesting that we all comments about AMEX on this page, there are all the pop up advertisements for AMEX. Maybe the owners of this website should stop displaying the adverts for AMEX and disassociate themselves from a company such as AMEX which is ripping off members by reducing the value of the MR points. It is time for Australian Frequent Flyer to make a moral stand.

Remember , according to all the call centre reps, when you call up to complain ,
All of these changes are positive!

 

[blacksultan]

The best use of this strategy was to use these discounted GCs to buy other GCs such as the Visa1 to paynotger bills and earn 3x points everywhere. For me, Woolies was the best one and this has been closed off now (can’t pay for a GC with a Woolies GC).

Best opportunity I can see is to prepay supermarket purchases to the level that makes sense for you for one last nite at the generous supermarket earn.

what is paynotger?

 

[SOPOOR]

what is paynotger?

Pay other
Is my guess

 

[JFi]

Thinking about different scenarios and mitigating those risks is part of my job so here's an interesting one.
For those with an Explorer linked to the Charge, all points will be doubled post change. The Explorer points earn will also remain the same although the redemption rates will be different.

If I make a purchase on the Explorer of $20k now, I get 40k MR points. Post April, this doubles to 80k MR points because it's linked to the Charge. However, depending on how smart they implement the IT logic (and I think not very well), if I refund the purchase of $20k post change, it will deduct 40k MR points because the points earn is still $1:2 MR points (this is currently the case for refunds). So this means free 40K MR points, effectively 20K airline points. Granted, this only works if you can refund the purchase and also their IT remains the same. Given they are just doubling all Ascent Premium points, I doubt they will have a logic to differentiate between pre-April 2019 and post-April 2019 points because it's currently not required for their changes. They would need to build in logic to look for whether the purchase and points were prior to the change and whether the programs are linked so it doubled and if so, deduct the correct MR points for the refund.

Instead of everyday purchases, this works with just the Reserve card if also linked to Charge by purchasing a First Flex ticket to say London and then cancelling later. This works because the earn rates on the Reserve now for travel and the future earn rate is the same.

Definitely not suggesting people try this and I definitely won't! Like I said, it's my job and this just hit me this morning. I wonder if they've thought about this...