Best Credit Cards for Frequent Flyers in 2025

Australians have lots of opportunities to earn valuable frequent flyer points from credit cards, especially with the many generous sign-up bonuses available.

If you primarily want a credit card for the frequent flyer points, you could look for one with a great Qantas points offer or Velocity sign-up bonus.

But the best frequent flyer credit cards also offer travel benefits far beyond just the ability to earn points. The right frequent flyer credit card could get you into airport lounges, get you closer to airline or hotel status, or even free flights or hotel nights.

In this article, we’ve put together a list of the best overall credit cards for Australian frequent flyers in 2025 that are worth keeping for the points earned, worthwhile travel benefits and overall value for money.

All of the cards featured in this article also come with complimentary international travel insurance.

HSBC Star Alliance

The HSBC Star Alliance credit card is unlike any other in the world, as you can literally get Star Alliance Gold status with it. You don’t even need to take a single flight!

With this card, you earn Star Alliance Points which you can transfer to your choice of seven Star Alliance airline programs:

• Air Canada
• Air New Zealand
• EVA Air
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airways
• Thai Airways
• United Airlines

If you spend at least $4,000 on your card within the first 90 days, you’ll also receive instant Star Alliance Gold status for at least a year with your choice of the above airlines. If you select Singapore Airlines or United as your status airline, you can even enjoy benefits like lounge access when flying Virgin Australia as well.

To keep your Star Alliance Gold status in future years, you’d need to spend at least $60,000 on the card per year.

This card has no annual fee in the first year, reverting to $499 in future years.

Citi Prestige

Citi Prestige cardholders get unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge visits for themself and up to one guest per visit. This also extends to all of the airport bars, restaurants and cafés that participate in Priority Pass. With a Citi Prestige card, you and a guest can each get a $36 food & beverage credit to use at 30 locations across Australia, plus many more overseas, whenever you fly.

The Citi Prestige card does have a fairly high $700 annual fee, but the Priority Pass benefits alone are worth more than this! And that’s not the only benefit – you also get the fourth night free on Luxury Escapes bookings and $10 monthly cash back on BINGE subscriptions.

You’ll also earn Citi Rewards points for each dollar spent, which you can transfer to six loyalty programs including Virgin Australia Velocity, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. There are lots of bonus categories where you’ll earn extra points as well.

Plus, right now you can earn up to 200,000 bonus Velocity Frequent Flyer points with a new Citi Prestige card! This is an AFF exclusive offer, so you’d need to sign up through AFF to take advantage of it.

American Express Platinum

The American Express Platinum card is packed full of travel benefits that can really come in handy if you travel a lot. At $1,450 per year, it’s not for everybody… but this is easily the most useful publicly available card in Australia for frequent flyers. If you travel a fair bit, the card easily pays for itself!

For starters, you get unlimited access to a lot of different airport lounges, including Virgin Australia, Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa lounges when flying with those airlines. You can also access any Priority Pass, Amex Centurion, Plaza Premium or Escape Lounge when flying with any airline.

Unfortunately, unlike with the Citi Prestige card, the Priority Pass benefit with the Amex Platinum card does not extend to airport restaurants.

You also get instant status with a bunch of hotel chains, including Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold and Radisson Rewards Premium status. Plus, you gain access to Fine Hotels + Resorts benefits, complimentary Accor Plus membership which gets you instant Silver status with Accor, a free annual hotel night, and various discounts.

That’s on top of a $450 travel credit and $400 worth of dining credits to spend each year, subscriptions to The Australian and Wall Street Journal, and other perks which are all discussed on the AFF forum.

You’ll earn Amex Membership Rewards points for every dollar spent on this card. As a rare exception, you can transfer these points to Qantas Frequent Flyer – in addition to all the usual Amex transfer partner programs. And when applying by 11 March 2025, new Amex customers can earn 200,000 bonus Amex Membership Rewards points.

American Express Velocity Platinum

Since relaunching last year, the Amex Velocity Platinum card is a particularly good option for occasional to semi-frequent Virgin Australia flyers.

That’s because it now comes with unlimited complimentary Virgin Australia Lounge access for the primary cardholder, when flying the same day with Virgin. You also get two annual lounge passes to gift to other people.

With this card, you also get a complimentary annual return Virgin Australia domestic flight.

There are no taxes or charges payable when using the flight benefit, but there are a few restrictions. For example, only certain routes are available (depending on your departure airport), and the flights you want to book must have availability in specific fare classes. Our guide to using the free Virgin flight benefit has all the details.

If you’re collecting Velocity Points, this happens to be the highest-earning option in Australia with an uncapped earn rate of 1.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent. Plus, there’s currently a sign-up bonus available of 100,000 Velocity Points!

Qantas American Express Ultimate

If you’re a frequent Qantas flyer, it could make a lot of sense to get a Qantas Amex Ultimate credit card. It has a $450 annual fee, but you get this back in the form of a $450 Qantas travel credit.

When using this credit, you do need to book through American Express Travel. There have been some reports on AFF of Qantas airfares costing more when booking this way than directly with Qantas. This appears to be because Amex Travel does not currently have access to NDC-only fares that Qantas is only making available through its Qantas Distribution Platform. But you can still book at the same or a similar price through Amex Travel in most cases.

The Qantas Amex Ultimate card also comes with two annual Qantas Club invitations, two annual visits to the Amex Centurion lounges in Sydney or Melbourne, and Qantas Wine Premium membership.

In terms of points-earning potential, you can earn a generous 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 spent (on the first $80,000 spent each year, then 1 point per dollar thereafter). Currently, new Amex customers can get 100,000 sign-up bonus points as well.

NAB Rewards Signature

NAB Rewards Signature could be a useful credit card if you want to earn points and do a lot of overseas travel. You can earn NAB Rewards points that are transferrable to programs including Virgin Australia Velocity, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Cathay. There are also no international transaction fees.

A unique benefit is the Delayed Flight Lounge Pass. This gets you and up to four travel companions into LoungeKey airport lounges if your flight gets delayed by an hour or more.

This card has a $24 monthly fee, which is reversed for each month that you spend at least $5,000 on your card.

This is one of several Australian credit cards that do not charge fees on foreign transactions. See our guide to the best credit cards for overseas spend for the full list.

Which is your favourite frequent flyer credit card?

Do you use any of these credit cards? Or perhaps you have your own favourite?

You can share your tips and read other opinions on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum:

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.