American Express Qantas Premium Credit Card

Get your Qantas Frequent Flyer points account off to a flying start – or give it a significant boost if you’re already collecting QFF points – with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 points when you choose the American Express Qantas Premium Credit Card. While it may not be the best QFF bonus points offer around, the card does have one of the highest ongoing points earning rates, uncapped. In the end, it’s this ongoing rate which will have the greater impact on the regularity with which you can redeem points for something worthwhile.

It’s a card all about flying, giving its cardholders comprehensive travel insurance (not just for overseas travel but for domestic trips too), airport lounge access, and fee-free supplementary cards to further boost QFF points earning. And if you need to lick your finances into shape before you can afford an overseas trip, there’s even a zero-interest balance transfer option.

30,000 bonus Qantas Frequent Flyer points

Providing you haven’t held any other card directly issued by American Express in the last 18 months, to qualify for a 30,000-point bonus all you need to do is make purchases with your new card amounting to $3,000 in the first three months.

That’s only $1,000 per month, certainly not an onerous target. And even if you’ve recently held a companion Amex card issued by one of the Big Four banks, you will still qualify for this substantial bonus.

Where can you go with 30,000 QFF points?

With this many points, you could almost get two return economy flights between Sydney and Melbourne (16,000 points each) and you could definitely have a one-way economy flight from Sydney to Hong Kong (28,000 points).

You’re not restricted to flying with Qantas. Points can be used with any Qantas partner airline, including Jetstar, Emirates, British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and more than 20 others.

You can also use your points to upgrade to business class on a flight where you have already booked an economy seat. If you don’t have enough points to fly to your chosen destination you can take advantage of the Points Plus Pay system by paying the balance in cash.

Other ways to use Qantas points

While it’s generally accepted that award flights and upgrades deliver the best-value method of using Qantas points, you’re not limited to using them just for flights. You can also:

• Book a range of hotel accommodation – 100,000 options worldwide
• Hire cars from Avis and Budget in Australia and New Zealand
• Use points to join or renew membership with Qantas Club
• Buy merchandise, retail gift cards, movie tickets and more, at the online Qantas Store
• Purchase wines from Qantas epiQure

Robust ongoing points earning rate

There’s no need to worry that once you’ve spent your bonus points you’ll never earn enough points to be able to redeem again. That’s because the continuing earning rate is more than respectable and relatively uncomplicated:

• 2.0 points per dollar for spending with Qantas (not Jetstar) – flights, upgrades, Qantas Club &c
• 0.5 points per dollar for spending with government bodies like Australia Post and the ATO
• 1.0 point per dollar on all other purchases

So, even when you pay your tax bill, you can ease the pain with half a point for every dollar it costs you.

More good news: there’s no cap on the number of points you can earn each month or year.

Complimentary travel insurance

One of the exceptional features of the complimentary travel insurance that comes with Amex credit cards is that it provides comprehensive cover for domestic travel as well as overseas trips, unlike many competing cards which provide limited local travel insurance under the heading ‘interstate flight inconvenience cover’. This is the travel cover built in to the card:

• International annual multi-trip travel insurance for the primary cardholder, and immediate family members on the same trip.
• Domestic travel insurance for journeys more than 150 kilometres from your normal place of residence.
• Transport accident cover, providing compensation for serious accidents sustained on public transport and commercial flights.

The travel insurance policies cover such things as overseas emergency medical expenses, baggage loss and delay, delayed flights and missed connections, and unavoidable trip cancellation. They are activated either by purchasing the full fare with the card or QFF points (for both international and domestic trips) or by booking at least four nights’ consecutive accommodation with the card (for domestic trips only).

Unfortunately, Amex proves to be a further exception to the rule in not covering supplementary cardholders in its personal credit card travel insurance policies (except where the supplementary cardholder is a spouse travelling with the primary cardholder). If you need stand-alone cover for supplementary cardholders and still want to use an Amex card, you’ll need to consider one of the extensive range of American Express business cards.

Complimentary shopper’s insurance

Few American Express cards, this one included, come with extended warranty insurance, so you’ll need to look elsewhere if that kind of cover is important to you. But you will get a type of cover unique to Amex cards: refund protection. Although major Australian retailers will accept return of an unused item without hesitation, some smaller vendors do not have this policy. If return for a refund is refused within 90 days of purchase, you can instead claim a refund of up to $500 from American Express.

Another form of 90-day protection for items bought with the card is the purchase protection policy covering theft, loss or accidental damage (maximum claim $2,500 per event and $20,000 per year). Amex lets you not only travel but also shop, with peace of mind

Qantas Club access

A frequent flyer’s card isn’t truly complete without airport lounge passes. Your first purchase of a Qantas product in each year of holding the card will earn you two single visit passes to a Qantas Club lounge, worth $49 each.

0% p.a. interest balance transfer offer

You can consolidate onto this card your balances from any non-Amex cards you currently hold, and pay no interest for 12 months. This sounds like a good offer, but there are a couple of catches. Firstly, you’ll pay a 1% credit establishment fee upfront on the total amount transferred, so, considering that you will be reducing the balance with minimum monthly repayments, you will fork out slightly more than the equivalent of a 1% p.a. interest charge.

Secondly, if you do choose to transfer a balance, you will be presented with a dilemma. The presence of an unpaid balance means that you will forfeit your interest-free days on purchases (up to 44 days each month). If you postpone using the card for purchases altogether you’ll miss out on your 30,000 bonus points entirely, and forfeit the regular points, complimentary insurance and lounge passes in the first year.

So if you do have a balance transfer, you should at least plan to meet the minimum spending target of $3,000 for bonus points, but pay off the purchase balance immediately to avoid being slugged with 20.74% p.a. in interest charges from the date of purchase.

Digital wallet enabled

This card is eligible for use with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. Download the app, leave your card at home and pay securely with your mobile device.

Fairly high annual fee, but free supplementary cards

Credit card annual fees are definitely in the ‘You get what you pay for’ category. While $249 per year isn’t cheap, it’s not unreasonable given the regular annual benefits, and it’s more than reasonable in the first year because of the generous bonus points. Add to this the fact that you can have up to four supplementary points-earning cards without paying an extra cent, and it begins to look like, if not a bargain, certainly a more-than-value-for-money proposition.

Where else to look for a deal like this

If the bonus points are really important to you, there are some other good deals available. Check out the competition on the ’Sign-up bonus’ page in our Features section.

And if you’re looking for the best Qantas points-earning card, you can find them all on our Qantas page.

Ideal cardholder profile for this card

If you’re checking out this card you are probably already a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, so the bonus points may bring a long-haul flight within your reach. The solid ongoing points earning rate could turn you into a regular leisure traveller, and when that happens it will be comforting to know that you’re backed by dependable travel insurance and Qantas Club lounge access.

This is a card for someone who wants to increase their rewards without running into the monthly points cap or threshold that mars so many other cards and understands that $249 p.a. is not an excessive price to pay for the privileges attached to it.

You can't balance transfer to the American Express Qantas Premium Credit Card at the promotional balance transfer rate from:

• American Express