Having trouble transferring your points out of Amex? Try these 4 workarounds

Over the past few days, the American Express transfer partners page has had ‘technical difficulties’:

Are you having issues transferring your points? Here are some options:

• Try incognito mode in your web browser
• Use a different web browser, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer
• Log in to your American Express account and ask a customer service representative to help you with your transfer through the live chat function (available 24/7)
• Call American Express at 1300 132 639 or +61 2 9271 8664 (available 24/7)

If you’ve still got Membership Rewards points in your account, I’d recommend transferring them out sooner rather than later, i.e. before Sunday. This will give you more of a buffer in case there are any unforeseen obstacles.

A reminder that Gateway points collectors will lose 33% of their points value and Ascent collectors 50% overnight on Sunday. Read on for advice on which program/s to transfer your points to.

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How to decide what to do with your Amex points before the upcoming devaluation

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each frequent flyer partner program, and what other Point Hacks readers have chosen to do with their points.

My suggested thought process

1. Where do you want to fly? Choose three programs that could get you there
2. What is award availability like on that route? What is the points pricing? How much are taxes and surcharges?
3. Where do you already hold existing points balances? There is little use having points scattered across many programs
4. Transfer your Membership Rewards points to the best program according to your answers to the questions above

Which programs have other Point Hacks readers chosen?

Based on the responses I’ve seen on our Community forum, I would say that the top 3 recommended transfer partners have been:

1. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
2. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (close second)
3. Velocity Frequent Flyer

Note that ‘hard expiry‘ means that points will expire after a fixed period, e.g. three years, regardless of any other points activity in your account. Conversely, ‘soft expiry’ is more consumer-friendly and means that if you make an earn or redeem activity, then all points in your account take on the new (longer) expiry date.

A comparison of the transfer partners

Example scenarios

Where do you want to travel?

• Within Australia: Velocity or Etihad Guest for Virgin Australia flights; Emirates or Qantas* for Qantas flights
• Europe: Asia Miles (lower pricing) or KrisFlyer (higher pricing)
• Mainland US: Asia Miles or KrisFlyer for travel on Qantas and American Airlines, and United, respectively
• Hawaii: Velocity for travel on Hawaiian Airlines
• Canada: KrisFlyer for travel on Air Canada
• South America: Asia Miles for travel on LATAM or Qantas
• Asia: KrisFlyer or Asia Miles for travel on Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific (and partners)
• Japan: Asia Miles for travel on Qantas or Japan Airlines

*For Ascent Premium Card Members only

Which airline do you want to travel with?

• Qantas or Emirates: Emirates or Qantas*
• Virgin Australia: Velocity, Etihad Guest or KrisFlyer
• oneworld airlines: Asia Miles
• Star Alliance airlines: KrisFlyer

Other scenarios

• I want to book Economy Class tickets for my whole family: Velocity or KrisFlyer
• I don’t know what I’ll do with my points over the next three years: Velocity

If you are stuck on what to do, my recommendation is to transfer to Velocity

Summing up

There is no easy answer, as it depends on your points balance and where you want to travel.

However, one simple piece of advice: make sure to transfer your points out to at least one of the programs. If not, come 15 April, your Membership Rewards points will lose one-third/one-half of their value overnight (Gateway/Ascent).

Also, please please please don’t cash them out for gift cards.

We don’t have any inside information on if there will be any last-minute transfer bonuses offered, so it’s your call whether to transfer now or hold off until closer to the devaluation date.

How are you planning to use your Membership Rewards points? Share in the comments below.

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In this guide

This master guide outlines the changes, gives our analysis and will be updated moving forward as we find out new information.

Here is American Express’ official page on the changes.

Transfer bonus offer history

• March 2019: 15-25% bonus to Velocity; upgrade to Velocity Gold/Platinum when Platinum and Centurion Card Members transfer 250,000/500,000 points
• March 2019:50% bonus to Hilton Honors

Why are these changes occurring?

These changes are in response to the challenges to merchants following the Reserve Bank of Australia capping the fees credit card providers can charge merchants. American Express is following most other providers (like Westpac) in devaluing its Membership Rewards program.

As we said back in 2016:

These new laws will dramatically reduce the amount of money banks get to fund rewards programs.

And they have. While American Express was not specifically impacted by the RBA changes, the market has shifted. As such, they have made a decision to reduce their merchant fees in order to continue their efforts in driving greater acceptance of their cards.

Here is our summary of the changes coming to American Express cards from 15 April 2019.

Changes to earn and effective earn rates

The changes to the earn rates for all American Express personal cards are shown below but note that the more important changes are those to effective earn rates, which follows this first (quite comprehensive) table.

The new effective earn rates are shown below. Note that these are based on transfers to Velocity, KrisFlyer and Asia Miles.

Changes to card earn rates: in short

Qantas and Velocity co-branded American Express cards will be less impacted by these changes than their American Express Membership Rewards-earning counterparts.

For example, the Qantas Ultimate or Velocity Platinum cards will earn you 1.25 points per $ on most purchases, versus 1.125 points per $ spent on the Platinum Charge and 1 point per $ on the Explorer.

While the airline co-branded cards will experience only slight reductions in their effective earn rates, the Membership Rewards cards, especially higher-earning variants such as the Platinum and Platinum Edge cards, will experience further reductions. The most notable are restaurant, travel and overseas purchases with the Platinum Charge card, and most purchases through the Platinum Edge.

Therefore, your decision around card choice should be influenced by your spending habits. For example, if you are a Platinum Card Member who predominantly uses your card for purchases at restaurants and overseas, then you may wish to consider switching to an airline co-branded card that will earn you a slightly higher earn rate on these purchases.

Changes to transfer rates to Membership Rewards program partners

From 15 April 2019, American Express Membership Rewards transfers to most partners are also changing. American Express will also consolidate the different varieties of Membership Rewards points, including Ascent, Ascent Premium and Gateway, into one unified points currency.

Here are the figures for Ascent:

and Gateway cards:

Changes to redemptions: in short

You can see that, with the exception of Marriott Rewards-Starwood Preferred Guest, which had its transfer rate devalued in August, all other partners will have their transfer rates reduced by between one-third and one-half.

Those holding cards that earn into the Ascent variety of Membership Rewards, like Platinum Charge and Platinum Edge Card Members, are harder hit than those who hold Gateway-earning cards, like the Explorer and Essential. Note, however, that some Platinum Charge and Centurion Card Members have received an offer to double their points balance when the devaluation kicks in, thereby maintaining the value of their points. Other Card Members have not received these offers and are not eligible to take advantage of them, even when calling Amex.

If you want to use your Membership Rewards points at a fixed value for bookings through American Express Travel, you will see each point worth 0.5 cents instead of the current redemption rate of 1/0.75 cents per point for Ascent/Gateway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are these changes occurring?

Due to RBA changes in 2017, the payment landscape changed significantly in Australia, which resulted in a reduction in the merchant fees that were being charged by competitors of American Express. To ensure that American Express remains competitive, they have had to also reduce their merchant fees. This has resulted in more merchants accepting American Express cards.

Will sign-up bonuses be reduced moving forward?

There are no indications that sign-up bonuses will decrease anytime soon, especially given a headline promotion of, for example, 100,000 Membership Rewards points on the American Express Explorer will only transfer to 50,000 airline points moving forward instead of the current 75,000 points.

Are other benefits such as travel credits, lounge access, complimentary flights or insurance changing?

All other benefits are remaining the same, however, some small benefits will be added, which Point Hacks will cover in future articles. Also, Platinum Card Members will see the removal of points caps.

What is happening to David Jones-branded cards?

If you are opted into earning Qantas Points on your card, then your effective earn rate is dropping by one-third across the board.

However, if you are earning Membership Rewards points (of the David Jones variety), then there is no change. Your earn rate is staying the same and the transfer rate is already set at what the Ascent and Gateway varieties are moving to, which is 2:1.

Our advice

On earn

Overall, these changes are negative.

Many of you are likely wondering what you should do with the American Express cards you currently hold. For those who are happily holding Qantas or Velocity co-branded cards, in our opinion, these changes are not significant enough to warrant any real action, given they have come through relatively unscathed.

Airline co-branded cards like the Qantas American Express Ultimate will have higher headline earn rates than Membership Rewards-earning cards but will lock you into one airline currency

However, for those holding American Express Membership Rewards-earning cards, your decision is going to revolve around how much value you place on the flexibility of the American Express Membership Rewards program versus the ability to earn a higher earn rate with an airline co-branded card.

The decision is far from clear and will be determined by individual preference and circumstance. However, a good rule of thumb is: if you value flexibility in choosing which frequent flyer program to transfer your reward points to over points earn, then you should consider holding onto your current card/s. If points earn is your key objective though, then you could consider switching to an airline co-branded card but only if you are willing to commit to earning solely through Qantas or Velocity Frequent Flyer.

On redemption

If you currently have a large balance of Membership Rewards points, you may want to hold off. American Express has given five months’ notice and there may be transfer bonuses introduced in the meantime, so you would not want to miss out on them by speculatively transferring your points out to a partner program/s.

There is no need to do anything about the cards in your wallet right now. If eventually you are considering the cards you have in your wallet in light of these changes, it may be worth giving American Express a call first to see if there is a more appropriate card for you based on your spending patterns.

What is your take on these changes? How will they affect your points-earning and redemption strategy moving into 2019?

Co-written with Daniel Sciberras.
Supplementary images courtesy American Express.

Community Comments

1. Will merchant fees ever increase to allow AMEX to go to 1:1 transfers to airlines? Maybe with the increase in interest rates?

   Does anyone have any insight?

   Reply

   1. Given Amex has moved from 1:1 to 2:1 in Australia, I can’t see them moving back to 1:1 anytime soon, unfortunately.

      Reply

2. Thanks for the info regarding DJ’s Amex! Now I can relax 🙂

   Reply

3. Thank you for a timely email. Had no idea this was happening. Transferred 355000 gateway points to Krisflyer just now 🙂

   Reply

4. Surprised there’s so little love for Emirates.
   We’ve shunted points from Amex to Skywards( and prior to that from Citibank) and have found Emirates excellent for travel to European destinations . Had 6 return Business Class trips in the last 7 years, and no issues with availability of reward seats in European Summer or Winter . Given they fly to so many European cities from their Middle Eastern hub , they seem an ideal option for Australian travellers

   So many of the other reward programs seem to have bugger all availability for points seats.

   Reply

5. Pushing my Amex points mostly to KrisFlyer and some to Etihad (for 2x return biz HBA-BNE).

   Going to take advantage of:
   1. KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes.
   2. RTW SQ point flights.

   Can I presume with RTW that if you are flexible with the dates and the destinations, then this would be easy as to book either 3 months or 9 months out. Eg would go to Seoul instead of Tokyo, Toronto instead of Vancouver, Lima instead of Rio, Paris instead of Johannesburg…. as some quick examples, so substitute any onward airport…. eg Lets just go somewhere with availability??

   Reply

   1. Whilst flexibility with dates and destinations can help, I would strongly suggest booking any round-the-world trip, at least in Business or First Class, as far in advance as possible, i.e. 11-12 months out. In Economy, you may find availability three months out, but that is unlikely for premium cabins.

      Reply

      1. Cheers. Suppose it will only get harder with more people taking advantage of KrisFlyer :(. It was nice to be able to warehouse them, and transfer as needed. Oh well, they have to go somewhere.

6. Amex is effectively devaluing their points yet keeping their high annual fee. They are no longer competitive and yet no one in Amex can convince me to stay. I’ve just cancelled my wife’s cards they never even asked why? They cannot show any benefit and yet I’d like to stay. Someone please show me the benefits if their cards redemption is not better than others yet there fee is 4x higher? Their front line staff can’t help, there exes sales team need to explain why we should stay and yet….

   Reply

   1. Credit rules changed recently- banks no longer allowed to offer incentives to keep customers and not allowed to pressure people to stay. Most credit cards can now be cancelled online as well. Now requests to cancel seem to just be automatically accepted.

      Reply

7. Anyone else take advantage of the offer to transfer to Velocity for the bonus points and status upgrade and received their status upgrade? Points and bonus came through within a couple of days but still waiting on the status upgrade.

   Got the run around with Velocity having to convince them that a) promotion existed then b) I was eligible, then “wait a week”, latest update is they say the conditions stated the status upgrade was effective four weeks after the end of the promotion so wait until April 16. Wish I’d taken a screen shot of the terms and conditions at the time of redeeming.

   Reply

8. Hi all,
   I have an AMEX Platinum Edge card and want to maximise my points (to transfer to Velocity) before to 15/3 bonus ends and the April devaluation.

   Is anyone considering purchasing supermarket giftcards or any other strategies before 15/3?

   Is it worth the hassle?

   Thanks

   Reply

   1. Hi Nic

      That could be a good way to earn those points. What I generally do if I’m making a large supermarket gift card purchase is to choose the e-gift card option, as I have always been worried about losing the physical cards.

      Whether its worth the hassle will be determined on how much value you place on those American Express points. If you haven’t already read it, the following guide might be able to assist in this regard.

      https://www.pointhacks.com.au/rewards-points-valuations/

      Reply

9. Some basic maths… I have a basic Amex Gold card and Amex is pushing me to transfer my points to Velocity before 15th March to take advantage of Velocity’s 15% bonus. Trouble is, they are only offering to transfer them at 3/4 of their current amount, eg. transfer 100,000 Amex points and end up with 75,000 Velocity points + 15% bonus offer = 86,250 Velocity points.

   Now, the ‘spending power’ of Velocity points is already less than that of Amex points (1000 Amex pts = $7.41 prior to 15th April, reducing to $5 after then. But 1000 Velocity pts = approx. $5 already, depending on what you spend them on).

   So if I took up the offer and transferred 100,000 Amex points ($741 spending power) today, then my Velocity spending power tomorrow would only be $431.25 including the 15% bonus!

   It seems to me that the logical thing for me to do would NOT be to take up the transfer offer, but to spend all my Amex points prior to 15th April, before they are devalued. Have I worked this out correctly?

   Reply

10. I have 483,111 Amex Gateway Reward points and 35,200 Qantas Frequent Flyer Program (bronze membership; status credit = 0). Not sure best action to take before Amex devalues point on 15/04/19.
    Facts to consider:
    1. Current Amex offer – 20% bonus with Velocity transfer or 50% bonus with Hilton Honors.
    2. Amex frequent flyer partner programs –
    a. Air New Zealand Air Points – 400 Amex points = 3 airpoints
    b. Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Ethihad Guest Airways, Malaysia Airline Enrich, Singapore Airline Kris Flyer, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus and Velocity Frequent Flyer – all of them – Amex points = 3 points.
    c. Qantas Frequent Flyer – not a Amex partner program
    3. Other redemptions options – Hello World, gift card etc.
    4. Likely to travel within 3 years. No travel plan yet but destinations considered – Asia, Europe and US. Travelling with wife.
    5. Expiration of points and activity to keep points active etc.

    My thoughts:
    1. Not considering Hilton Honors.
    2. Frequent flyer program – best value. Therefore – not considering other redemption options such as gift card etc.
    3. Thinking of transfer to Velocity and making use of the bonus. But I read – Kris Flyer better dollar value per point compared to Velocity.
    Now – Velocity to Kris conversion: 1.55 Velocity to 1 Kris; whereas Amex to Kris is the same as Kris i.e. 4 Amex points = 3 Velocity or Kris points. So in future – transfer from Velocity to Kris – worth less than transferring from Amex to Kris now.
    4. Have read about other Amex frequent flyer partner programs but not enough understanding to decide or consider.

    Confused because too many issues to consider. All advice and suggestions are welcome. Thank you in advance to members of community and moderators.

    Reply

11. Genuinely reconsidering Amex after these changes; we were in for the Kris Flyer transfer. The annual travel credit on our Explorer card is a complete rort; the real world value in hotel terms is about $200.00. Everything is absurdly overpriced on Amex Travel and availability is weak. Just one quick question regarding the current Hilton bonus if anyone could help? Only considering as we have a redemption in mind. Does the 50% bonus apply to all kinds of MR points (Ascent, Gateway etc.)? It doesn’t seem to be adding anything to our 1:1 standard transfer.

    Reply

    1. The bonus should apply to both Gateway and Ascent varieties of Membership Rewards points. Make sure to log in to your account to determine your eligibility. It would be strange if this were a targeted offer. In that case, give Amex a call if you can’t see the bonus.

       P.S. A KrisFlyer bonus is still not out of the question. Maybe it will come in March or April but I can’t say that with 100% certainty (I don’t have any insider info).

       Reply

       1. Fingers crossed for a KF bonus!

    2. Generally, as you’ve pointed out, anyone can get hotels direct much cheaper direct, but we recently stayed at the Treasury in Brisbane and I got a rate cheaper with Amex Travel than on the Treasury’s own website. Rare, but possible. Travel credits are best used for flights. I’m a Qantas flyer, but if you book via Amex Travel, there are no card surcharges and the prices are the same as the airline website, so you can save money this way. Regardless of using my travel credit or not, it’s worthwhile considering Amex Travel for flights. Hope that helps.

       Reply

       1. Thanks Peter

12. Hey Daniel, If i’m tossing up whether to get a AMEX (for the purposes of the sign on bonus to transfer to velocity) now or after April when these changes come into effect what would you recommend? I gather from this article that if I wait I may end up receiving less Velocity points in return for my sign on bonus.. is that correct? Thank you in advanced.

    Reply

    1. Hi Bianca

       Please see my response in the other posts where you’ve asked this question.

       Thanks.

       Reply

       1. Hi Daniel,

          Sorry if it was confusing but my other question was in relation to comparing this card to ANZ. This question is whether if I get the AMEX Explorer now.. will I get more points than if I waited for the changes?

          It seems to me that if I wait I will get less velocity points with not much benefit?

13. There is another promotion now for transferring points from AMEX to Velocity, started on 16 Feb and ends 15 March, it states:
    ‘Depending on the number of Membership Rewards points you transfer to Velocity Frequent Flyer by 15 March 2019, you’ll receive a 15-25% Velocity bonus. Conditions apply.”

    Reply

14. Am I reading this guide incorrectly? I think where it say “restaurants” under Platinum Edge it should be saying “supermarkets”.

    Reply

15. Velocity international rewards are like hens teeth even now, let alone when millions of points are transferred from MR to Velocity. Can’t believe how few AU-LAX/HKG J class seats are available…..

    Reply

16. regarding the double points “valued customer” offer, I think only the platinum and the black card holders are eligible.

    I hold an explorer card, with a continues 120k+ yearly spent for the past couple of years, was told I am not qualified for this offer. so I think they value the “valued customer” by which kind of card you hold, not based on how much you spent unfortunately.

    Reply

    1. Hi Cassie

       In regards to this offer, Point Hacks recommends to contact American Express directly to confirm your eligibility.

       Reply

       1. This is consistent with what AMEX told me after I called them to ask why I wasn’t offered this (I’m a lowly Platinum Edge cardholder with similar spend to you Cassie). They said that offer was only for Platinum Charge and other similar high fee paying customers.

17. Hi Matt (and everyone),

    I’m wondering whether anybody has tried contacting AMEX to ask for some bonus points before the MR changes come into effect? I know that Ascent Premium customers are having their points balance doubled but is there any hope for a loyal platinum edge or explorer customer?

    Reply

18. Matt

    Any Idea on whats hapening to Westapac’s Amex Altitude Black cards ?

    I have an Explorer , Explorer Business and a Platinum edge

    looking to get better than 1:1 moving fowaard

    Reply

19. I have 300k amex explorer points what do you think I should do with them?

    Reply

20. Hi Matt – there’s actually a pretty key swing here for the Virgin Platinum card holders (possibly Qantas too?)

    With the new (reduced) rate, you actually earn Velocity points through visa cards like ANZ Rewards Black (Visa), because you get 2 points per $1, which convert at 50% PLUS a 30% bonus if you convert during their annual “bonus redemption” time.

    i.e. a Visa that is accepted EVERYWHERE earns you 1.3 vs. 1.25 for Amex.

    *Only applies to first $5k of monthly spend, annual fee is the same, Amex also gets you 1 free flight,

    Reply

21. Info for Platinum Edge seems not correct, spend on Petrol will increase to 3 ppd (not remain at 2 ppd) so its FF earn rate will be the same as Supermarket, ie 1.5 FF ppd
    https://www.americanexpress.com/au/credit-cards/membership-benefits/rewards/rewardschanges/platinumedge/

    Reply

    1. Hi Mark

       Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have updated the table accordingly.

       Reply

22. Thanks for your response, can I ask why your strong suggestion is to hold off on the velocity transfer bonus given that it is highly unlikely there will be points protection for explorer card holders?

    Reply

    1. I didn’t necessarily mean to hold off on the Velocity transfer bonus but just to hold off on transferring points speculatively as it is likely there are transfer bonuses for programs in the leadup to the changes in April.

       Reply

23. I was just wondering if there is any further news on this: “there may be transfer bonuses introduced in the meantime, so you would not want to miss out on them by speculatively transferring your points out to a partner program/s.”? Or otherwise whether there is any news on point balance protection for explorer? Just trying to decide whether to transfer my balance into my already too high velocity account due to the 15% bonus?

    Reply

    1. No transfer bonuses (other than the current Velocity one) have been announced but my strong suggestion is to hold off. Very unlikely that there is points balance protection for Explorer Card Members.

       Reply

24. It’s a step in the right direction so we can all reduce our carbon footprint by flying economy

    Reply

25. I have a 900k Ascent balance that I’ve been saving for 13-odd years (without ever redeeming) to use on international travel OS. This is a complete kick in the guts by Amex. I’ve called them and asked why the offer of preserving the balance wasn’t extended to me (I’ve got a Platinum edge card and gold card). They just said its only extended to some customers and given it hasn’t been offered to me they can’t do anything about it (this was once I’d escalated too). Their solution was to redeem them… The RBA changes don’t justify cutting the redemption rate on existing balances. Its just a good opportunity for them to improve their balance sheet with the stroke of a pen. Well, its also now a good opportunity to get rid of my Amex cards.

    Reply

26. @Levo – I’m in the same position as you. This whole exercise made me crunch the numbers and at $1450 a year, the Amex Platinum Charge is actually a fairly inefficient way to earn points, even before the deval. It’s just nice and convenient for me. But if the go ahead with the 2:1 deval then I’m going to take that $1450 for the Platinum and probably the $450 from the Explorer. $2K can earn you a lot of points through other cards. This was a very silly move by Amex for me. It will push me straight to their competition for my annual fees and my cashflow.

    Reply

27. Still far fewer merchants accept the AMEX rather than Visa or Mastercard. Will be considering leaving when 1.25 (at petrol stations and groceries only card) goes to 1.0.

    Reply

28. I currently hold the platinum charge card, platinum reserve and QANTAS Ultimate.

    I have expressed my disappointment to AMEX given the charge card fee has just increased significantly. Their reply was waiting for the letter which offered me double rewards points to protect what I had already earnt. I’m still not satisfied by this.

    It would have sufficed me if AMEX kept the MR points for the charge card at 1:1 for QANTAS but a decrease by 50% is really disappointing for a high-end card.

    Come to my renewal date for the QANTAS Ultimate, I will cancel the card in the hopes that QANTAS continue to offer bonus transfer points from time to time on the charge card.

    If they do, I hope this means that the value of the point to point transfer is greater than that of the QANTAS ultimate.

    Any direct earn from QANTAS going on my ANZ Black or QANTAS Premier card.

    $495 for 0.25 of a point difference is not great, even with the travel credit.

    Reply

29. Just opened my letter. “As a valued American Express Platinum Card Member and in recognition of the redemption rate changes, we will protect the value of your existing points balance by automatically crediting your account with the same amount of Membership Rewards points that you have at 1:00am AEST on 15 April 2019. For example, if your balance is 100,000 points we will credit an additional 100,000 points. The additional points will be added to your account by 15 June 2019. There is no need to call us or enrol.”
    This is contrary to what their website says for the Platinum charge card. Seems you need to be a valued member to get this deal. This makes me happy, but if your letter doesn’t include this clause, then I’d be calling Amex and asking them why you aren’t valued and if they don’t agree to adjust your balance you can make a decision about how much you value them.

    Reply

30. Latest for Amex is that the existing point balance will be doubled.

    Reply

31. I got this letter today and immediacy called Platinum Services to confirm I’d read the letter correctly. I told them that in addition to the $250 fee hike, this points devaluation makes the Platinum Card worthless to me. I was told they’d been deluged with similar calls and they’re considering how to respond. Apparently Amex are gathering feedback on this so I strongly urge all of you to call them and tell them if this will send you to their competition. Hopefully we can help them reconsider this colossal blunder.

    Reply

32. Very interesting move to decrease earn rates for AMEX cards. When a lot of merchants pass on the high fees to the purchaser, if the earn rate is only marginally higher than VISA or MasterCard, doesn’t provide me with much incentive to keep the AMEX…

    Reply

33. Some cardholders like those with Platinum Charge cards are getting letters telling them that they will have their accumulated points doubled on the 15th of April so they do not lose value. AMEX are reviewing all their customer accounts including those with the Edge card to see if they are worthy of some offer. Apparently they will look at your history with AMEX re spending, payment history and how long you have been with AMEX. If I do not get one of these offers, my family will cancel all three of our AMEX cards

    Reply

34. Does anyone know what’s happening with the David Jones cards?

    Reply

    1. No changes have been announced.

       Reply

35. Extremely poor move by Amex, they are now shy away from their only advantage against all other major cards, I don’t mind the devalue of the earning rate, but very much pissed off on how they treat existing point balances. I’m a centurion cardholder and have around 1.6m points sitting on my account, I stupidly choose to pay for my air travel through Amex all those years rather than redeem and now looks like almost impossible for me to utilise all those 1.6m points in three years time before expiry as imposed by most airlines. Wrote an email to my rm but received a standard “marketing” response asking me to check my mail…

    Reply

36. Hello Matt
    As a worst case scenario is it possible to extend the life of the points by say transferring to velocity (which I assume expires in 3 years) and then before that expiry, transfer again to Krisflyer to get another 3 years?
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Velocity Points expire after 18 months of inactivity. Worst case scenario, yes you could do that but with a bit of forward planning, you can avoid taking a hit on that second transfer. Here are some ideas.

       Reply

37. I might be reading this wrong, but if i get a platinum charge card and used it mostly of shopping currently I would get 1 point for every dollar spent and that would give me 1 Qantas/Velocity point. As of April 2019 for every dollar i spend i will get 2.25 points and but i need 2 points to equal 1 Qantas/Velocity point. so really i am in front by 0.25 earn rate from the current program?? the only thing i loss on is the restaurant as that goes from 3 down to 2.25

    Reply

    1. Correct on general spend but you will also lose out on travel and overseas purchases (as well as restaurants). Check out the effective earn rate table for the Platinum Charge.

       Reply

38. I’m confused. Your first table shows that most things on the Platinum Edge remain the same or improve e.g 2:1 on fuel purchases goes up to 3:1 and supermarkets remain at 3:1. However on the second table it shows that they both drop to 1.5:1. If that’s the case I may as well stick with my Coles Mastercard at 2:1 everywhere I shop.

    Reply

    1. Correct. Because the redemption rates are changing, the effective earn rate is decreasing—that is the important one.

       Reply

39. Thanks for the article. Are these changes just for Australia cards or will New Zealand be affected too?

    Reply

    1. Just Australia, as far as we know.

       Reply

40. What is happening with the Platinun Reserve credit card?

    Reply

    1. As it is not a common card for Point Hacks readers, we didn’t go into detail on it but you can read about all the changes to the card here.

       Reply

41. I used to be willing to pay surcharge to use Amex. After the devaluation, it won’t be worthy to do that again. I am wondering how many new merchants would join in Amex but I don’t think it is important any more. If I were other high end credit card like Citi Prestige or ANZ Black, I would raise the earn rate to get those high end customers. We can wait and see how other credit cards reaction to this.

    Reply

42. Peter, like you I ended up in the “twilight zone” period of membership renewal just before their 1 November cut over date to impose the higher $1450 annual fee. My card renewal date is 2 October, and so therefore I received the $300 travel credit. However, although my statement was due 1 November – that date that us Aussies see on our account dashboards is actually referring to the northern hemisphere Phoenix server centre time – and so I ended up with my statement generating on 2 November with the higher $1450 fee. I got it sorted with Amex and they issued a reversal to credit $1450 and bill $1200 instead. Next year though we will get both the higher travel credit and the higher annual fee – that is, if we decide to remain loyal to Amex Platinum.

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43. I understand what driven this, and whilst I don’t like it, reducing point earn is something we need to expect. However, why not reduce by to the effective earn rate rather than devalue our current balance? As a Qantas FF and Platinum Charge card holder I have 423,000 Ascent Premium points which I like to transfer as required to KrisFlyer for Star Alliance redemptions, and I don’t want this devalued on 15 April. Amex should do what flybuys did with their relaunch and convert existing balances to the new currency. This article is silent on Amex’s approach to existing balances but does infer they won’t be adjusted. Can you please obtain an official statement on this from Amex? Provided they double my balance in April, I’d be okay and suck up the changes. However, two things still annoy me with Amex. Their most expensive card, the Platinum Charge, earns less points than the Qantas Ultimate, and the fact I can earn more points on government spend using my Visa or my MasterCard than I do with this Amex. Anyone understand why this is? Furthermore, I’ve only just paid their annual fee again, but interestingly it was still only (!) $1,200, not the new $1,450. Anyone else? Anyone still paying the original $900 when they introduced it?

    Reply

    1. We were not able to secure information on this point from American Express but our advice would be to hold off if you have a large balance as there may be incentives offered over the next few months.

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44. I currently have 144k worth of points on my Platinum Edge (Ascent rewards)
    I like to use Asia miles and its currently 1:1. The 50% devaluation is horrible!

    I think I am better off moving the points in April and just making sure I use them in the 3 years allocated with Asia Miles.

    Asia miles don’t normally ever have points transfer bonuses
    Any thoughts or advice?

    Reply

    1. As we said, our advice would be just to hold off for now as more information will come to light over the next few months.

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45. Recently moved from UK so havent gotten an Au Amex yet
    Worth trying to get the Explorer asap with the new 100k points bonus and transferring to Emirates (airline of choice currently) before the new changes come in?
    Anything to suggest they would block that

    Reply

    1. We can’t recommend whether to get the card or not (for legal reasons) but as long as the sign-up bonus points post in time, i.e. before 15 April, you will be able to make the transfer to one of their partners.

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46. This is very disappointing. It will probably be worth transferring all points to Krisflyer or Velocity (if bonus is good) and then reconsider my Amex. Have 250000 points so would lose 125000 if I hold them in Ascent. I think I then have 2-3 years before they go and I can use various strategies to keep them alive with the airlines.

    Amex are damaging their advantage here.

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47. On top of the fee hike this year for the card this is extremely frustrating. I’ve also contacted Amex and expressed my anger at the changes. The more people that do this the better.

    While they might have to be more “competitive” moving forward the points in my account were earned using the existing arrangements yet will be halved in value by this change. The accountants at Amex must be jumping with joy at the thought of cutting Amex’s points liability in half…

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48. I think most people use their points for air travel, so the big question now becomes – which CC will be our best option for redeeming flights?

    Hoping Pointhacks does a new article on this.

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49. Also worth noting is that Qantas have a tiered 15% / 25% / 45% bonus transfer on offer at the moment until 30 November.

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50. This is highly disappointing and from my perspective, if they’re degrading the agreed product by a proportion, like these 34-50% earn reductions, it’s only reasonable to expect the annual fees – at a bare minimum – to reduce by the same proportion. Have closed other credit cards when they started deviating from the products signed up to and will have to reconsider staying with AMEX. More awkwardly, there’s no info on how the changes affect David Jones card products, though I’m guessing they may remain as they are given the reduced redemption rates already in place for these cards.

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51. For primarily supermarket spending, is the platinum Edge card with 1.5 point per $, still the best earning card on the market ?

    Reply

    1. No, moving forward the David Jones American Express cards will become the leader, earning 2.25 Qantas Points per $ spent. We will be updating this guide to reflect the changes.

       Reply

52. I currently ahve a balance of 60K ish points on a Platinum Edge. I have no real likelihood of booking any overseas travel in Business or First in the next 6 months. I am also no longer living in one of the few places with domestic redemptions that were regularly over 3c/point value. With the current Velocity promotion, would it be sensible just to transfer over and close the card? I have another QF point earn card with ANZ. I’ve got 110K in Velocity and 82K in QF points but nowhere in mind to go to.

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53. I’ve already sent a complaint to my Amex relationship manager but she is on leave and the delegate is refusing to send any info in relation to Centurion. Hope it’s not the same devaluation as on Platinum but given they share the same Ascent Premium program I’m not holding my breath. This now would mean Centurion and Platinum earn less than the Qantas Ultimate card once points are transferred!!

    Qantas also has 15-40% bonus on transfers until end Nov so might be worth people on Ascent Premium transferring now – the risk will be closer to the change everyone will be transferring points so there might not be an incentive for the airlines to offer a bonus at that time.

    Also agree that foreign transactions shouldn’t be earning less – there is no impact from the RBA or reduced merchant fees for those!

    Reply

54. Here is the official page from the AMEX Australia website. https://www.americanexpress.com/australia/credit-cards/membership-benefits/rewards/rewardschanges

    Reply

55. So AMEX have trashed their cards.

    As a Platinum cardholder with primarily travel spend I’m going to lose 44% points net (earn and transfer) against an annual fee increase of 21% to a mega $1450.

    A key point missed thus far by this and the AusBT article – one of the key benefits of AMEX generic cards, the ability to purchase points at $25 per 1000, becomes economically unfeasible, since now the net cost of purchase would be $50 per 1000.

    Official communication still not received from AMEX.

    Foreign transactions already incur fee so the argument for devaluation because of Australian transaction fee limits doesn’t apply.

    Rang AMEX to report my disappointment.

    Highly recommend others do likewise!

    Reply

56. I know we have 5 months to consider a strategy but could it be worth taking advantage of Virgin’s 15% bonus transfer offer before the end of November?

    Reply

    1. That’s up to you! I can’t predict whether there will be other transfer bonuses before 15 April, unfortunately.

       Reply

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