St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA all share the same rewards program—Amplify Rewards—a flexible points program which should be considered if you’re looking for a rewards-based credit card. You can also choose to link the account to Qantas Frequent Flyer and earn Qantas Points.

In this guide, we cover the Amplify Rewards card range, the best partners to transfer your points to, and how to maximise your frequent flyer balances.

The Amplify Rewards Cards Range

There are three cards across the range—the Amplify Signature Visa offers the highest points earn on spend across the range plus a host of travel perks including lounge access, the Amplify Rewards Platinum Visa–a lower fee card with lower earn rates and some benefits, and the Amplify Rewards Visa – an entry level points-earning card with low annual fee.

Effective Frequent Flyer Program Point Earn Rates

Frequent Flyer ProgramEffective earn rate
Qantas Points*0.75 point / $
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles0.75 mile / $
Malaysia Airlines Enrich Miles0.75 mile / $
* Qantas Points are only earned if selected upon receiving the card

Effective Frequent Flyer Program Point Earn Rates

Frequent Flyer ProgramEffective earn rate
Velocity Points0.5 point / $
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles0.5 mile / $
Malaysia Airlines Enrich Miles0.5 mile / $

The entry-level Amplify Rewards Visa offers the same earn rate on spend as the Amplify Rewards Platinum but comes with no extra benefits like insurances, which is in line with most other low fee cards in the market.

Qantas vs Amplify Rewards

When you first get your card, you’ll need to choose whether you want it to accrue points into Qantas Frequent Flyer directly, on a monthly sweep basis, or into the Amplify Rewards program.

Amplify Rewards

The benefit of Amplify Rewards is that you can accrue points which you can then have some flexibility in how you use them. There’s more on this approach to earning points in this overview of flexible points programs.

The transfer rate to Amplify Rewards’ frequent flyer partners— Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer and Malaysia Airlines’ Enrich program—is 2 Amplify points = 1 airline point/mile.

KrisFlyer is an excellent program to access redemptions in premium cabins on Singapore Airlines flights.

Singapore Airlines 787-10 Business Class seat
You can use your Krisflyer Miles for travel in Singapore Airlines’ 787 Business Class

Enrich no longer offers much value for travellers in Australia.

You should allow at least three business days for your Amplify Points to be converted to frequent flyer points.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Having said all of that, it is worth realising that while you’ll earn twice as many points outright (on spend) by accruing to Amplify than Qantas, they are not equivalent in value, given the rates at which they transfer to partner airline programs—making it an even points earn proposition between choosing Qantas or Amplify.

If you are loyal to Qantas and using Qantas Points for travel on Qantas and its partners like Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines, then locking your earning into Qantas Points may make more sense.

Emirates A380 First Class
Qantas is one of the few frequent flyer partners of Emirates
Emirates A380 planes on tarmac | Point Hacks

Read the Point Hacks guide to using Qantas Points for Emirates flights

Read the guide here

Choosing Qantas or Amplify Rewards for the sign-up bonus

It could be worth considering opting in for Qantas Points for the sign-up bonus (as Amplify often offer the same number of bonus Amplify Points as Qantas Points for new cardholders, but Amplify Points transfer to other most other frequent flyer programs at 1 Amplify point to 0.5 frequent flyer points), and then switch to Amplify Rewards for more flexibility.

You can make the switch online using this form (St.George version). A very important note for switching the other way around:

If you are switching from Amplify Rewards to Amplify Qantas, points earned under Amplify Rewards must be redeemed within 90 days of the program switch being processed or they will be forfeited.

However, switching from Qantas Points to Amplify Rewards won’t affect your previous balance:

If you are switching from Amplify Qantas to Amplify Rewards, Qantas Points earned before the program switch is processed will be transferred to the nominated Qantas Frequent Flyer membership account as usual.

Other redemption opportunities

You can also use your Amplify Rewards points on redemptions for purchases such as technology, baby products and appliances, as well as card fees, donations, gift cards and for travel through the Amplify portal but we would strongly suggest using your points for higher-value redemptions, i.e. transferring to frequent flyer partners.

Amplify Rewards online portal screenshot

Summing up

Unlike American Express Membership Rewards, which offers the widest range of transfer partners, Amplify Rewards matches the other major bank points programs like Westpac Altitude Rewards, ANZ Rewards and NAB Rewards in offering just a handful of airlines to transfer to. This makes it definitely worth considering if you have spend that you are planning to make, or have to make, on a Visa or Mastercard.

Compared to those other programs, Amplify offers favourable transfer rates, plus the option to switch between earning Amplify Rewards or Qantas Points—just be aware of your Amplify points expiring if you make the switch.

Finally, if this works for your points collecting strategy, taking your sign-up bonus in the form of Qantas Points and then switching to Amplify Rewards for ongoing points earn may also help to maximise your frequent flyer balances.

A guide to the Amplify Rewards program was last modified: January 7th, 2021 by Matt Moffitt