When you fuel up your car, you could earn Qantas Points with BP directly or with Caltex (through Woolworths Everyday Rewards). Alternatively, you could choose to boost your Velocity Points balance at Coles Express via Flybuys or now, directly with 7-Eleven stores nationwide.
Which option gives you the most value? We take a look below., crunching the numbers on which one could get you to your flight reward sooner.
This is based on the petrol spend required per point to redeem for a Sydney-Melbourne Domestic Business Class flight on Qantas (18,400 pts) or Virgin Australia (15,500 pts).
There are some important assumptions and notes to consider:
- We have assumed that you are purchasing 91 Unleaded fuel at 129.9c per litre (obviously this fluctuates over time)
- BP offers Qantas Points per litre, depending on the petrol type
- Caltex and Coles Express (using the 4c/L discount) offers points per dollar spent, regardless of petrol type
- Coles Express (using the 8 bonus points/L option) offers flybuys points for both the amount spent and the amount fuelled
- 7-Eleven offers Velocity Points per litre of fuel, depending on the petrol type.
Qantas and BP
| Estimated spend for a Business Class flight: around A$13,790 [Ultimate 98] to A$23,900 [other fuels] |
The following Qantas Points can be earned when purchasing fuel at BP fuel stations nationwide:
- 2 Qantas Point per litre of BP Ultimate 98 Motor Fuel
- 1 Qantas Point per litre of 91, 95, Diesel, Ultimate Diesel or LPG
- 1 Qantas Point per A$1 spent on eligible in-store products
With regular fuel purchases, you’ll spend 1 dollar per Qantas Point earned while at BP fuel stations. Given that you need 18,400 Qantas Points to get that Qantas Business Class flight, that equates to a relative ‘cost’ of $23,900 spent on most fuels at BP, assuming a bowser cost of 129.9 cents per litre.
But if you exclusively fuelled up on BP Ultimate 98 instead, say at an average price of 149.9 cents per litre, then you’d only need to pump 9,200L at a rough cost of $13,790 before unlocking that Qantas Business Class flight.
This is because Ultimate 98 fuel is never usually double the price of other fuel types, but you do earn double the Qantas Points. Thus, it’s more efficient to buy Ultimate 98 if you wish to reach your flight reward faster.
Woolworths Rewards and Ampol (Caltex)
| Estimated spend for a Business Class flight: around A$38,000 |
Whilst you’ll earn 1 Everyday Rewards point per A$1 spent on fuel (and only fuel) at participating outlets, you can only convert those points to Qantas Points once your account has 2,000 Everyday Rewards points. Once transferred, you’ll normally get 1,000 Qantas Points in your account.
To get the requisite 18,400 Qantas Points for a Business Class flight, you’d need to first accumulate 36,800 Woolworths Everyday Rewards points. Through fuel alone, and at an assumed price of 129.9 cents per litre of U91 fuel, you would need to purchase 28,329 litres at a total cost of $36,800 to earn the required 36,800 Woolworths Everyday Rewards points – quite a hefty ask.
Woolworths Everyday Rewards recently expanded to Tasmania, so existing Frequent Shopper Club members on the Apple Isle should look at swapping their points over to the new program.
Members of Woolworths Everyday Rewards may be able to collect vouchers to redeem a 4 cents/L discount on fuel purchases, after spending $30 or more at Woolworths supermarkets.
Flybuys and Coles Express
| Estimated spend for a Business Class flight: around A$3,776 |
Coles Express offers 1 flybuys point per $2 spent on fuel. Those points can then be transferred to Velocity Frequent Flyer at a rate of 1,000 flybuys points to 500 Velocity points – essentially the same as Qantas/Woolworths Rewards.
In addition to the standard earn rate, members also can earn discount vouchers when spending more than $30 at Coles supermarkets, which have two uses:
- A standard 4c/L discount on fuel, or
- 8 bonus flybuys points per litre of fuel
The ability to boast your earn rate by 8 points per litre is an interesting one indeed. We’d recommend picking this option instead of the 4c/L discount for the reasons detailed below. You can adjust your flybuys reward settings here.
As you need 15,500 Velocity Points for the shortest Business Class flights, that’s equivalent to 31,000 flybuys points. If you take up the standard 4c/L discount option, you would need to purchase 24,622 litres at a total cost of $31,000 to earn the required 31,000 flybuys points – again, quite a hefty ask.
But if you take up the 8 bonus flybuys points per litre option, and assuming you fuel up 40L at a time at an average cost of $129.9 cents per litre ($51.96 per visit), it would take you 90 visits to earn enough points for Business Class, at a rough cost of just $3,776.
This is potentially one of the most rewarding fuel partnerships at the moment.
Velocity and 7-Eleven
| Estimated spend for a Business Class flight: around A$10,850 [premium fuels] to A$20,150 [other fuels] |
The following Velocity Points can be earned when purchasing fuel at 7-Eleven fuel stations nationwide:
- 2 Velocity Point per litre of premium fuels including Unleaded 95 and 98
- 1 Velocity Point per litre of regular fuels including diesel, LPG and Unleaded 91
- 2 Velocity Point per A$1 spent on eligible in-store products
With regular fuel purchases, you’ll earn 1 Velocity Point for every litre purchased at 7-Eleven. Given that you need 15,500 Velocity Points to get that Virgin Australia Business Class flight, that equates to a relative ‘cost’ of $20,150 spent on most fuels at BP, assuming a bowser cost of 129.9 cents per litre.
But if you exclusively fuelled up on Premium Unleaded 95 instead, say at an average price of 139.9 cents per litre, then you’d only need to pump 7,750L at a rough cost of $10,850 before unlocking that Business Class flight.
The Velocity/7-Eleven partnership is potentially more fruitful than the Qantas/BP tie-up because double points are earned on the cheaper Premium Unleaded 95 fuel with 7-Eleven, but not with BP. Also, with 7-Eleven’s popular price fuel-lock, you can secure a lower price during the week and use it when you fuel up.
Which partnership earns you the most points?
| Frequent flyer program/fuel chain | Earn rate | Points needed to redeem a Business Class flight between Sydney and Melbourne | Fuel spend required | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qantas/BP | Regular fuel | 1 Qantas Point per litre | 18,400 Qantas Points | Assuming 129.9c/L for U91 $23,902 for 18,400L of fuel |
| BP Ultimate 98 | 2 Qantas Points per litre | Assuming 149.9c/L for U98 $13,791 for 9,200L of fuel |
||
| Woolworths Rewards/Ampol (Caltex) | All fuel types | 1 Everyday Rewards point per A$1 | 18,400 Qantas Points (2 Everyday Rewards points = 1 Qantas Point) | Assuming 129.9c/L for U91 $36,800 for 28,329L of fuel |
| Flybuys/Coles Express | Using 4c/dollar discount | 1 flybuys point per A$2 | 15,500 Velocity Points (2 flybuys points = 1 Velocity Point) | Assuming 125.9c/L after discount $31,000 for 24,622L of fuel |
| Using 8 points/dollar bonus | 8 flybuys points per litre + 1 flybuys point per A$2 | Assuming 129.9c/L for U91 and 40L of fuel per transaction $3,776 for 3,600L of fuel over 90 transactions |
||
| Velocity/7-Eleven | Regular fuel | 1 Velocity Point per litre | 15,500 Velocity Points | Assuming 129.9c/L for U91 $20,135 for 15,500L of fuel |
| Premium fuel | 2 Velocity Points per litre | Assuming 139.9c/L for U95 $10,843 for 7,750L of fuel |
From this example, it’s clear that the flybuys-Coles Express tie-up gives you the best bang for your buck when using your voucher for 8 bonus points per litre fuelled. That will supercharge you to a Virgin Australia flight via Velocity Frequent Flyer much quicker than any other partnership.
The next best option is getting Premium Unleaded 95 fuel from 7-Eleven which awards 2 Velocity Points per dollar. Coming up in 3rd place is fuelling up with BP Ultimate 98, which awards 2 Qantas Points per dollar.
Summing up
All things being equal (including fuel prices), if you are working towards a flight redemption, you’re likely to get there quicker if you fill up at Coles Express and take advantage of the 8c bonus points option, which will ultimately allow you to transfer your flybuys points to Velocity Points.
For those wishing to earn Qantas Points, however, you should direct your spending towards the BP-Qantas partnership, particularly if you purchase BP Ultimate 98 fuel. But the new Velocity/7-Eleven partnership is very competitive too.
Remember that the examples in this guide are based on fixed petrol rates – in real life, this will fluctuate so your earnings may increase or decrease proportionally to fuel prices. It also doesn’t take into account paying your fuel with a rewards-earning credit card, which could see you sitting at the front of the plane much sooner.
Images courtesy of respective fuel companies. Updates by Brandon Loo.
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I also earn points using the Qantas cash mastercard debit, but unless you’re overseas it’s only 1 point per $4 spent. It’s good for big purchases.
Another good one for the cheap fuel at Coles express is the GoVia app, the toll app. If you’ve got flybuys card and the coles 4c receipt, you can scan a barcode in the app and get a further 4c per litre off your fuel. If you’ve an 8c one top of that you can 16c off per litre. Or even more depending on what flybuys offers you’ve got.
Cheers
The refill canisters are (go figure) cheaper in a Coles Express/Shell ($19) than a normal Coles ($20-21), so two of those equals a spend of way over the $20 minimum required to spend in-store at Coles Express to net a 10c per litre discount. I combine this with a normal Coles voucher for 4c per litre and a CityLink/Linkt 4c per litre voucher available daily in their app, to stack for a combined 18c per litre discount.
That said, I’ve now decided to flip the FlyBuys earn to the 8 points per litre option instead, as one 4c per litre discount (earned from a $30 spend at normal Coles’ stores) teamed with the 10c per litre discount (earned for spending $20 or more instore at Coles Express/Shell) will work far better for us all round. YMMV.
for the record in my area, BP/Coles are always 1-2c more than woolies, every now and again they are the same,
woolies I use the 4c fuel voucher + 5% wish gift, so at $1.40 average, thats 7c discount,
net discount of 11c,
I know sometimes coles gives out 8c or even 10c vouchers,
so in my mind until the discount is more than 11c, woolies wins all the way,and thats ignoring the 1-2c price difference between the petrol stations
Any reason why getting the points would be better?
Also, you’ve neglected to consider the “Cash” Option of buying the cost of the flight outright?
I value FlyBuys as 0.5c/point: 200 points is redeemable for $1 at Coles, which could be put towards a GiftCard (e.g. Flight Center or Prepaid Mastercard), which could then be used elsewhere. The evaluation of 45,000 FlyBuys points would be worth AU$225 – would that be comparable or more expensive than a MEL>SYD in Business?
Some medium-length Virgin Australia flights (eg SYD-CNS SYD-ZQN) are relatively cheap with Etihad miles (6900 EY vs 16900 VA for Economy)
If you have an Platinum Edge Amex you can earn 2 MR pts/$ at BP but 3/$ (using Coles Group Giftcard bought at Coles) or even 4/$ (with giftcard and local champion bonus) at Shell
In practice the price of fuel (including any needed to divert to the petrol station) usually outweighs any point gains. The 4c docket for Shell from Coles will affect this.
At Caltex Woolworths, you can use a 5% discount WISH card bought with Platinum Edge for 3 MR pts/$ as well as a Woolworths discount voucher (and some Myer points if it is branded both Woolworths and Starmart)
Let’s assume you buy a $100 gift card, and spend every cent on fuel just for the simplicity of calculation. If you get the card at a 5% discount, the $100 card cost you $95, saving you $5. If you buy the card on an Amex Platinum Edge that earns 3 MR points per dollar for Woolies, and if you value MR points at 2c per point as Keith does in his points valuation page, then you would get $5.70 value from the $95 you spend on buying that gift card. At this point we’ve gotten $10.70 value for a $100 fill up.
Next, most people would have a 4c/L voucher, which for a $100 fill up at 110c/L would save you $3.64. After all those calculations, you add the 0.435 QF points per dollar giving 43 QF points (rounded down), which would be worth $0.60 if valued at 1.4c per point. Once everything is added together, your $100 fill at a Woolworths Caltex netted you $14.94 of value, almost 15% of your fuel spend.
If we go back to BP/Velocity, again if we pay with the Amex Platinum Edge, we would only get 2 points per dollar at the check out, getting us $3.40 of value in MR points. Once I swipe my Velocity card at the check out, the 2 Velocity points I earn per dollar would be worth $2.40 if I value the points at 1.2c per point. So in the end, my $100 fill at BP only nets me $5.80 or 5.8%.
Now of course, redemption of points varies and personal circumstances and preferences dictate which points to earn, but when the overall difference is a massive 2.58x, I think it’s worth pausing to think about where to fill up. Even if you don’t have an Amex card with such a high earn rate, the 5% discount you can easily get from gift cards stacked with the 4c/L voucher easily overwhelms the extra Velocity points you earn.