Qantas American Express Ultimate Card

At first, the standard $450 annual fee is frightening, even with the free flight. However I received a $200 discount on the annual fee as part of a standard signup promotion back in May, and sold the flight on eBay for $250.

A few months later, I noticed an annual fee show up on my statement, and called to query whether this was correct as I thought I’d already paid it when I first received the card. It turned out that because I’d upgraded to this card from another Qantas card, the annual fee was to be paid on my standard renewal date – and I hadn’t actually paid it yet. So, my renewal ticked over and I received another domestic flight, which I resold again for around another $250.

Upshot – I ended up with 30,000 Qantas points and $250 in my pocket, as well as a card earning 1.5 Qantas points per dollar ongoing. Thanks Amex!

American Express Platinum Edge

Another credit card winner. I signed up for this card back in 2010 and didn’t use it much until this year, when I made a conscious decision to start acquiring more Velocity points and spread my redemption options more widely. It quickly became clear how easy it was to rack up points with supermarket spend (at 3 points per dollar), with bonus offers from AAMI & BP, and Membership Rewards offers like the Amex Foreign Exchange signup bonus all contributing to a healthy 50,000 point MR balance from seemingly minimal effort.

OnePath Insurance

I’ll be writing a brief how-to maximise points for minimum spend on the OnePath 10,000 point offer that’s been running throughout 2011 in the next week or so. It’s still ongoing, and for around a $50-$70 outlay you can bring in 20,000 Qantas points (which I value around $300-$400). I did this for myself and my partner. Result – 40,000 Qantas points for some administration and minimal spend.

Honorable Mentions

The Bankwest 22,500 Qantas point signup offer; Qantas 91st Birthday (AKA the we’re sorry for the grounding) bonus point promotion; and the points raked in from my trips in April and December.

Happy point collecting for 2012!

My top points earners for 2011 was last modified: June 23rd, 2015 by Keith