Earn five Qantas frequent flyer points per dollar on gift cards
By Chris C., September 23 2014
Qantas frequent flyers can now earn an extra five points per dollar when using their Qantas Cash card to buy Myer, David Jones, iTunes, Priceline and JB Hi-Fi digital gift cards via the Qantas Cash Digital Gift Cards website.
That’s on top of the one point per $2 you’d earn on normal Qantas Cash transactions, so the purchase of a $100 digital gift card with any of the retailers above would net 50 Qantas Points via Qantas Cash, plus a further 500 Qantas Points when bought online.
While you won’t receive a physical gift card, you’ll be able to redeem the balance by printing a voucher and presenting it in-store, or with the exception of David Jones, you can use the gift card's unique identification number when shopping online.
Over on the new Qantas Points Digital Gift Cards website, frequent flyers can earn a simple two points per dollar spent on the same gift cards when paying with a regular Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit card instead of Qantas Cash:
As with the Qantas Cash portal, that serving of Qantas Points comes on top of your normal credit card haul.
If you’d normally earn 1.5 frequent flyer points per dollar on everyday American Express transactions via CBA Diamond Awards, NAB Qantas Rewards Premium, Westpac Earth Black or ANZ Frequent Flyer Black, you’ll wind up with a total of 3.5 frequent flyer points per dollar spent – or 350 points on the same $100 gift card.
That’s certainly not as high as shopping via the Qantas Cash portal, but with only 3% of travellers having activated the Qantas Cash functionality on their membership cards, it’s a great option for the vast majority of points collectors.
It’s also a great way to sidestep JB Hi-Fi’s 2.65% surcharge on in-store American Express transactions. Instead of being slugged at the check-out, use your AMEX card to buy a JB gift card, surcharge-free, via the Qantas Points portal before redeeming it at face value.
Credit cards that normally award extra points on Qantas transactions won’t do so when buying digital gift cards. As with wine purchases through Qantas epiQure, the airline uses a separate merchant account to process these payments that doesn't trigger the bonus points.
Also read: Qantas Mall offers new ways to earn frequent flyer points
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Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
19 May 2014
Total posts 40
Only 3% of qantas cash card holders have activated card, im loving it. Maybe qantas should revisit its difficulty in transfer of currency and its hit and miss transaction capability while overseas. Tried it once never again!
11 Mar 2012
Total posts 181
Thanks for the heads up. The David Jones card cannot be used for online purchases.
Since the the T&C are ambigious as to whether the 5 bonus points are earned only if using cards other than Qantas Cash as a method of payment, I wonder if the bonus points thing works with an AMEX for example?
11 Mar 2012
Total posts 181
Sorry, I missed this bit :'Digital gift cards on qantascash.com can only be purchased by Qantas Frequent Flyer members, using Qantas Cash. '
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2441
Just to clarify – you need to use a Qantas Cash card to pay when shopping via the Qantas Cash portal (earning a bonus 5 points per dollar), or if you'd rather pay with a regular credit card, the Qantas Points link awards 2 points per dollar spent in addition to your credit card earn.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Jan 2013
Total posts 240
Seems like a nice little points earner on the side, as I was going shopping for iTunes credit anyway. I'm curious to see if the five points per dollar was only for people using their Qantas Cash card.
I paid with American Express so we'll see. It always amazes me how I've managed to accumulate a war chest of points with doing next to no actual QF flying. I get the money it generates for the company, but it just seems counter intuitive to the programs original objective.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Oct 2013
Total posts 13
Hello Chris and everyone! does anyone know if this is still available? I cannot find the website...
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