Qantas is giving customers an extra incentive to book a flight using their travel credit with the launch of a double points offer.
Until 31 January 2023, Qantas Frequent Flyers can book any eligible flight using their travel credits and earn double Qantas Points. Each passenger in the booking needs to register for this promo.
Qantas travel credits include Flight Credit, Qantas Pass, Qantas TravelPass and Qantas Credit. Many of these have been issued during the pandemic due to travel cancellations and are due to expire in 2023.
If you’re not sure what type of travel credit you have, or are looking for more information, visit the airline’s travel credit page.
An eligible flight for the purpose of this promotion means a flight with a ‘QF’ flight number on an Australian domestic or international ticket where a Qantas travel credit was used for full or part payment and where Qantas Points are normally earned.
The flight must be booked between 13 December 2022 and 31 January 2023, for travel between 13 December 2022 and 31 December 2023.
Singapore Airlines has announced a “final” six-month extension of KrisFlyer miles that are due to expire between January and June 2023.
The airline has reversed course after informing members a few months ago that “KrisFlyer miles expiring from January 2023 will no longer be eligible for complimentary extension as part of our COVID-19 membership support measures. Please be reminded to redeem your miles before they expire”.
Now, the airline says that if you have KrisFlyer miles in your account expiring between January to June 2023, they are eligible for a final 6-month extension. This extension will be processed automatically, and no action is required on your part.
This means that miles in your account will only begin expiring from July 2023.
Like many airlines around the world, Singapore Airlines has been extending the validity of miles in its KrisFlyer loyalty program ever since the pandemic began.
With border closures and travel restrictions in place, this was the only reasonable option for the airline and its competitors to take.
But now that travel is returning to normal and restrictions appear to be behind us, airlines including SIA are returning to their pre-pandemic policies.
For KrisFlyer members, that means that miles will once again expire 36 months after being accrued, and miles that were extended due to the pandemic will begin expiring from July 2023.
To check when your miles are due to expire, simply log into your KrisFlyer account then select Miles -> Miles Validity.
The best way to use miles is, of course, to book a flight.
You can book any available flight in the future, but be aware that you won’t get miles back if you cancel the booking after the miles were due to expire.
Other options for using your miles include booking hotel stays and buying products from the KrisShop.
You can also extend the miles, for a fee. This costs 1,200 miles or US$12 per 10,000 miles extended, and you’ll get an extra six months to use them (12 months for Silver and Gold frequent flyers).
You can only extend miles like this once.
Finally, you can also transfer miles to Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program at a ratio of 1.55 KrisFlyer miles = 1 Velocity Point. Velocity Points don’t expire so long as you keep your account active by earning or redeeming at least one point every 24 months.
The bottom line is: don’t let your KrisFlyer miles go to waste. Check when they’re going to expire and make a plan to use them.
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The Philippines’ flag carrier Philippine Airlines will launch direct flights between Perth and Manila next year.
The airline last served Perth (via Darwin) very briefly in 2013. This time, it’s returning with a non-stop service which will launch on 27 March 2023, with tickets on sale from today.
Philippine Airlines will operate three flights a week on a modern Airbus A321 neo, which has 12 business class seats and 156 economy seats.
It will be departing Manila at 12.05am and arriving in Perth at 7.15am. The flight will then leave Perth at 8.30am and land in Manila at 3.50pm.
The A321neo business class cabin has three rows of seats in a 2-2 layout, all of which recline into a fully flat bed.
The economy cabin meanwhile has 156 seats in a 3-3 configuration.
Both cabins offer in-seat power and USB outlets, seat-back screens and wifi.
The service is the result of a partnership between the WA Government, through Tourism Western Australia, Philippine Airlines and Perth Airport.
The new flight had been scheduled to begin operating in March 2020 but was disrupted due to COVID-19.
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Amex has reopened its Sydney and Melbourne airport lounges, after a brief closure to rebrand the spaces as part of the global expansion of The Centurion Lounge network.
The lounges, located in the Sydney and Melbourne international departure terminals, offer guests a stylish place to relax before their flights, with complimentary food and drinks, wi-fi and other amenities available.
Following the rebrand, Amex promises an ‘enhanced customer experience’, including an improved food and beverage offering.
Amex has partnered with Australian chef Khanh Ong, of Masterchef fame, to design menu items and train onsite operational teams.
Khanh Ong’s new dishes will land in early 2023.
In the meantime, guests can enjoy Khanh’s signature cocktail, the Quandong Gin and Tonic, which celebrates the native red quandong fruit.
With the addition of Sydney and Melbourne, The Centurion Lounge network now encompasses more than 40 locations around the world.
It’s part of the broader American Express Global Lounge Collection, which offers Centurion and Platinum Card Members unlimited access to more than 1,400 airport lounge locations, in 650 plus cities, across 140 countries and counting.
A number of Amex’s Australian cards also offer two entries each calendar year to the Sydney or Melbourne lounges, such as the Qantas Ultimate Card and Velocity Platinum Card.
Card Members can bring in guests, while their children 17 years of age or younger can enter for free.
The Sydney lounge is located at T1 Departures and is open from 6 am to 10 pm every day. The Melbourne space is located at T2 Departures and is open each day from 6 am to 11 pm.
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Qantas has today resumed flying between Brisbane and Tokyo, with the first direct connection between the Queensland capital and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport by any airline.
Aussies travelling to Tokyo can also connect to domestic services operated by Qantas’ partner JAL.
Similarly, travellers from Japan can connect in Brisbane to flights across Australia.
Qantas is flying its Airbus A330 aircraft on the route, with lie-flat Business Suites, three days per week on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, offering more than 1,700 seats on the route each week.
This joins Qantas’ flights from Sydney to Tokyo Haneda, with Melbourne-Haneda flights to resume in March 2023.
Jetstar also flies from Cairns to Tokyo Narita and Osaka, and Gold Coast to Tokyo Narita.
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Qantas has just announced the launch of its biggest ever release of Points Plane flights, with more than 225,000 reward seats available to coastal destinations.
The release covers a six-week period and 21 routes, providing ample opportunities for frequent flyers to book their next summer holiday.
For 72 hours from 11am today, frequent flyers will have the chance to book reward seats on all flights between 9-22 January and all of February 2023. Every seat, including business class, will be available for booking.
The following routes are included:
Melbourne to Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville, Devonport, Burnie and the Gold Coast
Sydney to Byron Bay, Hamilton Island, Merimbula, Townsville and the Gold Coast
Brisbane to the Whitsunday Coast, Hamilton Island and Townsville
Adelaide to Townsville, Kangaroo Island, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and the Gold Coast
Perth to Broome
Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said the airline was focused on giving frequent flyers more opportunities to use their points towards their next getaway.
“This is a record release of Points Planes that will help thousands of our frequent flyers use their points to book a coastal holiday this summer,” Ms Wirth said.
Snap them up before they’re gone!
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Travellers taking off with Qantas from Rockhampton can look forward to a more comfortable and stylish pre-flight experience with the opening of a brand-new Qantas Club tomorrow.
With seating for up to 65 guests, it boasts double the capacity of the previous lounge, and will be well-utilised by both business and leisure travellers.
For those looking to catch up on work or emails, the lounge features dedicated work areas with high tables and high-speed Wi-Fi, ensuring a productive environment. And if you’re looking to unwind, you can indulge in Australian beer and wines, as well as a selection of sweet and savoury snacks.
The Rockhampton Qantas Club will open one hour before each Qantas operated service and will remain open until the last Qantas departure. Qantas Club members, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members, and eligible oneworld frequent flyers can access the new lounge.
Currently, Qantas operates 48 weekly services to Rockhampton from Brisbane and Mackay, using their fleet of Q400 and Boeing 717 aircraft. So next time you’re travelling through Rockhampton Airport, make sure to check out the new Qantas Club.
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This article was produced in partnership with pay.com.au
As both a business owner and a keen collector of reward points, I love paying business expenses with a credit card to earn those valuable points.
This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to stockpile points that I can later redeem for rewards like business class flights.
The problem is, many suppliers and billers don’t accept card payments, and many card issuers don’t award full points on certain transactions, like payments to the ATO. In addition, some large expenses, like payroll, typically require sending funds by bank transfer.
That’s where the payment platform pay.com.au comes in. With pay.com.au, you can pay almost all expenses with a credit card and earn full reward points, including rent, tax, payroll, superannuation, supplier invoices and other bills. You can also earn points on bank transfer payments. For many businesses, that adds up to a lot of points.
In this article I’ll describe how the platform works, including all the costs and benefits, so you can decide if it’s right for your business.
Right now, there’s also an exciting opportunity to earn 10,000 bonus points when you sign up to pay.com.au via our partner link and transact $10,000 in the first month (more on that later).
What is pay.com.au?
Pay.com.au is an Australian-based payment platform that helps businesses turn bills into rewards.
It’s very secure and easy to use.
Any business with an ABN can sign up and pay all their expenses via the platform. If you choose to pay by card, pay.com.au simply charges your card and then sends money to your payee by BPay or funds transfer, which they typically receive within two business days.
Since your card issuer treats the transaction as a purchase (not a cash advance), it earns full points, like other regular card purchases.
Pay.com.au accepts Mastercard, Visa and American Express cards and its transaction fees are the cheapest in the market. You can also link your bank account for fee-free payments if there are certain expenses you don’t want to pay by card.
Pay.com.au also offers additional services to help your business maximise points earning and redemptions.
Earn more card reward points
Pay lets you earn those sought-after card reward points faster so you can use them for high-value redemptions like flights.
Consider how many expenses you currently have that aren’t earning points and where you could travel with that extra boost to your points balance.
For example, did you know that you can fly from Australia’s east coast to London return with Qantas in business class for 289,200 Qantas Points plus taxes and fees? Or that you can upgrade from premium economy to business class on this route for just 130,800 points return? Earning those points is easy with pay.com.au.
Use your points to travel in Qantas business class
In terms of the cost, pay.com.au charges a flat fee for card transactions, which varies depending on your plan and type of card.
There are three plans to choose from:*
Free
$0 / Month
Basic plan with no monthly subscription fee.
Regular
$85 / Month
Lower rates and baseline access to additional services.
Premium
$165 / Month
The best rates and additional services. Free 30-day trial.
✔ Mastercard fee of 1%
✔ Visa fee of 1.20%
✔ AMEX fee of 2.10%
✔ Bank Account transfer fee of 0%
✔ Access to PayRewards
✔ Mastercard fee of 0.90%
✔ Visa fee of 1.10%
✔ AMEX fee of 2.05%
✔ Bank Account transfer fee of 0%
✔ PayTravel points bookings (1x domestic, 1x international per year)
✔ Points advice
✔ Access to PayRewards
✔ Mastercard fee of 0.80%
✔ Visa fee of 1%
✔ AMEX fee of 1.9%
✔ Bank Account transfer fee of 0%
✔ PayTravel points bookings (2 x domestic, 2x international per year)
✔ Points advice
✔ Access to PayRewards
* All fees specified exclude GST
The extent to which this is a good deal for you depends on how many points you earn on your card and what you do with those points.
Points are generally worth the most when you redeem them for travel in business or first class, whether that’s a reward seat or an upgrade.
For example, my American Express business card earns 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 spent. To earn 100,000 Qantas Points on it, I need to put through $80,000 of transactions via pay.com.au. On the Regular plan, this would cost 2.05%, totalling $1640. But since I would claim this on tax, the effective cost of the 100,000 Qantas Points is really $1230.
What can I do with 100,000 Qantas Points? I can upgrade from premium economy to business class on my next trip from Melbourne to Los Angeles, at a cost of 49,100 points each way. That’s worth a lot more than $1230 to me.
Earn points on card transactions and bank transfers via PayRewards
As well as earning points on your card, you can also earn points in pay.com.au’s own loyalty program, PayRewards.
Each time you make a card transaction, you can choose to earn PayRewards points on it, for an additional fee (double dipping on points, essentially!).
The option to earn PayRewards Points is also available when you pay someone via your business bank account linked to the platform, since there may be times when you prefer this payment method over a credit card. In fact, you can use this to earn PayRewards points when you pay off your credit card bill each month, giving you another opportunity to double dip on points.
Earning PayRewards Points is an optional extra that you can decide to take up during each transaction. The cost is 1.0% to earn 1 point per $1 spent, or 1.8% to earn 2 points per $1 spent. This is on top of pay.com.au’s regular transaction fee which applies to card transactions (but not bank transfers).
PayRewards Points can be redeemed for anything you want via pay.com.au’s personal shopper service or transferred to the Qantas Business Rewards or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer loyalty programs, where 2.5 PayRewards Points = 1 Qantas Point or 1 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer mile.
Use your points to experience Singapore Airlines business class
To get 100,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles or Qantas Points this way, you need to transfer 250,000 PayRewards points, which can be earned by opting to get 2 PayRewards Points per $1 on $125,000 of transactions, at a cost of $2250 (or $1688 if you take into account a 25% tax deduction).
Again, whether this is a good deal for you depends on how you will use those points.
Other benefits and services
In addition to earning points, there are several other benefits to consider, including:
improved cash-flow when you pay by card, since you have up to 55 days to pay it off without incurring interest
simpler payments, since you can save multiple cards and bank accounts and pay all business expenses via the platform
seamless integration with Xero to make bookkeeping more efficient
points advice: get expert help on setting your business up with credit cards to maximise points
PayTravel: customers on a monthly plan can get help from a dedicated team to book paid and points flights and other travel experiences. The Regular plan comes with one domestic and one international complimentary booking per year, while the Premium plan comes with two domestic and two international bookings. Fees apply for additional services
PayConcierge: pay.com.au’s luxury concierge service helps you access experiences such as reservations at top restaurants, VIP concert tickets and premier cultural events. The service is free for active customers.
Plus earn 10,000 bonus PayRewards Points
As a special incentive for our readers, pay.com.au is offering 10,000 bonus PayRewards Points to new customers who sign up via our partner link and process $10,000 or more in the first month by either (i) a credit card or (ii) a bank transfer where PayRewards Points are earned (T&Cs apply).
This is a great opportunity to try out the service while boosting your points balance.
To find out more and sign up, visit pay.com.au here.
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