To celebrate the return of the hugely popular Vivid Sydney festival from this Friday 24 May to 15 June 2019, American Express (a Vivid partner) is offering new and existing Card Members a range of exciting benefits and experiences in and around the event.

Chief among these is access to the American Express Lounge at Circular Quay, where guests can enjoy panoramic views of Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House with a drink or snack in hand.

American Express Lounge at Vivid Sydney. Image: Studio Messa

Card Members can also save money with discounts on dining, transport, accommodation and experiences in Sydney.

To top it off, if you’re not yet a Card Member, we’ve partnered with American Express to bring you an exclusive offer of 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points with the popular American Express Explorer Credit Card: your gateway to a memorable Vivid Sydney festival. This offer is available via this exclusive link  (you won’t get this deal if you go to Amex’s website directly).

Designed for people who love to travel, the Explorer card is packed with benefits including a strong points earn rate on spend, the flexibility to transfer points to eight airlines and two hotel partners, a $400 annual Travel Credit and airport lounge entries.

Here’s more info about these opportunities.

Enjoy the Vivid lights from the American Express Lounge

Take in the sights and capture Vivid Sydney from the comfort of the American Express Lounge, located at the Cruise Bar Rooftop at Circular Quay with sweeping views of Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House.

You can kick off your Vivid Sydney light walk there, drop in mid-way to take a rest, or swing by to finish off the night with a refreshment.

American Express Lounge at Vivid Sydney. Image: Studio Messa

Beverages and snacks will be available for purchase, and you can save an offer to your American Express card at the ‘Tap & Save’ kiosk in the lounge to get $5 back when you spend $30 by 16 June (exclusions apply).

American Express Lounge at Vivid Sydney. Image: Studio Messa

The lounge is open every day during the festival from 5.30pm to 10.30pm. Simply show your card at the door to get in, and each Card Member can bring in one guest.

Money-saving offers

The Amex Offers program gives Card Members exclusive discount and cash-back offers with some of Australia’s biggest and best brands.

At Vivid Sydney, you can enjoy savings on just about every part of the experience with these offers:

• The Fork: Sync, book and dine on TheFork and get $20 back when you spend $50 at TheFork participating restaurants (14 May – 16 June)
• Rydo Taxi app: get 10% back on every ride (23 May – 15 June)
• Europcar: spend $200 or more and get $30 back up to two times (23 May – 28 June)
• Public transport: get 30% back up to $15 on Sydney Trains, Ferries or Light Rail (21 May – 16 June)
• Red Balloon: spend $240 or more and get $40 back (15 May – 16 June)
• Captain Cook Cruises: spend $300 or more and get $60 back (23 May – 30 June)
• Taronga Zoo: spend $20 or more and get $5 back (23 May – 16 June)
• BridgeClimb: spend $300 or more and get $50 back (15 May – 16 June)
• David Jones: spend $75 or more and get $10 back at participating stores (23 May – 16 June)

You can save these offers to your card via the Amex app or online (T&Cs and exclusions apply). For more info visit https://www.americanexpress.com/au/vivid/index.html

Receive 100,000 bonus points with the American Express Explorer Credit Card

If you’d like to become an American Express Card Member so you can enjoy the American Express Lounge and exclusive offers during Vivid Sydney 2019, here’s an enticing deal.

We’ve partnered with American Express to bring our readers an offer of 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points with the popular American Express Explorer Credit Card. This card comes with:

• a strong points earn rate on spend
• the flexibility to transfer points to eight top airlines including Virgin Australia, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, as well as two hotel partners (Marriott and Hilton)
• a $400 annual Travel Credit that you can redeem for flights, hotels, experiences or car hire online through Amex Travel – this fully offsets the card’s $395 annual fee
• up to US$100 credit and a complimentary room upgrade at check-in when you book a hotel through Amex’s Hotels Collection, which includes more than 600 properties in over 30 countries
• complimentary travel insurance covering medical, trip cancellation, travel delay and baggage-related costs, as well as many other expenses
• smartphone screen insurance, with $500 available for repairs up to 2 times every 12 months (with a 10% excess)
• two entries each year to the American Express Lounge at Sydney Airport international or Melbourne Airport international
• up to 4 free additional cards for family members over 18 years of age – an easy way for your household to earn points faster.

More details about these card features can be found in our comprehensive Explorer card overview, here.

To receive 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points, you must apply online via this exclusive link by 18 June 2019, be approved and spend $1,500 on your new card in the first 3 months. This offer is available to new Card Members only (T&Cs and eligibility criteria apply).

The 100,000 points convert to 50,000 airline frequent flyer points with almost all partner airlines. That’s enough for one or more domestic economy return flights in Australia with Virgin Australia (15,600 to 35,600 Velocity Points plus taxes per return flight, depending on route length).

Take off anywhere in Australia with Virgin Australia

You could also put the points towards an overseas trip. For example, a Singapore Airlines return economy flight to South East Asia, Hong Kong or Taiwan costs 56,000 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes from eastern Australia, or just 40,000 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes from Perth or Darwin.

You could also redeem the 100,000 points for $500 of spend with Webjet, Helloworld Travel or Amex Travel, or as $500 of credit on your card account.

Summing up

Whether you’re a Sydney local or a visitor, there’s no better time to see the city than when it turns on the lights for the Vivid Sydney festival.

American Express Card Members have much to look forward to during Vivid Sydney, with benefits available throughout the festival – and the American Express Lounge is especially exciting.

If you’d like to become a Card Member to enjoy these benefits, the 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards points offer with the Explorer credit card is available via this exclusive link (and not by visiting Amex’s website directly) for a limited time.

A more comprehensive overview of the Explorer card is available here.

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In just 10 days – on Monday 15 April 2019 – major changes to the points earn and redemption rates across American Express’ card range will kick in: a key event for those of us who rely on Amex cards to maximise points earn.

I covered these changes in detail when they were first announced six months ago and I also shared my plans for how I would respond.

In short:

• the changes to cards that earn Qantas or Velocity Points directly are straightforward: points earn rates will fall by a modest 0.25 points per $1 for all purchases except with government, which remains the same (overall, I don’t think this is a big deal)
• the changes to Amex’s own-brand cards, which earn flexible Membership Rewards points, are more complicated, because both the earn and redemptions rates will be adjusted – and sadly in most cases the rewards are being significantly reduced.

Amex has displayed the new points earn and redemption rates on its website for a few months now, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise even to new customers. You can read my summary of the changes here.

As I outlined in my earlier post, in anticipation of this I have brought forward a lot of spend to take advantage of the current, higher earn rates.

There’s still a little time left to do this, but I assume the transactions will have to clear by 14 April 2019 – and that usually takes a few days.

Since the points transfer rates from Membership Rewards to airlines will fall on 15 April, next week I’ll be transferring all of the MR points earned on my Explorer card to my favourite airlines (mainly Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer).

I’ll do this a few days before the 14 April deadline just to have a buffer in case there are any unforeseen IT issues or glitches.

Again, if you have a balance of Membership Rewards points, you should consider doing the same – but note that some airlines set a ‘hard’ expiry date for points, which is three years in the case of the popular Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. (Virgin Australia, on the other hand, imposes a ‘soft’ expiry, where points don’t expire so long as you keep your account active by earning or redeeming a point every two years).

Overall, while I’m disappointed about the changes Amex is implementing, I understand the commercial rationale for them given the major regulatory shake-up we’ve seen recently in the credit card space.

I strongly believe Amex cards will continue to provide excellent value when you take into account all of the points, travel, lifestyle and money saving perks they provide.

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