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Plaza Premium lounge opens at Melbourne Airport

Kris
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Plaza Premium lounge opens at Melbourne Airport

The independent lounge operator Plaza Premium opened its latest Australian lounge in Melbourne last week.

Located in Melbourne Airport’s international terminal, the Plaza Premium lounge welcomes guests who have access courtesy of their airline, credit card or global lounge membership, as well as travellers happy to pay a one-off fee to enjoy the space.

The 284-square metre lounge has seating for 109 people and is divided into distinct zones. This includes a dedicated dining area …

… with a space next to the bar for more casual bar seating.

Separately, there are two zones for guests intending to work, including a space with ‘cabin’ style workstations and natural light …

… or for more privacy, there are also these nooks available nearby.

Complimentary food includes a range of bite-sized snacks, Chef’s Signature of slow cooked lamb shoulder with polenta chips and chimichurri sauce, a live cooking station with eggs made to order as well as a selection of pastas.

Beverages are also available all day, including freshly barista made coffees, soft drinks, juices and alcoholic drinks.

Business and leisure travellers alike can enjoy high-speed Wi-Fi, computer and copy facilities, recharging stations, cable TV channels, flight information screens, and a selection of local and international magazines and newspapers.

Shower facilities are not yet available but we’re advised they’ll be installed later this year.

The lounge access fee is $60 per person, while for children under 12 it’s $47.50.

Until the end of April, Plaza Premium is offering a deal of buy one lounge entry and get one free.

While you’re here, check out our overview of Melbourne’s other pay-to-enter lounge operated by Marhaba, as well as the new American Express lounge for eligible card members. 

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American Express opens lounge at Melbourne Airport

Kris
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0
American Express opens lounge at Melbourne Airport

American Express has opened its long-awaited lounge at Melbourne Airport’s international terminal, offering eligible card members and their guests a stylish space to relax before their flight.

This is Amex’s second lounge in Australia, following Sydney, and adds to the company’s global network of over 1,100 lounges.

Located in the ‘lounge precinct’ at T2, with an entry directly opposite the Qantas International Business Lounge, the Amex lounge is open from 6 am to 11 pm daily and offers complimentary snacks and beverages, a barista service, high-speed Wi-Fi, computer and copy facilities, flight information screens, and a selection of local and international magazines and newspapers.

With a refined, modern aesthetic, the lounge can seat up to 65 people (more than the space in Sydney) and is divided into two zones.

On one side, there’s a dedicated dining area with communal tables and tables for small groups…

… and guests can enjoy tasty treats like these:

There’s also another area for lounging in or working, and it suits individuals, couples or small groups.

To enter the lounge, you’ll need to flash your eligible Amex card at the door.

Amex Centurion and Platinum charge card members get unlimited entries, while the following cards come with two entries each calendar year:

You can use one of your entry passes for a guest and there’s complimentary access for children up to 17 years. If capacity permits, card members may be able to purchase additional entries.

Full details about Amex lounge access are available here.

The Amex lounge is managed by Plaza Premium Group, which has also opened a Plaza Premium lounge next door that visitors can pay $60 to enter or do so for free courtesy of their airline, credit card or global lounge membership.

We’re told that if the Amex lounge reaches capacity at any time, guests will be directed to the Plaza Premium lounge instead.

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Book cheap Qantas and oneworld business class seats with purchased American Airlines miles

Kris
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Book cheap Qantas and oneworld business class seats with purchased American Airlines miles

Qantas partner American Airlines is selling points in its frequent flyer program, AAdvantage, for the cheapest price we’ve seen since December.

You can redeem these points – “AA miles” – for seats with Qantas and other oneworld alliance partners. This can be a useful hack for scoring cheap business class seats, as I’ve written about previously.

Until 28 April, American is offering miles for as low as US1.81 cents each. As usual, the cost varies depending on how many you buy, with the ‘sweet spot’ being purchasing the maximum 150,000 miles and getting a 115,000-point bonus.

The cost of these 265,000 miles is US$4,787 – or US1.81 cents per mile, which is a very good price historically (the lowest we’ve ever seen is US1.72 cents per mile).

If you choose to buy fewer miles, the price goes up a bit. For example, you can buy 125,000 miles and get a 75,000 bonus for US$3,994 (US 2 cents per mile) or you can buy 100,000 miles and get a 60,000-point bonus for US$3201 (also US2 cents per mile).

As usual, you need to have been an AAdvantage member for at least 30 days to qualify for the promotion. If you’re not a member, you can join for free now and buy the miles in the last week of the offer period.

As I’ve written before, my favourite uses of AAdvantage miles are:

  • Qantas domestic business class flights, which require 20,000 miles one-way no matter the distance
  • Australia to New Zealand in business class for 25,000 miles one-way (again, this could be all the way from Perth for the same price)
  • Australia to Asia in business class for 40,000 miles one-way (Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Japan).

You’ll also have the usual taxes and fees, which are typically quite low with American Airlines.

Note that American allows you to put award seats on hold for five days before confirming a booking, so you can find an award seat first, get it held, then purchase the miles to pay for them.

Check out my previous post for more detailed information about how this works or go straight to the American Airlines site to buy the miles here.

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Get $50 back when you spend $300+ on Qantas flights using an eligible Amex card

Kris
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Get $50 back when you spend $300+ on Qantas flights using an eligible Amex card

American Express has released an offer enabling eligible Amex card members to get $50 back on Qantas flight bookings of $300 or more – a great opportunity to save money if you have one or more trips coming up!

To claim the offer, you need to save it to your eligible Amex card and then spend $300 or more on that card, in one or more transactions, on flights at Qantas.com by 28 April 2018.

Eligible flights are flights within or departing Australia and paid for in Australian dollars. The offer excludes round-the-world flights.

This offer is limited to the first 30,000 card members to save it, so don’t delay. You’ll then have until 28 April to make your flight booking(s).

It’s not clear which cards are eligible, but I was able to save the offer to my Qantas Amex Ultimate Card via the Offers section of the Amex app.

Amex regularly releases offers that can save card members money – another great reason to hold an Amex card in your wallet. You can check out our favourite Amex card reviews here.

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Get 30% off selected Virgin Australia fares and triple Velocity Points

Kris
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Get 30% off selected Virgin Australia fares and triple Velocity Points

Virgin Australia has launched two promotions today, offering triple Velocity Points on eligible new bookings and 30% off selected fares.

There’s a decent number of domestic and overseas routes on sale, which runs until Monday 26 March 2018.

The separate offer of triple Velocity Points applies to all new bookings (ie. not just sale fares) made by 11.59pm AEST on 26 March 2018. The flights must be marketed and operated by Virgin Australia, and taken between 19 March 2018 and 12 February 2019 inclusive. Codeshare services marketed or operated by partner airlines other than Virgin Australia are not eligible.

To earn triple points, you need to register first and then book your flight, making sure you enter your Velocity membership number at the time of booking.

Happy travels!

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Woolworths joins the Qantas Online Mall: earn 2 Qantas Points per dollar spent

Kris
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Woolworths joins the Qantas Online Mall: earn 2 Qantas Points per dollar spent

Shopping for everyday items online via the Qantas Mall and Velocity eStore is a simple way to earn more points, as I’ve written about many times in the past.

Both Qantas and Virgin Australia can connect you to dozens of retailers, from department stores to specialty outlets, allowing you to earn more points than you would by simply going to the retailer directly.

The Qantas Mall has added Woolworths to its mix of retail partners, which means you can now earn extra points on your supermarket shopping – if you’re willing to do it online, that is.

Qantas is offering 2 Qantas Points per dollar spent with Woolworths online (via the Qantas Mall), which of course is in addition to any points you’ll earn through Woolworths’ own loyalty program or your credit card rewards program.

Note that you can’t earn points on Woolworths gift card purchases made this way.

As is usual with the Qantas Mall, you’ll have to first log into your Qantas Frequent Flyer account and then follow the link to shop with Woolworths, making sure cookies are enabled on your browser so Qantas can track your purchase (you can check if cookies are enabled here).

The bonus points will be credited to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account within a few weeks.

Once you’ve made your purchase, you can pick it up for free or get it delivered. Woolworths charges up to $11 for delivery, or you can buy a pass to get unlimited deliveries when you spend over $100, with discount codes available for this until the end of March.

You can also get your first delivery free, which gives you a chance to try the delivery service out for no cost.

And, of course, always make sure you pay with a high points-earning credit card, like the Qantas Amex Ultimate Card that earns 1.5 Qantas Points per dollar and has a handy sign-up bonus available right now.

Happy shopping!

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Earn double Qantas Points on new flight bookings – ends Monday

Kris
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Earn double Qantas Points on new flight bookings – ends Monday

Qantas is offering double Qantas Points on new flight bookings made until this Monday 5 March.

This is a great opportunity to earn extra points if you have a booking in mind.

To earn double points:

  • You must first register for this offer (all passengers in the booking must register separately to earn double Qantas Points)
  • Book an eligible Qantas operated flight with a Qantas (QF) flight number between 12.01am (AEDT) 1 March and 11.59pm (AEDT) 5 March 2018, for travel from 12 March 2018 to 14 February 2019
  • Don’t forget to include your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership number in your booking.

An eligible flight means any Qantas operated flight with a QF flight number on the ticket where Qantas Points are normally earned, excluding Classic Flight Rewards and any flight with a QF flight number which is not operated by Qantas including Jetstar, Jetstar Asia, Valuair, Jetstar Japan, Jetstar Pacific and other partner airlines.

Once registered, there’s no limit to the number of eligible bookings you can make during the promotion.

Happy travels!

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How to pay for a Qantas flight with a credit or debit card and avoid Qantas’ card payment fee

Kris
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How to pay for a Qantas flight with a credit or debit card and avoid Qantas’ card payment fee

When you pay for a Qantas flight with a credit or debit card, you have to cop Qantas’ annoying card payment fee, which is up to $11 for a domestic flight or $70 for an international flight, per passenger.

While these fees aren’t huge, they do add up – especially if you travel often or in a group – and although Qantas does provide fee-free payment options, many customers want to use a card because of the convenience, to earn reward points or (depending on the card T&Cs) to trigger travel insurance.

What most people don’t know is that there is a relatively easy way to avoid Qantas’ card payment fee. It involves first purchasing a Qantas gift voucher and then using it as part payment for your booking.

When you do this, Qantas waives the card payment fee for both the initial voucher purchase and for any further payment needed to cover the cost of the fare.

For example, you can buy a $50 gift voucher and redeem it for a fare that costs thousands of dollars, paying for both the voucher and the remaining amount with a credit or debit card. No card payment fees will be charged, saving you up to $70.

You can buy a voucher for yourself, for someone else or for a group of people. When you buy it, it’s delivered to your email inbox almost straight away, ready for use.

The minimum voucher amount is $50 per passenger. There’s no need to purchase any more than this, as the voucher only needs to cover a portion of the final fare for this trick to work.

There are some restrictions on how a voucher can be used, so make sure you read the terms and conditions on Qantas’ website, here.

Importantly, you have to nominate the number of people who will fly using the voucher, and this number cannot be changed later (but the names of the persons can be).

Up until late 2016, Qantas occasionally ran promotions where you could earn up to $10 points per dollar on gift voucher purchases. That was an easy way to earn more points on flight bookings, but we haven’t seen such a promotion for a while, so it might not be back. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye out for it.

To buy, redeem or read more about Qantas gift vouchers, click here.

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