Air New Zealand Air Points - Westpac altitude FFP transfer rate halved

SMH article (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/20/1077072841822.html)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Westpac's 1 million-plus Visa and MasterCard credit card customers will now find it harder to earn frequent flyer points and will have to apply for yet another card, an American Express, if they want a better rewards program.

Amid concerns about Australia's credit card debt levels swelling to more than $26 billion, the bank yesterday revealed it was restructuring its main Visa/MasterCard loyalty point program, Altitude, reducing the number of frequent flyer points earned for each $1 spent on the card from one to 0.5 of a point.

The changes only apply to purchases made after March 9.</font>

Seems to be only for Australia's altitude program, not NZ's hotpoints (at this stage).

Thanks for the nod on this ... looks like I might have to hasten my plans to see if I can do any better with a credit card than I am currently doing.

*******s!

time to cancel my altitude credit card it seems.... any tips on a new card?

i'm considering:

1/ Diners Club
2/ American Express 1.5 points per $1 card...

I need to have the capability to earn Air NZ air points still...

Thoughts?

called westpac, they have a special number setup for queries: open 24 hours;

1300 797 100

Packs were sent out on Friday so we shoudl be receiving them this week, the deal is:

we'll have an opportunity to apply for a westpac amex card which will be linked to the westpac visa/mastercard altitude, points earned on that will be $1 for 1 point, with some $1 for 2 points. There will be a $45 annual fee on top of the other fee. If you are a gold, it will be a gold amex, and the same insurance you currenlty have with westpac altitude will apply. They will waive the fee for the first year.

If you want to cancel your westpac credit card, you can within 3 months of your annual fee being charged, and they will refund that fee... mine was due in Feb 8, so I have 3 months to make my mind up and cancel if needed... which I think i'll probably do...

I wonder how many others have decided to liquidate their balance... I just dumped 95K into my *ahem* Qantas account.

I suppose it isnt so bad ... I was looking around for a new credit card anyway...and having a new credit provider not leaving any negative feedback on my CRA report wont do me any harm when it comes to a home loan I suppose.

Hrmm.... QF has some very cheap awards lately (ie 35k SYD-Nagoya on AO), but I would personally opt for Malaysia Airlines at the moment....

Transfers are still 1 to 1, and an award flight SYD-KUL-SYD is only 31,500 per person, or 52,000 per person in Business Class.... that's a real bargain! (for travel 1 March - 30 April).

I've liquidated all my Altitude Balance except about 20k... still deciding what to do, will await the letter I think.

BTW - the MH Enrich folks are so nice and friendly... I wish MH was part of OW or *A.... sigh.

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited Feb 22, 2004).]

Am I right in thinking that while the *earning* rate is to half from March 9th, the *transfer* rate for existing and future points will stay the same at 1 Altitude point per QF/MH/NZ FF point? If so, then surely no quick decisions are required regarding what to do with one's points balance, unless you decide to close your account, of course.

No I think its the transfer rate that halves, as other uses of the points arent impacted - just FFP.

But the press releases badly worded IMHO.

Something else in the mix!

Amex offers enhancements for flight rewards

NZ Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3551336&thesection=business&thesubsection=banking&thesecondsubsection=creditcards)

But, no Air NZ!! Although there is mention of signing up more airlines.

Oh no.

Amex MR (http://home3.americanexpress.com/newzealand/personal/cards/rewards/airlinetransfer.asp) will stop transfers to Airpoints from 15 Dec 04.

See also this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum7/HTML/000859.html)