Qantas Frequent Flyer - Earn 50% more Amex MR points in the next 6 months for oz issued cards

This thread AFAIK only applies to oz issued Amex cards.

And as Amex MR points and Qantas award redemptions are a similar animal thought some here may like to get the heads up on this. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Amex ran half page ads in 'Sun Herald' here yesterday that I totally ignored reading as they looked like standard new business ads.

However Joh read them more carefully and pointed out it was for a new program called "Accelerator".

You need to PRE-REGISTER for it on oz 1-300-650-655

You pay a flat $29 fee.

THEN every $A you spend on Amex from September 8 to March 15 gets you 1.5 MR miles. i.e. 50% more than usual.

This offer only applies to personal cards NOT corporate Amex cards.

The maximum spend on this is $A40,000 i.e. max extra miles you can get is 20,000 MR points, no matter what you spend.

I personally value each MR mile at a minimum of oz3¢. Others have their own thoughts on this, but in my experience that is VERY conservative valuing, as to move them to QF or Starwood for awards always yields me a lot better than 3c a point.

A few weeks ago we took a Biz class round trip to Port Moresby for 45,000 miles each. The cost to BUY that even in discount coach ran to $A1000, and biz was of course way higher, so the 3c a point value can be readily seen in such examples. i.e. using the miles for unusual destinations for which there is no price competition.

I will easily spend $40,000 in the period and my math is those 20,000 MR points will have cost me only $A29 - or .145 cents a point. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

i.e. they are "worth" to ME, over 20 times more than they cost me. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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~ Glen ~

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The 3 cents per point / mile seems pretty close to the mark. LDH (my favourite for a long weekend..) costs 20K points (ex SYD) and the cheapest ticket would cost about AUD 400. That's 2 cents per point. The more exepnsive tickets, of course, come closer to your figure.

Now, if SYD-NAN is the example, that's 30K points or about $1200 in a quiet time. 4 cents per point. Now that can be a lot cheaper in a package deal, but if packages are not the go, then, yes Ozstamps, huge savings can be made - if you can snare the FF tickets for times you want (but that is for another thread..)

The AMEX deal was printed on monthly statements from a few weeks ago.

I received this offer a few weeks ago via email with a on-line registration option. It is also for Amex co-branded credit cards, not just Amex charge cards. Mine in RACQ Gold Amex Credit Card.

When I opened my RACQ/Amex card account back in Feb, they had a deal offering 50% bonus points for Silver RACQ members. So my 50% bonus was just running out when this option came up. Like Ozstamps, I jumped at it.

Luckily there was no $40K spend limit on my first 6 months. In 6 months, I have accumulated 80K points (26.7K are bonus points through the initial offer). And that was all personal spending, mostly on my recent RTW award long service leave holiday. So I ain't gonna have the chance to put another $40K through it in 6 months, but I will get value for the bonus points I will earn. I am certainly looking for 100K points in the 12 months.

[This message has been edited by NM (edited 08-31-2003).]

Just pre-registered. Not very confident that it's been done right - it must have been the distance between my phone and the call centre (India by any chance?). Now to spend spend spend (but only after 8 Sept).

Amex is running the same promo in Singapore, but it's a 100% point bonus instead of 50%.

Hmmm. Maybe I should "move" to Singapore for a while. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Interesting this has been on Amex statements. I simply do not read the bumpf on the promo page - just check that the charges look OK and pay the account.

I alerted a local colleague today who also did not have a clue about it. His current Amex bill was about $12K, and will easily clock up the $40K spend.

When I phoned and asked about it I asked if it would be extended past the 6 months and was told they'll assess how 'successful' it has been. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My personal thought is that anyone (in oz) spending more than averaged $A1000 a month would be well advised to take this offer.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by og:

The AMEX deal was printed on monthly statements from a few weeks ago.</font>

I was wrong with the above statement. It was actually an email of a couple of weeks ago. I was getting mixed up with the plethora of other "exciting" offers that are on the monthly statements.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NM:
I received this offer a few weeks ago via email with a on-line registration option. </font>

Ditto, thought it was decent enough, but a shame about the 40K point limit on pure Amex charge cards. Brought back fond memories of the QF bonus point system (...the days that we have seen....).

When I was in NZ last year they were offering a "turbo" option for unlimited double points, for an extra nominal annual fee. Bloody kiwis! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

"What they giveth with the one hand - they taketh away with the other" .......

Just reading my Amex bumpf today that announces that from October 22, they now are going to add a flat 2% to all converted amounts that are not in $A. They call this a "conversion commission".

This on TOP of their less than genuine "exchange rate" in the first place.

Worse, they also say that all charges in other than $US will not be converted into $A and charged to you, BUT will FIRST be converted to $US - at THEIR bad rate, and THEN converted to $A - also at their bad rate. And THEN they add 2%.

So, you can bet if you spent in a not heavily traded currency with wide spreads -- such as I have had in last 2 months in Turkey and Papua New Guinea, that the ACTUAL amount on my Amex bill will be well over 5% more than the Turkish Lira to $A rate really was.

So whoppeeee to the 50% extra points ... they will gobble much of it back with this sneaky new scam. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I don't think is quite as bad as you are making out here. They are replacing the old hidden commission (hidden in the exchange rate) with a 2% fee. The old fee was in the order of 1 to 1.5% anyway. And now they will use an interbank rate (that they select from customary industry sources - hmm) rather than the old Amex rate.

So yes, the foreign exchange rates will go up, but not by a full 2%.

I agree the double exchange via US$ for non US$ charges is nasty. But so long as the interbak rates they use are appropriate, it should not be too bad ... I hope. Only time and some comparisions will tell.

Maybe Diners Club is looking more attractive for overseas transactions. Pitty its not accepted very well outside hotels and restaurants. Our corporate cards were moved from Amex to Diners about 2 years ago and we still regularly find legit business expenses that cannot be put on Diners.

NM .. I hope you are right but my reading of it differs.

On TOP of all other conversions, 2% screw will apply. That is clear.

Those other conversion rates will be "based on interbank rates that it selects from customary industry sources on the business days prior to the processing date".

I cannot see that the last par is NOT what has been the basis of our sole chargeable rate until October 22, so to me the 2% is EXTRA to what I have paid before and the new "third party" screw is extra again.