Air New Zealand Air Points - American Express AU new partner

http://www.americanexpress.com/australia/campaigns/AirNewZealand/index.shtml

100 Membership Rewards points = 1 Airpoints Dollar = 1 Australian Dollar
2000 Membership Rewards points = 20 Airpoints Dollars

Much better than the SPG:Airpoints rate (https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html):

1000 Membership Rewards points = 330 Starpoints
65 Starpoints = 1 Airpoints Dollars

2000 Membership Rewards points = 660 Starpoints = 10 Airpoints Dollars

NB, I think someone already mentioned Air NZ as a new partner in one of the other threads here or on AFF.

I'm still holding out for AmEx NZ to offer Airpoints redemptions again. Many thousands of dollars' worth of travel flowed from that source back in the day.... which is why they canned it I guess :p

justakiwi

Thanks futaris for the update.

As far as I can tell, the Airpoints earn rate for each $ spent does not seem as good as the offering from Westpac for the Amex co-badged card.
Using the Platinum cards
Westpac $1 spend = 3 points, and 160 points = 1 Airpoints dollar, thus $53.33 spend for each Airpoints dollar.
Amex $1 spend = 1.5 points, and 100 points = 1 Airpoints dollar, thus $66.67 spend for each Airpoints dollar
Annual card fee is less for the Westpac Platinum.
My math has never been good so if I've made an error, please correct!:D

I have done my calculation all things considered including the 5000 bonus Starpoints when you transfer 20,000. So let's say you spent AU$40404 on your Amex and Altitude Platinum Amex, you'd get:

Membership Rewards 60606 = AUAPD606
Membership Rewards 60606 = SPG Starpoints 20000 + 5000 bonus = NZAPD384.62 = approx. AUAPD310
Altitude Points 121212 = AUAPD757.58

To get 1 Aus Airpoints Dollar, you will have to spend at least the following:

Amex transfer direct: $66.67 (This is the same rate as GlobalPlus Gold Amex in NZ)
Amex transfer via SPG: $130.34
Altitude Platinum Amex: $53.33

The Westpac Altitude Platinum Amex has the best rate but I doubt how long that's going to last. When was the last time they reviewed this rate?

I don't think Amex NZ will bring the transfer back. The reason why they stopped this was because they integrated this function to bnz's GlobalPlus and I believe they want to make it exclusive.

I'm still holding out for AmEx NZ to offer Airpoints redemptions again. Many thousands of dollars' worth of travel flowed from that source back in the day.... which is why they canned it I guess

I'll go along with that ... got real pissed off when they canned their relationship with NZ. :mad:

If Amex Australia can do it they should be able to do it in NZ too, since their NZ operation is totally controlled from Australia.

When Amex canned its points transfer to NZ Airpoints, it spelt the end of my relationship with Airpoints.

We transfered all our points to the one account, then bought seats with all of our points, ended up with 94 points spare which i used on a Christchurch Nelson - and paid for the return.

Now we collect points on NAB (National Australia Bank) Velocity , 2 points for every $ on Amex and 1 point for every $ on Visa. These points transfer automatically to Velocity each month, they have no expiry date - and there are lots of options to use points on Virgin Blue, Virgin Atlantic (and soon to be announced V - Australia) also a bunch of partner airlines like EK.

We fly domestic in Australia on Virgin Blue and Internationally on EK or VS.

Works for us, and while we always enjoyed our relationship with NZ - its all about loyalty. NZ and AMEX choose not to be loyal to us, so we did the same.

Adam

Even if NZ were to resume their relationship with AmEx (NZ) I am not sure it would be the most favourable use of MR points - remembering how poor the yield rate you get when booking premium with APD.

Although a kiwi resident, I have an AMEX Ascent in AUD for use when I am in Australia. After 31 March, its MR points will be useless for transfer to QFF points. I wonder if I can transfer the MR points to my NZAPD account? The T&Cs don't talk about this (I don't think).

Although a kiwi resident, I have an AMEX Ascent in AUD for use when I am in Australia. After 31 March, its MR points will be useless for transfer to QFF points. I wonder if I can transfer the MR points to my NZAPD account? The T&Cs don't talk about this (I don't think).

You sure can. I transfer my Westpac Altitude points to my NZ based Airpoints account all the time. It will be transfered at the current exchange rate.

AU Amex conversion is effective today with the following promos. Also I can see BankWest is no longer a partner.

Sign up today, and you’ll save in three ways.

To welcome you, Air New Zealand Airpoints is offering three outstanding offers until 10 May 2009:

1. Transfer your points and receive 50% bonus Airpoints Dollars.

2. They’ll waive your joining fee for the program – usually AU $50.

3. Air New Zealand Koru lounge one year membership reduced to NZ $370,
saving you NZ $375.

http://www.americanexpress.com/australia/campaigns/AirNewZealand/index.shtml

http://www.americanexpress.com/australia/campaigns/AirNewZealand/index.shtml

Wish I knew about this before I transferred over 300,000 Amex points to Qantas when I cancelled my Amex card in January. A 50% bonus would have been great.
The annoying thing is that when I spoke about cancellation with the Amex phone person, I explicitly mentioned I was switching to Westpac Altitude because of the link with AirNZ. Not a mention of potential partnership back then.
Not much I can do about it now.