codyc1515

Seems unfathomable to me. I get probably a few hundred from credit card every year, though I am guessing most here probably are flying in J or full Y fares regularly to be hitting such high balances. I have even heard of some members with >10 years banked Elite years. I'll be lucky to hit Silver this year

KiwiJC

As you suggest, flying a lot in full Y or premium cabins does actually bring in a lot of Airpoints (and status points of course). Last year I probably only earnt ~5% of my Airpoints from card spend, the rest was flying.

There's plenty of people out there doing long haul flights most months - this makes building up a few thousand Airpoints pretty easy, particularly if you're not using them for elite upgrades.

sbiddle

I'd probably earn at least $1k per year just from flights.

I know a number of people who put $100k + per year on their credit cards. That's pretty easy when you're paying GST + PAYE with it.

Obviously credit card earn is going to crash big time within the next 12 months or so when the expected interchange fee drop occurs.

skigirl

From a combination of flights and credit card spend. I do put pretty much everything on my credit card. Although, as sbiddle says the credit card earning power could be eroded depending on what MBIE go with.

Xiaotung

50 (or 25 in Australia) stays a year at SPG hotels would land me 1000 APD.

Hilton has APD promos most of the time which often awards double/triple/50 bonus APD for weekend stays.

gratn

Same for me. I put most life spending on my credit card (if only I could pay the mortgage that way too...), and the rest is flying. Mine is mostly Flexi Y around NZ, with some TT thrown in. It gets me around $APD1000 each year.

CHCflyer

I earn a fair bit from flying but I groan at the prospect of another flight as a reward. I give many points away to people who need to fly places for personal reasons. I suppose I could spend them on the Airpoints shop but it just does not do it for me. Coming from the UK with elderly parents I tend to just sit on the majority as I know one night I will get that phone call and need to jump on a plane pretty quickly. I have enough to cover two PE returns to London.

sbiddle

I recently switch my Hilton earn across but that does mean less Hilton points which can be more valuable. I had about 25 Hilton nights last year.

LyingFlat

Nearly all of mine come from flying. I've done 4 AKL-LON-AKL trips on NZ this year alone. 3 of these trips were booked in C class in both directions. C class earns 497APD and 476SP each way...

bce1

Mix of 5-6 LH to US or UK per year in J and 10-12 trans-tasman in E or PE - I also fly most weeks domestically - but as you point out that nets only a few hundred. Clocks up quickly in J. I have >10 banked years. I got given some when they introduced changes 5-6 years ago and last 2 years have got 2 each year - from threshold and also from the 5000 SP gift. I have been fortunate to take one of my kids to UK on a companion ticket each year for the last 3 years on airpoints.

BCE

jawnbc

We put almost every household expense through on our joint Airpoints Visa card. I also put 95% of my personal spending on my Airpoints Mastercard. The rest of my Airpoint dollars are accrued through travel: about 3-4 domestic, perhaps 2 trans-Tasman or the Islands, and 4-5 international Y class trips (Europe, North America, Asia).

Biz_Traveller

I easily accumulate over APD 1k per year from domestic flights alone - credit cards and international only make up a small balance of my total yearly earn.

libertyuk

Long haul in premium cabins, NZ or not, and I rarely spend them except on Elite upgrades, the odd OneUp when not Elite or *A business or first reward tickets. The latter can be excellent value on some routes when available.

Beano

Yes this is the easiest way to build up points
But due to the surcharges you are really paying for the points.
Still I find it is worth paying the surcharge as (the Westpac World Card) then has no fees and extra 55 days of free credit really assists the business cashflows (you do need several cards to time the payments or the days of credit can be very short)

codyc1515

By my quoting, I got $14,717 rt for C class on that route. So you're spending $45k per year for three rt flights? No wonder they are pumping out the airpoints lol. I hope an employer is paying for this.

I had no idea about this. Did a quick Google and seems I missed out on quite a few APD by not doing this and I'm just outside the 6 month back claim period.

See, I thought business spend was prohibited from earning APD. Clearly it's not because it would be fairly easy to exclude IRD as earning points, but don't you have to pay a surcharge which would make it not worth it?

FWIW, I made a submission to MBIE on that matter as well. The sooner the payment processing fees come down the better. Needs more regulation IMO.

http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-service...sions-received