HighFlyingKiwi

My apologies if this is the wrong forum to ask this - it is a bit of a strange question.

So long story short, I was a Airpoints Gold Member for quite a while. I started to become quite sick with the dreaded C in 2019. I started to slow down, which in turn meant I wasn't flying as much. I brought a Koru Membership to tide me over whilst I wasn't flying as much. In 2020 I unfortunately had to come to a full stop. I let the Koru expire in Jan 2021 as there was no way I was going anywhere, anytime soon. I put my Business on pause and just focused on what I needed to do to get better.

Happily since the start of the year I have started to resume what I was doing, and my Travel has started up again, albeit slowly, building things up again. I went to go and renew my Koru Membership. The biggest benefit to me is the extra Carry On (or checked in bag if I had booked a Seat+Bag). The amount of medical gear I have to carry around with me know is insane!

Unfortunately it seems that because of the rather long interval between it lapsing, and me renewing, I will have to pay the $250 Joining Fee again.

So I have been looking at Airpoints Credit Cards, and I see that they actually waive the Joining Fee. Excellent! $700 is a lot more tolerable than $950!

My personal and business bank do not offer Airpoints CCs. So I have been looking and trying to compare the different cards that are on offer from the likes of AMEX, Westpac, Kiwibank ect. A lot of the Fees, Benefits seem somewhat similar. My question to you awesome FTers is: is there any particular Card that is better than the others? Any Airpoints CCs that I might have missed? Or are they all pretty much the same and just pick one? I would probably swap all my accounts over and use the CC as my normal Business Card.

Thanks for reading this rather long post. Again apologies if I have posted it in the wrong place. Appreciate any opinions

Cheers

HighFlyingKiwi.

Outbound24

https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airp...mparison-table
I have the AMEX Platinum because it has the best APD earn rate for my situation and the Kiwibank Platinum for backup on the rare occasion AMEX is not accepted.

raznz

Another way to look at it is to work out if any of these are worth it for you

AMEX - lower $ spend to earn APD
kiwibank - ability to buy/topup APD (but the non plat also grants this)
ANZ - 50% status points bonus on eligible flights

HighFlyingKiwi

That is fantastic, thanks so much

Beano

Usable in three places in Auckland plus 1300 other places

NPCtom

I think the ANZ Platinum Airpoints CC is pretty good, I have the "Classic" ANZ Airpoints card which offers a very poor earn rate (and no status point boost/insurance etc.). But it is all I was eligible for...

sbiddle

I know a number of people incl myself who have all 3. My Amex would typically pay for itself in terms of card fees every year using the promotions they run (but it is a shame Small Shop didn't run last year!)

Thai-Kiwi

I have all three cards. You can recover the AMEX annual fee of $195 just with $11.5k spend/churn ($59 spend earns $AP 1), although the various promos like ‘shop small’ are much more efficient.

c3rn

Most of the platinum credit cards offer no Koru joining fee (save $255) and a discount of $145 off the standard 12 month individual Koru membership fee. So you'll end up paying $550-ish (i think) for 1yr membership

HighFlyingKiwi

Legendary Answers thanks team! Really appreciate the help.

Hector99

Does the AMEX platinum in NZ give the Priority pass to get benefits at AKL domestic food outlets?!

nzkarit

Yep can use one visit off your card for a $40 food voucher.