Lucky_man

I just got a Qantas Red e-Mail offering me 10 points for every dollar spent on Qantas Flight Vouchers. Reading through the fine print Qantas does not charge a credit card surcharge when buying the voucher or paying the taxes during redemption.

So is this a way to pay by credit card, pick up some extra points and avaoid the per passenger credit card fee? Just buy a gift voucher to make the payment.

Catweazle

Sounds like my kind of fun!

Limewood

Can buy 5000 QFF top up points for $182.50 or pay $500 with this promo and get 5000 points, how much are the taxes surely not $317.50.

pandaperth

And the recipient of the voucher gets $500 worth of travel (and is the one who has to pay the taxes). And, presumably, the recipient also accrues FF points for flying?

My question is - can the recipient use the voucher to buy discounted tickets, for example Red E-deals? Or will it restricted to higher priced tickets?

Lucky_man

My plan was that when I want to buy a ticket worth say $1030 + Taxes that I buy $1000 of vouchers in My name (collect 10,000 points) then use the vouchers to pay for My ticket, and use credit card to pay the taxes + $30. There is no credit card processing fee when making the payment in association with the voucher. In fact it would seem I could use a $50 voucher and pay $980 + taxes on credit card and still avoid the credit card fee.

Catch is it is only available for website booked tickets but I suspect all the same tickets and prices are available as the site (I believe) only knows about the voucher when you go to pay.

Limewood

Yes you are correct get $500 in travel plus 5000 points apparently.

Red Roo

Hi Everyone,

We are pleased that you are all excited about out Xmas gift ideas. A few points to provide some more info about Flight Gift Vouchers:
•You can only redeem one voucher per booking.
•It is possible to redeem two vouchers for a return trip if you purchase two one-way fares as separate bookings (remember, vouchers can be redeemed for Qantas domestic flights or Qantas international flights departing Australia. Multi-city bookings are excluded).
•There is no limit to how many vouchers you can purchase. However vouchers are only valid for 12 months.
•To receive your bonus points you must firstly purchase a flight voucher at qantas.com and then register online for the points using your Frequent Flyer number and voucher booking reference.
•Vouchers are redeemable at qantas.com/giftvouchers
•Please see the terms and conditions.
Details about this offer including full conditions, how to register for the points and other Xmas gift ideas can be viewed here:
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airl...ft-ideas/au/en

Enjoy,
Red Roo

pandaperth

Hello Red Roo
Two questions arising:

• When there are cheap fares available, for example Red E-Deals, will they be redeeemable by voucher?
• Will the person redeeming the voucher, and flying, get frequent flyer points?

serfty

I would say:

pandaperth

Well that may be the case- BUT the person redeeeming the voucher has to go to a special web page. And who's to say what fares will be displayed there? It might be that the usual discount fares on the normal book & pay pages might not be displayed there.

You cannot see what is displayed on qantas.com/giftvouchers until you have a voucher number - i.e after you have shelled out your money

serfty

I have actually done it! (Saved a $7.70 CC fee as well.)

It's little different in functionality from the online 'credit voucher' redemption process.

I may have missed where to put yon FF# into the actual booking at the time of booking but was able to enter it leter using the voucher/booking reference.

I'll advise when/how the points post ...

harryhv

The catches are
a) Can't use when fare (net of tax) less than the voucher. If the voucher is more than the fare net of tax, that fare won't be shown on the voucher-booking page. For example if you have a $100 voucher you won't see any $110 Red E Deals because they contain about $90 of fare and $20 of tax, you'll only see the stupid "super-saver" and full fares.
b) Must specify at purchase how many people it is for - eg you can buy a $100 voucher for 2 people (for $200) and only then can you make a booking for 2 on the same reference
c) Can't use outside Australia - while you can use a voucher towards an international return fare or a one-way departing Aus, you can't use it towards a one-way flight home
d) A bit of a pain to buy, one voucher at a time then you have to separately attach your FF number and make a "claim" for your points
e) The 10x points won't arrive until months afterwards - oh and it's been a while since the last devaluation...

But a great way of dodging the CC fee, even if you use the lowest voucher.

perthite

Can be a bit of a trap that one.

However, I have not had any issue getting vouchers applied to sale fares. As long as the base rate exceeds the voucher value they have always come up in the search results.

I don't think "super-saver" exists any more!

The voucher number becomes your booking reference, so this is just reflective of the way they have implemented things. This also is the reason you can only apply one voucher to a booking (well because it becomes your booking!)

They are denominated in AUD, so it avoids a whole world of currency exchange issued for them!

I don't think it was ever designed for bulk purchases. One would not normally by a stak of vouchers. Although given that it avoids the CC fee, maybe from now on they will!

...and there is not currently a devaluation on the horizon.

Not sure that Qantas intended to teach people this!

babs

just for clarification If I buy a $500 voucher to use for a domestic flight costing $578.00 I would still have to pay the credit card fee for the $78.00? Also the fare costing is $578 but that include taxes does the voucher cover this?

serfty

No CC fees at any stage if using the voucher.

For best value the fare component need to be the same as or more than the voucher value.

If that fare of $578 all up is composed of: