How I earned 1.2M frequent flyer points in 18 months for $90.
TL;DR Churn cards as fast as possible, ask the bank to waive the annual fee each time you close it
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- NAB Qantas Rewards Signature 100,000 Qantas $22.00 fee (pro rata refund, NAB don’t do them anymore)
- Westpac Altitude Velocity 115,000 Velocity $50.00 fee (annual fee refunded, charged Qantas rewards fee)
- ANZ FF Black 160,000 Qantas -$225.00 (cashback, fee waived)
- Bank SA Amplify Platinum 50,000 Krisflyer $0.00 fee
- Citi Qantas 100,000 Qantas $87.50 fee (Waived half of the fee pro-rata)
- CBA Diamond 70,000 Qantas $30.00 fee
- Citi prestige 120,000 Velocity $135.00 fee ($350 fee, minus interest earned on PayAll)
- Virgin money 130,000 Velocity $64.00 fee
- Hsbc 72,000 Velocity $0.00 fee
- ANZ Rewards Black 93,000 Velocity -$150.00 fee (cashback, fee waived)
- Westpac Altitude QFF 72,000 Qantas $75.00 fee (annual fee refunded, charged Qantas rewards fee)
That’s a total of 1.08M points. On top of that I have ~250k unredeemed Citi Rewards points which can become 120k Velocity points, but I’m waiting to see where I want to transfer it to.
The fees are about $90 net the cashbacks. On top of that there are extra savings, for example Virgin Money cards come with a $129 Virgin Australia voucher and Citi Prestige has unlimited lounge access via Priority Pass (save a few $ on airport food) and 4th night free hotels (save me around $400 for an NYC hotel).
Business class flights I ended up using the points for so far:
Return trip to Singapore (Velocity/KF 2 people, $400 in taxes total)
RTW trip on Qantas (AU -> USA -> Europe -> Asia -> AU, $1.4k in taxes)
Return trip to USA (Velocity, 2 people, $350 in taxes total)
RTW trip on Qantas (AU -> Asia -> Europe -> USA -> Europe -> Asia -> AU, $500 in taxes)
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