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Is the best card for frequent flyers the Amex Explorer rather than the platinum card? I know the ratio is 2:1 MR to frequent flyer schemes so it’s slightly less sexy than in the UK but any thoughts & experiences welcome.
Depends what you’re aiming for. The Qantas Ultimate card looks promising. Have a look at pointhacks.com.au which seems to be a decent resource.
I think redemptions with Qantas can be few & far between, so was thinking to get a MR card to transfer to Singapore & BA (via Qatar)
I’ve got an Explorer, hubby has a Platinum Edge, have had both for years. The real Platinum card doesn’t represent good value to me.
Explorer gives 2 pts per $ for everyday expenditure and the fee of $395 is more than matched by $400 travel credit, so the card is effectively free. The Platinum Edge gives 3 pts per $ for supermarket and fuel spend, usually at a fee of $195 per annum and also matched by $200 travel credit, though I see it is free for the first year at the mo. Assuming we make use of the travel credits, that makes both effectively free for us with a minimum earn (for us, using the right card) of roughly 2 Avios per £ (2 pts min = 1 Avios, $2 ~ £1). Rather better than the UK I would say. Less for SQ though, as in the UK. I’ve never found the Qantas scheme any good.
The Platinum proper costs $1,450 and comes with $450 travel credit, so net per annum cost $1,000. At the moment, you’d get 200k pts for signing up for the Platinum and 50k for the Explorer. So you’d be getting 150k extra pts (75K Avios) for £500 (~$1,000) – and there’s no refund on cancelling. Might be tempting for some, but that, the extra 0.25pt per $ and the other benefits wouldn’t be enough for me to choose the Platinum over the Explorer.
I rarely look at pointshack these days, a bit too credit card hard sell for me – but then I’m not in the market for a card atm. The folk at Australian Frequent Flyer are lovely and helpful though.
I was going to ask if you would like a referral but I see that I benefit, but as far as I can see, you just get the same deal as if you apply direct. Nevertheless Rob could no doubt put us in touch if you were feeling generous….
Brilliant summary, thank you @louie. The aussie points site is too biased and fails to properly review the cards, they seem to focus on getting signups for their kickback, which is understandable!
I’m of course happy to go via your referral if Rob gives you my email – @Rob not sure how you’ll see this, if I hear nothing in a few days I’ll email him directly.
My sister is in Melbourne and seems to think Amex acceptance in Oz is particularly poor. Any truth to that? I can’t tell if she’s dismissing her points obsessed big brother.
If you were willing to consider Star Alliance then my fave site for Oz / Asia coverage, consistently high standards of journalism and a really nice editor, is currently covering a rather nice status deal for the HSBC card there.
executivetraveller.com.au
Oz residents are no longer blocked from BA Exec Club. Collecting in BA (or even maybe AA or soon, AS) has always looked to get you able to get QF flights a lot easier than accruing in QF even if you did live in Oz.
My sister is in Melbourne and seems to think Amex acceptance in Oz is particularly poor. Any truth to that? I can’t tell if she’s dismissing her points obsessed big brother.
I suppose it depends what she’s up to, but most small biz have a Square card machine. I certainly got a lot of use out of it in Perth.
Amex acceptance is not too different from the UK outside London, but at small businesses you’ll just get charged 3% extra or maybe 1.5% if you’re lucky
Amex acceptance is not too different from the UK outside London, but at small businesses you’ll just get charged 3% extra or maybe 1.5% if you’re lucky
I generally find it’s mainly cafes that apply a charge as many other smaller businesses (market stalls for example) tend to use Square or similar these days and don’t impose a charge. Visa or Mastercard is usually charged at a lower rate, so I have a threshold in my mind as to when to use Amex, M’card, debit card or cash, but to be honest, the transactions which would attract a charge tend to be low value (hotels aside, which isn’t much of any issue for me) so I’m not too concerned about it.
@Executiveclubber – thanks 🙂
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