Yahoo Finance Qantas frequent flyer one-day points blitz that’s getting my family to Disneyland for free
Three free flights to the other side of the world is not bad for a day’s work.
I fancy taking my kids to Disneyland next year but I don’t much fancy forking out $6,000 for flights.
So, I designated a day this week as ‘bulk-points-blitz’ day and collected a haul of 254,552 Qantas frequent flyer points to get us long-haul to Los Angeles and back.
Here’s how I amassed that many points in just one day. And, if you follow the same six steps right now, you can too.
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Step 1: Change energy provider
I count myself lucky – on the school run at the start of ‘bulk-points-blitz’ day – to have heard an ad on the radio about a 10,000-point bonus if you switch your electricity to RedEnergy (you can get another 5,000 points if you switch your gas too, but I don’t have it).
The phone consultant was fabulous, taking me through the comparison with my previous supplier. I have been receiving a large 28 per cent pay-on-time discount from them so thought I was on a good deal, but RedEnergy was still a bit better.
The points are paid quickly too: Possibly 10 days after the 10-day cooling-off period.
Points: 10,000 plus 2 points for each $1 on my bills.
Step 2: Sign up for a new credit card
If you are a rewards addict like me, you should probably get a new credit card every year to get a bulk-points boost. And it was time.
Happily, there are some big offers out there at the moment, especially if your income qualifies you for a black or platinum card.
Being a self-employed columnist, I wanted the best of the regular kind of card and chose the Qantas American Express Ultimate card.
It’s giving 100,000 bonus points on sign-up if you spend $3,000 in the first three months. That’s a low bar given I live off a credit card for the whole month so I can sit my salary in my mortgage offset account and save loan interest. (This is the Mortgage Busting Secret Weapon, as I explain in the below quick clip.)
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Note, this card’s interest rate is high at 23.99 per cent but I always clear my balance in full, from my offset account, the very last day I can pay.
The annual fee is also steep at $450, but you get $450 in Qantas flight credit a year (and two free lounge passes).
I’ll take that.
Note an important proviso on this points hack: cancel an existing credit card. Too many cards – and too many applications – can hurt your credit score. But one a year should be fine.
The bonus points offer expires on April 2.
Points: 100,000 plus 1.25 per $1 on eligible purchases.
Step 3: Switch health funds
Today, there are 140,000 points available if you sign up to Qantas Health Insurance, which is a decent product.
You can investigate how it stacks up for you on privatehealth.gov.au. If you are on an old, so-called legacy product, you may well find your current benefits are sub-par. I did.
Know that, generally, when you switch providers, you do not have to re-serve waiting periods for hospital cover for which you have already qualified. Just check about pre-existing conditions.
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And, with regards to extras, for combined policies, Qantas is waiving two- and six-month waiting periods.
You need to not have previously held nib insurance to qualify and points are awarded based on level of cover over a six-month period.
The offer is valid until April 5 and, with health premium hikes of an average 3.03 per cent hitting on April 1, you could even net yourself a price cut.
Points: 140,000 plus 1 point per $1 spent on your premium every month.
Step 4: Book that business trip
I usually opt to make my hotel bookings through cashback apps, preferring the cold, hard type of reward.
But today is ‘bulk-points-blitz day’ and Qantas is paying 3 points per $1 spent on hotel stays booked through Qantas Hotels or Qantas Luxury Holidays.
The site says points will be credited to your account “at least eight weeks” after check-out.
And, in case you’ve missed it, when you make purchases through Qantas Shopping, you can sometimes get up to 8 points per $1 spent, from thousands of merchants and big brands.
So, consider purchasing anything vital you need – and I stress the word ‘vital’ because buying extraneous stuff is counter-productive when you are on an ‘economy’ drive (‘economy’ in more ways than one: all I am chasing is enough points to get us in the back of a plane to LA).
Points: 3 for $1, so 3 x a $648 hotel cost = 1,944
Step 5: Do some grocery shopping
If you are a member of Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards, you have the option to convert your points to Qantas points. And that really makes them ‘fly’: every time you reach 2,000 points, you can collect 1,000 frequent flyer points or $10 off a shop.
An $80 grocery discount doesn’t buy you much, but 8,000 Qantas points could get you interstate.
What’s more, be sure to ‘boost’ your offers via the app each week. You can sometimes earn 10x points on a whole product range. Indeed, this designated Disneyland day, I had an offer for 10x points on a whole shop.
Watch also for big, boosted points offers on the purchase of gift cards through the Everyday Rewards app, including those you can immediately use to pay for your groceries.
There’s one ending April 2 for 2,500 points on $350 to $500 gift cards.
Points: One-off offer of 10x. My $415.26 shop earned me 4,736 Everyday Rewards points (there were some 10x on 10x boosts in there too). That converted, almost instantly, to 2,368 Qantas points.
Step 6: Fill up the car
When I am on a points ‘drive’, I fill up at BP, where you earn 2 Qantas points per litre and 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent on eligible purchases in-store.
It’s not nothing. You just scan your frequent flyer card at the checkout.
Points: $120 x 2 = 240 points.
Total earned in my one-day, bulk-points blitz: 254,552.
For a return to Los Angeles for me and my two children, I needed 83,800 points each – so 251,400 all up. I smashed right through my target at Step 4.
Three free flights to the other side of the world – bar a few hundred dollars of taxes – is not bad for a day’s work, wouldn’t you say? We’ll be saying it in the happiest place on earth!
Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is the author of How to Get Mortgage-Free Like Me, available at www.nicolessmartmoney.com. Follow Nicole on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
