In common with many programs, Qantas allows members to buy points if they are short a few for a reward. While they are promoted as a way to top up your points they do have other uses, although it can be an expensive way to get points.
This week, Qantas offers Frequent Flyers up to 50% bonus points when purchasing Top-Up Points. The current bonus offer runs until 22 September 2024.
While you can buy 1,000 points or more, you must buy at least 60,000 points to be in line for the full 50% bonus. If you buy between 10,000 and 55,000 points you will get a 25% bonus.
The scale for the bonus is:
- 10,000 – 55,000 points: 25% bonus
- 60,000 – 150,000 points: 50% bonus
As an example, you can normally purchase 60,000 points for $1,647. Under this offer, you will receive an extra 30,000 points for a total of 90,000 points. At that rate, you will be buying points for 1.83c each.
Purchasing Top-Up Points
If you are just short of points for a Reward, you can purchase Top-Up points directly from Qantas.
You can purchase points on the Qantas website. If you go down this path, you can pay with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
If you would like to pay by some other method (Diners Club or JCB card), you will need to contact the Qantas Frequent Flyer Service Centre. However, this method will attract an additional fee of $35.
The basic rules when buying Top-Up points are:
- Points may be purchased in blocks of 1,000 points,
- The Minimum purchase is now 1,000 points, up to a maximum of 150,000 points per purchase.
- You can purchase top-up points four times in a 12-month period,
- You must be a Qantas Frequent Flyer member for at least 30 days before purchasing Top-up points online.
Purchase Process
In order to purchase points, you will need to log into your Top-Up Points page on the Qantas Frequent Flyer website. If you are navigating to the Top-Up Points page on the Qantas website, you can find the Top-Up Points option in the menu
There you will need to select how many points you wish to purchase. This starts from 1,000 points and goes up in increments of 1,000 points. You will then be shown the price of the points.
Once you have selected the number of points you wish to purchase, you can proceed to the checkout page. This will prompt you to enter your credit card details.
Cost of Top-Up Points
While Qantas used to publish a chart showing the points costs, this seems to have been removed. You now have to select an option from the dropdown to find out how much they will cost.
If you purchase 1,000 points, this will set you back $56, which works out to 5.6 cents per point. Fortunately, the cost does decrease as you purchase more points. The maximum 150,000 points costs $3,999 or 2.66 cents each.
For sure, these are expensive points. However, if you need just a few thousand or so to get an award, then it may be a useful way of getting those extra points.
Why Buy Top-up points?
There’s no getting away from the fact that Top-up points are expensive. As a result, they are not something that you would go out and buy for no reason. However, while they are expensive, there are reasons that you may want to go down the path of buying points.
- Top-ups: this is the one most often mentioned (it’s even in their name). You can top up your account when you don’t quite have enough points to make your desired reward booking. In this case, you should have a reward already in mind
- Points Expiry: If you are sitting on a bunch of points about to expire, purchasing points could help to extend their life by 18 months.
- Points Club: Point purchased count toward the requirements of Points Club and Points Club+. If you are just short on qualifying, then this may be an option.
- Outright purchases: You may want to consider buying enough points for an outright reward. This is, however, likely to make for an expensive redemption
Final Words
The ability to buy additional points is offered by both Velocity and Qantas Frequent Flyer. While they can be an expensive way to purchase points, there can be times when it is a good option to use.