This might be of interest on the price of miles:
How Airlines Make Billions From Monetizing Frequent Flyer Programs
If i’ve read it right, United’s own reports are 1c+ per mile (perhaps as high as 2c). I would imagine QF would be fairly competitive with those rates?
That was a fascinating read, thanks for sharing. US$ and (I could be wrong here but) no interchange fee regulation in the US probably allows for higher points costs. Similarly a "flat rule" of 20% margin is interesting.
A bit of a google turned up
this adnews (australia) article which claims QF sells points "between 1.1 and 2.5 cents".
I think that could be a weighted average - lower-volume partners would certainly pay more, reflecting those higher values. But I think it's unlikely that banks would on the whole lose money on interchange on an ongoing basis. Acquisition bonuses would probably be loss leaders, though negotiated at a volume discount with QF.
Otherwise, back of envelope calculations on an ANZ Qantas Platinum card:
- 75,000 points would cost $750 for acquisition
- Assume it's a
super premium mastercard - that's 0.8% interchange ex GST for paypass transactions
- At a rate of 0.5 points per $ (0.75 for the first $3000 but let's ignore that for simplicity) there's a 0.3% margin for the bank on each transaction
The consumer would have to spend $250,000 on the card to cover the acquisition cost in the first year. This is why I think the points are probably sold at lower than 1c/p to the banks in particular - unless, of course, the whole thing is offset by people who pay interest.
So back to the OP's question. Do banks hate churners? At these numbers, probably, but I guess it's on us not to fly too close to the sun and end up paying interest on the debt.