Paying overseas travel agent - Best strategy?

[FF98]

Hi All,

I have the Qantas AMEX card and the ANZ Black card.
I am looking to book a resort in the Maldives via travel agents. Most of the quotes are are in USD/GBP, with most agents based in UK/US.
Question is, how should I pay for this trip to maximise points at a reasonable cost? Which card should I use? And anything I should look out for?
The resort will amount to around $10k USD.

Thanks All

 

[Coops1]

Both those cards will slug you 3% extra in fees if you pay in non $A. Maldives bookings should be universal, try finding a travel agent in Oz, book direct, or try the online expedias, booking.com types. I wouldn't be paying a US/UK agent. If you want to share the resort/island I am sure somebody will find somebody in Oz you can pay.

 

[VPS]

If you want points it’s going to cost you. Have you done comparisons of Aus travel agent costs vs card surcharges

 

[Grrr]

Resurrecting this thread... has anyone found any clever ways to get Amex points when paying for an overseas travel agent ?
As far as I can tell, Sniip etc are local businesses only...

 

[Cynicor]

Just use a (foreign exchange fee) free card that also gives points.. Bankwest world, cba, etc

 

[Human]

Resurrecting this thread... has anyone found any clever ways to get Amex points when paying for an overseas travel agent ?
As far as I can tell, Sniip etc are local businesses only...

Have you received the AmEx offer of 3 bonus MR points per dollar spent on foreign transactions? Depending on what you do with your MR points afterwards, this may make it worthwhile even given the 3% foreign transaction fee. On my Platinum card, for example, this offer means that I'm earning 5.25 MR points per dollar on overseas transactions.

If you have received the offer, make sure you activate it first if you're considering using it. But without those 3 bonus MR points I certainly wouldn't be wearing the 3% fee and I'd be paying with a credit card that -- points earning or not -- doesn't charge the 3% fee.

I use a CommBank Smart Awards Mastercard for most of my foreign currency transactions.

 

[Grrr]

Have you received the AmEx offer of 3 bonus MR points per dollar spent on foreign transactions? Depending on what you do with your MR points afterwards, this may make it worthwhile even given the 3% foreign transaction fee. On my Platinum card, for example, this offer means that I'm earning 5.25 MR points per dollar on overseas transactions.

Unfortunately no

I have an overseas Amex that does 3x MR for travel (and no forex fee), but the merchant's 3.9% fee makes it hard to swallow...

At this point I think I'll have to just resort to transfer via Wise, as their exchange rates and fees are still the lowest that I've found

 

[Tiki]

A few months ago I was able to use Amex with Trip.com to pay for a hotel in Timor Leste that normally only takes Visa. They do seem to have a good presence in Asia so worth checking, also good for small domestic carriers like Wings Air Indonesia that can be finicky with foreign credit cards.