Buying Qantas top-up points with a bonus: Worth it?

[CaptJCool]

Another 'buy points' offer has lobbed in. This time, there's a 60% bonus for purchases of 100K or more, giving 240K points for $4k, so 1.66cpp.

Just doing the maths on this

Because of both the reward ticket devaluation AND the increase in base fare pricing
The only savings using points on domestic flights is the short runs and that’s slim as rewards tickets are usually booked way in advance and for “off peak” times (supply & demand) with price based on willingness to pay not cost plus margin
Eg Adelaide - Melbourne or Sydney - Melbourne
That would involve 26 economy trips $30 savings per trip on the red-e deals
12 business trips cheap J fare
$98 saving per trip Mel-ADL ($509)
$142 saving per trip Syd-Melbourne ($554)

 

[MELso]

How does that compare to buying selected wines from QF marketplace with a big bonus of QF points.
In the past the wine-bonus points was a lesser cost per point. So "free wine"

The best 'standard' prices for wine are about 1.9cpp (this is the current best offer), but PCP members get 10% off and there may be triple points in the offing as well as vouchers to apply.

FWIW, the last wine order I did was $430.60 ($534 less 10% off for PCP less a $50 PCP voucher) and netted 28,375 points, so 1.52cpp. However, this had a lot of factors boosting the return including triple points on the site, triple points as PCP, green tier bonus and a voucher. Without this, the current offer for buying points is not too bad if you have a specific premium redemption in mind.

 

[CaptJCool]

the current offer for buying points is not too bad if you have a specific premium redemption in mind.

This is Europe or USA I’m figuring or did you have another exotic location in mind ?

 

[MELso]

This is Europe or USA I’m figuring or did you have another exotic location in mind ?

It's usually something like that, although I must say that when buying wine for redeeming on US flights, I've often found it cheaper to buy wine and redeem than pay cash.

For example, I needed to book a flight between PDX and YVR for August 2026. I could either pay Alaska $US242 in Y or $US295 in J (so $366-$446), or I could buy a case of wine for $A297 and pay 11,200 points (of the 15,891 I received) and $6 in taxes for the flight I wanted.

OTOH, SYD-CDG in February in J is 166,300 points each way (plus taxes of $637/$887). If you bought all the points (which would need two transactions), it'd cost ~$5.5k meaning it'd be about $7k vs $11k for a cash fare. But MH will get you over there on a cash fare for similar $$$ (~$7.5k).

 

[elanshin]

It's usually something like that, although I must say that when buying wine for redeeming on US flights, I've often found it cheaper to buy wine and redeem than pay cash.

For example, I needed to book a flight between PDX and YVR for August 2026. I could either pay Alaska $US242 in Y or $US295 in J (so $366-$446), or I could buy a case of wine for $A297 and pay 11,200 points (of the 15,891 I received) and $6 in taxes for the flight I wanted.

OTOH, SYD-CDG in February in J is 166,300 points each way (plus taxes of $637/$887). If you bought all the points (which would need two transactions), it'd cost ~$5.5k meaning it'd be about $7k vs $11k for a cash fare. But MH will get you over there on a cash fare for similar $$$ (~$7.5k).

Wow I just realised 166k is the OW cost to Paris. that's nuts that for the cost of a return Europe plus change you could do a OWA.

Also you could probably do a way to MNL/CGK and get a cash fare for ~4k return on QR / EK from those ports.

One thing to note though and I doubt very many people do is - you can technically TRS all the wine you buy and get a solid discount on the points as theres WET taxes that can be refunded too. You'll probably need to dump them at an inbound customs port, and also need to carry them but it technically does change the pricing equation if you really want to min/max.

 

[justinbrett]

With the current offer, the best case is around 1.7c/p. You can usually get a good wine deal for around 2.2c/p, sometimes sub 2c.

I’d rather pay a little bit more and get something for my purchase. Also does buying points count as spend for PC? If not that’s another advantage for wine.

 

[MELso]

Wow I just realised 166k is the OW cost to Paris. that's nuts that for the cost of a return Europe plus change you could do a OWA.

Also you could probably do a way to MNL/CGK and get a cash fare for ~4k return on QR / EK from those ports.

Indeed. But it was an example of how points can be used for arbitrage.

...

I’d rather pay a little bit more and get something for my purchase. Also does buying points count as spend for PC? If not that’s another advantage for wine.

Yes, all points count (no 125K limit).

 

[SYD]

With the current offer, the best case is around 1.7c/p. You can usually get a good wine deal for around 2.2c/p, sometimes sub 2c.

I’d rather pay a little bit more and get something for my purchase. Also does buying points count as spend for PC? If not that’s another advantage for wine.

Points purchased count toward PC/PC+ and no cap. So if someone valued free QP membership* and a lot points, then not as bad a deal as normal.

*assuming they can make up the difference to 350k points