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- Aug 21, 2011
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I've recently been looking at the websites of all the Australian bank reward programs, trying to find what each bank's current airline partner transfer rates are. I've noticed a distinct trend of banks no longer making these transfer rates public information, and instead requiring you to log in to see what the rates are.
This isn't useful if you're a prospective customer, and makes these programs less transparent.
For example, this is the information you now see on the Westpac Altitude Rewards website about points transfers if you're not logged in:

It shows the partners, but not the rate at which you can actually transfer points to them. This is crucial information if you are considering whether the earn rate of Westpac Altitude points on a credit card you might be considering is worthwhile.
It's a similar thing on the St.George website:

And the CommBank Yello webpage:

And ANZ:

What about MyCard? Same thing...

And Virgin Money Rewards doesn't even show the full range of transfer partners on its website, let alone the conversion rates:

Websites like AFF can help to make this information more freely available (e.g. see here), but what a sad state of affairs. No wonder many people find loyalty programs confusing.
Credit (no pun intended) goes to Amex Membership Rewards, NAB Rewards and BOQ Q Rewards, which do still clearly show all their partners and the transfer rates on their public-facing websites!
This isn't useful if you're a prospective customer, and makes these programs less transparent.
For example, this is the information you now see on the Westpac Altitude Rewards website about points transfers if you're not logged in:

It shows the partners, but not the rate at which you can actually transfer points to them. This is crucial information if you are considering whether the earn rate of Westpac Altitude points on a credit card you might be considering is worthwhile.
It's a similar thing on the St.George website:

And the CommBank Yello webpage:

And ANZ:

What about MyCard? Same thing...

And Virgin Money Rewards doesn't even show the full range of transfer partners on its website, let alone the conversion rates:

Websites like AFF can help to make this information more freely available (e.g. see here), but what a sad state of affairs. No wonder many people find loyalty programs confusing.
Credit (no pun intended) goes to Amex Membership Rewards, NAB Rewards and BOQ Q Rewards, which do still clearly show all their partners and the transfer rates on their public-facing websites!
