1 Oct 2025 Changes to CBA Award Partners

[ChrisFlyer]

Transferred most of mine to Flying Blue because they have very cheap reward tix on Qantas domestic (5000 miles for a short flight like SYD-MEL), so a good move even if you don't have a lot of CBA points to play with.

Converted some more to Qatar because I figure with the 40% bonus from other partners, I'm likely to convert some there anyway soon, so I may as well have a few more.

Then, with 4 CBA points left, I transferred literally 1 Aeroplan point because that'll reset the clock on expiry for my existing Aeroplan balance.

With any final points earned by the 30th (hopefully some pending transactions post and earn on Tuesday like they usually would), I'll probably add to the Qatar stash, or maybe to Accor because I use Accor a lot and the opportunity cost versus airline points would be minimal on such a small amount. We'll see!

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Well, there we are - the international partners have indeed vanished. I logged on first thing this morning out of curiosity to see if I could squeeze in one last transfer for transactions settled today, but the Awards site was 'under maintenance'. Now, they're gone (as expected, of course).

 

[henrus]

Now, they're gone (as expected, of course).

I got in two transfers last night (8:30pm) one to Flyingblue and the other Accor. Neither have arrived yet which is slower than normal.

 

[anemone1296]

oh that's great, thank you for the reply. As this card is good for no international fees and fantastic when over seas. So i really didn't want to change it.

Thank you

Similarly, keeping this card for now for the travel insurance and rebate on international transaction fees. Have yet to stomach the $90 annual fee to earn Qantas points...it's increased once before so who knows it could go up again if it proves popular

It's already at the higher end of rates for opt in cards. Bank of Melbourne/Bank SA/St George/Westpac charge $75p.a. to opt in to earn at the same rate of 1.2 points per $1

At the maximum current annual fee of
35x12=$420 for Ultimate Awards, or
19x12=$228 for Smart Awards
That's between $318-510 per year for the honour!

My CBA keycard is now a World Debit Mastercard but that's for another thread

 

[k_sheep]

I love this for the forex free and excellent travel insurance, but I have zero interest in VA points. So I'll be canning it after my next overseas trip November.

 

[BJReplay]

Keeping mine until April next year: Will use for my next trip which is Korea and Japan on points from this card and Star Alliance sign up bonuses via Aeroplan: MEL-ICN-TKO-ICN-MEL x 2 for 182,000 points and will put most of the accommodation and expenses on the card between now and then (including some almost immediately to trigger the travel insurance spend threshold.

Was happy to get points out at the last minute, and enough for a spring trip to Korea and Japan, but not a keeper any more.

Will then shift spend to HSBC Premier (free travel insurance) and put foreign spend on BankWest card - no points but no forex fees.