AMEX rejection

[lovestotravel]

I don't understand why people still apply for Amex, unless they travel A LOT to justify paying a lot for their travel insurance.

Their points -> airline conversion is no longer great, and bonus points are worth a lot less, not to mention that it is not as widely accepted as Visa/MC. Now their bonus points offer is actually inferior to banks when airline conversion rates are taken into account.

So what card offers the same or better rate when transferring to QF or SQ ?

 

[Rich]

I don't understand why people still apply for Amex, unless they travel A LOT to justify paying a lot for their travel insurance.

Their points -> airline conversion is no longer great, and bonus points are worth a lot less, not to mention that it is not as widely accepted as Visa/MC. Now their bonus points offer is actually inferior to banks when airline conversion rates are taken into account.

We have the Qantas Ultimate card (happy to give you a referral link ) which costs $450 a year. 1.25 pts per dollar for first $80k spend then 1 pt. That's 20k of points more than the 1 pt cards. You get a $450 travel credit - a bit annoying to use but that is countered for us by a few cash back offers making it cost neutral in my view.

 

[Beer_budget]

I don't understand why people still apply for Amex, unless they travel A LOT to justify paying a lot for their travel insurance.

Their points -> airline conversion is no longer great, and bonus points are worth a lot less, not to mention that it is not as widely accepted as Visa/MC. Now their bonus points offer is actually inferior to banks when airline conversion rates are taken into account.

They're a lousy card for churning, but a great card to hold IMO. My annual fee is fully covered by the travel credit which I have never failed to use, and most years I use it on a THC booking, so get additional value there. The travel insurance is just a bonus at that point, and the airline transfer ratios are just as good as the banks, at least for my purposes (mainly KF, often via Velocity). This has been true even in years with only one or two domestic short breaks, and especially so as we become able to travel more frequently.

We don't yet do enough travel to extract value from the Plat annual fee, but we do have an idea what that looks like for us and will upgrade when we get there.

 

[lovestotravel]

We have the Qantas Ultimate card (happy to give you a referral link ) which costs $450 a year. 1.25 pts per dollar for first $80k spend then 1 pt. That's 20k of points more than the 1 pt cards. You get a $450 travel credit - a bit annoying to use but that is countered for us by a few cash back offers making it cost neutral in my view.

Amex Plat charge is $1.125 per $1 to QF

 

[kamchatsky]

So what card offers the same or better rate when transferring to QF or SQ ?

Amex probably is still one of the better card for transfer to QF and SQ (0.75 points per $), however with a very high annual fee (Amex Plat Card).

The issue is that you cannot just have Amex by itself. You still need a Visa/MC with you. So really a doubling up of credit cards and paying annual fee twice. This can be very expensive and not justifiable.

I have a NAB Rewards Signature Card which is my card for keep and booking for travelling expenses. Its monthly fee waived if spending more than $5000 per month, travel insurance, NO International Transaction Fees, and earn 0.75 VA, or 0.5 SQ/CX points per dollar spend for first $15000 spend per month:

NAB Rewards Signature Credit Card

Enjoy no foreign transaction fees and rewards for gift cards, tech, and travel, plus complimentary insurances. Apply now to earn bonus points.

www.nab.com.au

I also have Virgin Money Velocity High Flyer VISA which is 1 VA per $ spend up to $8000 per month, annual fee is $329 but also has $129 VA voucher to use for flights. But they have stopped taking applications for now:

Credit Cards | Compare Credit Cards | Virgin Money

Explore Virgin Money’s credit card options. Compare rewards, balance transfers, and benefits. Find the perfect fit.

virginmoney.com.au

NAB Qantas Visa is OK with 1 QF point per dollar spend for first $5000 spend per month:

NAB Qantas Rewards Signature Card

Apply online for a NAB Qantas Rewards Signature Credit Card. Earn bonus points and credit card rewards. Enjoy complimentary insurances and Visa Premium Access.

www.nab.com.au

 

[kamchatsky]

We have the Qantas Ultimate card (happy to give you a referral link ) which costs $450 a year. 1.25 pts per dollar for first $80k spend then 1 pt. That's 20k of points more than the 1 pt cards. You get a $450 travel credit - a bit annoying to use but that is countered for us by a few cash back offers making it cost neutral in my view.

They're a lousy card for churning, but a great card to hold IMO. My annual fee is fully covered by the travel credit which I have never failed to use, and most years I use it on a THC booking, so get additional value there. The travel insurance is just a bonus at that point, and the airline transfer ratios are just as good as the banks, at least for my purposes (mainly KF, often via Velocity). This has been true even in years with only one or two domestic short breaks, and especially so as we become able to travel more frequently.

Yes, it is a decent card if you can use the travel credit in full every year. However, my friend's experience on QF credit on Ultimate card is no good as he cannot access standard QF flight prices on Amex portal. The flight cost is more expensive at Amex portal vs Qantas.com. So the credit value is not as much as it says. For Velocity Platinum Amex I would definitely get it if I fly VA regularly, but I don't anymore.

 

[Beer_budget]

Yes, it is a decent card if you can use the travel credit in full every year. However, my friend's experience on QF credit on Ultimate card is no good as he cannot access standard QF flight prices on Amex portal. The flight cost is more expensive at Amex portal vs Qantas.com. So the credit value is not as much as it says. For Velocity Platinum Amex I would definitely get it if I fly VA regularly, but I don't anymore.

I agree, we have found the prices are slightly higher for the Qantas Ultimate specifically (not so much with my Explorer), but not enough to be a concern (and usually negligible once you add the credit card surcharge for booking direct). The biggest difference is that Amex don't always have access to full Red E Deal inventory so you're sometimes getting the next fare bucket up, and in those cases we just book direct.

We do generally only use Amex Travel for travel credit and the occasional THC booking, so it's not a major concern.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yes, it is a decent card if you can use the travel credit in full every year. However, my friend's experience on QF credit on Ultimate card is no good as he cannot access standard QF flight prices on Amex portal. The flight cost is more expensive at Amex portal vs Qantas.com. So the credit value is not as much as it says. For Velocity Platinum Amex I would definitely get it if I fly VA regularly, but I don't anymore.

I saved about $4,000 on 4 SQ J airfares, thanks to Amex Plat companion fare... So YMMV

 

[sqflyer5252]

Just to add another data point and share some good news.
I was a serial churner from 2023 - early 2025 (about 8 cards). Last card closed March 2025, but I kept a CBA awards CC open with $6200 limit. I'm straight out of Uni so only $75K, no rent, declared $1100/month in expenses.

Got declined from amex 3 seperate times. Applied in March 2025, June 2025, and October 2025, this was a mix of Qantas ultimate and amex explorer.

On a whim, today march 2026 I applied for the Explorer card using an ozbargin refferal code, and was accepted with a self chosen $6000 limit and no documentation required. ($75K income $1100/month expenses and HECS)

So hang in there if you think you're blacklisted, it's definitelypossible to get back in.

P.S, not sure if it made any difference at all, but I applied using a VPN and an incognito window for funsies.

 

[aaa99]

Last card closed March 2025

Wonder if it is 12 months since last card closed that is the key criteria

 

[Beer_budget]

Wonder if it is 12 months since last card closed that is the key criteria

Might depend when the others were closed too, and how long the CBA was open. IIRC you can see account closures going back 2 years, plus average age of open accounts. Most closed cards falling off, plus one reasonable duration open account is probably not going to look too much like churning.

 

[Airbumps]

Might depend when the others were closed too, and how long the CBA was open. IIRC you can see account closures going back 2 years, plus average age of open accounts. Most closed cards falling off, plus one reasonable duration open account is probably not going to look too much like churning.

I thought they'd be looking at longer term closures - My file has cards going back to 2021 (though I've been churning for longer than that) so I would expect them to consider all history, not just the past two years.

 

[Beer_budget]

Open accounts stay on for as long as they are open, but closed accounts are only supposed to stay on your credit report for 2 years.

 

[Airbumps]

Open accounts stay on for as long as they are open, but closed accounts are only supposed to stay on your credit report for 2 years.

Be interested to hear others reports on that - My Illion file has them going back years and years.... when i used to check with credit savvy it was the same.

 

[Beer_budget]

Be interested to hear others reports on that - My Illion file has them going back years and years.... when i used to check with credit savvy it was the same.

Might show a longer history specifically if it's your own report? This is from Experian Australia's information about what is in your report though:

Consumer Credit Accounts - This section includes Information about credit accounts relating to payments you have made in the last two years that have been reported by your credit providers to the Experian credit bureau. This includes the type of credit, the name of the credit provider and dates accounts were opened and closed.

You will see that all your open accounts are grouped, and any closed accounts are also listed together. Whilst an account is open, information about that account can be seen on your Experian credit report. Once you close an account, the information can still be viewed for two more years.

 

[Waddygib]

They define a churn as closing an account within 13 months of opening. It's 13 (not 12) as the dates in the bureau aren't precise, and you'd assume anything in the 13th month meant no second annual fee was paid.

A certain number of churns on your file (let's say 3) and you will be auto-declined (nb: there is no long term blacklist; the rule runs only on new applications and isn't a permanent flag on someone's "record").

Information on opening an account only goes back 2 years. So they can ONLY look at how many churns you've done in the last 2 years.

So if you (somehow) churned 10 times in a year, and then didn't churn for another 18 months or so, Amex wouldn't know you'd been churning.

But if you churn once every 6 months, you'll get declined..