Are the days of Points collecting over?

[Brissy1]

next 17 long haul J flights I have booked only one is paid

17!
Very impressive planning irrespective of redemption or paid. And I suppose that's the point, you can get value but it requires a lot lot more planning.

 

[Human]

Ascent premium / linked to ur platinum charge?

Yes, my Platinum Edge card earns Ascent Premium points.

 

[burmans]

The situation is always changing and has done so for at least 20 years. Sure the days of getting J on SQ for $800 ex Asia to Aus are gone. So are the VA $80 J flights BNE Syd flights velocity awards, and don’t get me started on the woolies pet food runs donated to your local RSPCA for a monster QFF point haul. JASA’s, dreamy days.

Since I joined there has been regular posts claiming the sky is falling, but as one door closes another opens. With todays modern media environment seeking to make $$$ of so called hacks, the good deals are harder to find, but they are out there and most of the so called influencers/bloggers lack the smarts to do the work to find them. Put the effort in and you will get the rewards.

Agree but am not so sad if a few people decide it’s a bit too hard.

One of the factors that has led us to where we are now is the fact that 10 + years ago this was a bit of a specialised hobby, with social media it became a lot more popular. More demand meant inevitably the value would decline.

Now people are saying it’s all too hard, for me that’s probably a positive!

 

[CMA222]

So Westpac (and their subsidiary St George) have decided to kill off any real advantage to collect points on their cards.

Their email:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

​

We're writing to let you know that we're making pricing and Points earn rate changes to your St.George xx_xx_X Platinum card ending in xx_x.

Points earn rate changes​

From 22 August 2025, we're making changes to how you can earn Points on eligible purchases1 with your card. In particular, we're changing the earn rates and expanding the spend categories.

Please refer to the table below to learn about all category and earn rate changes2. If you'd like to check out the current Points earn rates prior to these changes, please visit stgeorge.com.au/earning-points These changes will not impact your current Points balance.

How to earn Qantas Points New Qantas Points earn rate International spend For international purchases made in store and online $1 = 0.75 Points Once you spend $5,000 in a statement cycle, you will earn 0.2 Points per $1 on further eligible purchases1 Everyday spend Most major Australian supermarkets, department stores, petrol stations, dining and utilities $1 = 0.5 Points All other purchases3 $1 = 0.35 Points

What kind of businesses are included in the new 'everyday spend' category?​

Below is a list of examples of what is included in the new everyday spend category.

• Supermarkets include stores such as Woolworths, Coles, IGA, Harris Farm and ALDI. • Department stores include stores such as David Jones and Myer. • Petrol stations include stores such as Shell, Ampol, Caltex and BP. • Dining includes restaurants, cafes, fast food, bars, hotels and entertainment venues. • Utilities include payments for water, gas, electricity, internet, mobile and streaming services (excluding BPAY® payments).

Credit card pricing changes​

We regularly review our products and pricing. As part of this process, we've identified that your card has been on discounted pricing. To maintain the value and benefits your card offers, we'll be adjusting your rates and/or fees to reflect our standard advertised rates which aligns with the market. (my emphasis)

From August 2025, your interest rates and/or fees will be updated as shown in the table below.

Your pricing changes​

Your current pricing Your new pricing* from 22 August 2025 Annual card fee $99.00 $175.00 Annual Qantas Rewards Program fee $0.00 $75.00

More information on pricing changes​

The change to your annual card and/or rewards program fee will be applied on your next Card Fee date after 22 August 2025.

If you have an agreed arrangement schedule to repay any amounts outstanding at the time of the pricing changes, your repayment frequency and amount will not alter. However, as a result of these changes, the duration of your arrangement may be extended.

We understand that changes like these can be challenging. If you no longer feel your current credit card suits your needs, you may be able to switch to a different credit card. Please visit stgeorge.com.au/creditcardswitch

Please reach out to the St.George Customer Assist team for assistance if you experience financial difficulties.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

So the offer that I signed up for is now "identified as being discount pricing" and to "maintain the value and benefits" they are increasing the card fees 152% and reducing the earn rates. How does that maintain the value and benefits, when they are reducing them. They sound like they are doing me a favour ?? I will cancel my cards before the next annual fee is applied and just use a no fee c/c or a debit card.

​

 

[Human]

Yep, time to vote with your feet!

I've only ever taken out Westpac and Bank of Melbourne cards for their sign-up bonuses, which can still be OK.

 

[burmans]

To be honest the value of CC point collection has always been in signup bonuses rather than ongoing points collection, this just makes this even more obvious!

 

[daft009]

To be honest the value of CC point collection has always been in signup bonuses rather than ongoing points collection, this just makes this even more obvious!

.....Unless you have a high spend every month.
I had a huge month on my Amex last month being EOFY, $600k

 

[Human]

.....Unless you have a high spend every month.
I had a huge month on my Amex last month being EOFY, $600k

I assume you're a business owner and you're able to put business spending on your AmEx and pocket the points yourself?

If that's the case, yes, you can accumulate bucketloads of points using that method.

Unfortunately, though, that's not a strategy that's open to most of us....!

 

[daft009]

I assume you're a business owner and you're able to put business spending on your AmEx and pocket the points yourself?

If that's the case, yes, you can accumulate bucketloads of points using that method.

Unfortunately, though, that's not a strategy that's open to most of us....!

Yeah lucky few

 

[burmans]

.....Unless you have a high spend every month.
I had a huge month on my Amex last month being EOFY, $600k

Assuming you can make that spend without a surcharge, definitely. But with many surcharges rising and ppd declining in many cases the value is marginal at best.

 

[daft009]

Assuming you can make that spend without a surcharge, definitely. But with many surcharges rising and ppd declining in many cases the value is marginal at best.

And claim the surcharge as a deduction.. it's still descent value

 

[lovetravellingoz]

To be honest the value of CC point collection has always been in signup bonuses rather than ongoing points collection, this just makes this even more obvious!

As an active CC Churner I would say in recent times yes, but back when Amex was running Bonus Point Promotions, rather than Cashbacks, the bonus point promotions were more lucrative than Signup Bonuses. In addition to to the Bonus Point Promotions there have been various other ways to mine points. Very lucrative for many of us. Those were the "Good Ole Days" for myself!


The Pudding Guy was my inspiration. And I certainly took advantage of many lucrative Point Runs

 

[kamchatsky]

To be honest the value of CC point collection has always been in signup bonuses rather than ongoing points collection, this just makes this even more obvious!

Even signup bonus on CC is reducing, not to mention that banks + Amex have more stricter criteria before approving credit cards. They are now stopping churners.

I am a high-income earner and have excellent credit rating, and I have been rejected 3 times this year on CC applications. So I will need to wait for a few months more before applying for CC again.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

Agree but am not so sad if a few people decide it’s a bit too hard.

One of the factors that has led us to where we are now is the fact that 10 + years ago this was a bit of a specialised hobby, with social media it became a lot more popular. More demand meant inevitably the value would decline.

Now people are saying it’s all too hard, for me that’s probably a positive!

I think the vast majority of those that have jumped on the social media bandwagon will quickly disappear because even with all the knowledge it is still hard and always has been. I'm pretty sure that working things out for yourself and putting effort in is NOT a characteristic of social media followers.

The biggest issue in my opinion at the moment is the sheer amount of people travelling. They have built up points due to Covid and effective advertising. Qantas does imply very much to how earning points translates into "free" flights. It remains to be seen if the number of people travelling at the moment continues at current levels.

 

[SOPOOR]

So Westpac (and their subsidiary St George) have decided to kill off any real advantage to collect points on their cards.

Their email:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

​

We're writing to let you know that we're making pricing and Points earn rate changes to your St.George xx_xx_X Platinum card ending in xx_x.

Points earn rate changes​

From 22 August 2025, we're making changes to how you can earn Points on eligible purchases1 with your card. In particular, we're changing the earn rates and expanding the spend categories.

Please refer to the table below to learn about all category and earn rate changes2. If you'd like to check out the current Points earn rates prior to these changes, please visit stgeorge.com.au/earning-points These changes will not impact your current Points balance.

How to earn Qantas Points New Qantas Points earn rate International spend For international purchases made in store and online $1 = 0.75 Points Once you spend $5,000 in a statement cycle, you will earn 0.2 Points per $1 on further eligible purchases1 Everyday spend Most major Australian supermarkets, department stores, petrol stations, dining and utilities $1 = 0.5 Points All other purchases3 $1 = 0.35 Points

What kind of businesses are included in the new 'everyday spend' category?​

Below is a list of examples of what is included in the new everyday spend category.

• Supermarkets include stores such as Woolworths, Coles, IGA, Harris Farm and ALDI. • Department stores include stores such as David Jones and Myer. • Petrol stations include stores such as Shell, Ampol, Caltex and BP. • Dining includes restaurants, cafes, fast food, bars, hotels and entertainment venues. • Utilities include payments for water, gas, electricity, internet, mobile and streaming services (excluding BPAY® payments).

Credit card pricing changes​

We regularly review our products and pricing. As part of this process, we've identified that your card has been on discounted pricing. To maintain the value and benefits your card offers, we'll be adjusting your rates and/or fees to reflect our standard advertised rates which aligns with the market. (my emphasis)

From August 2025, your interest rates and/or fees will be updated as shown in the table below.

Your pricing changes​

Your current pricing Your new pricing* from 22 August 2025 Annual card fee $99.00 $175.00 Annual Qantas Rewards Program fee $0.00 $75.00

More information on pricing changes​

The change to your annual card and/or rewards program fee will be applied on your next Card Fee date after 22 August 2025.

If you have an agreed arrangement schedule to repay any amounts outstanding at the time of the pricing changes, your repayment frequency and amount will not alter. However, as a result of these changes, the duration of your arrangement may be extended.

We understand that changes like these can be challenging. If you no longer feel your current credit card suits your needs, you may be able to switch to a different credit card. Please visit stgeorge.com.au/creditcardswitch

Please reach out to the St.George Customer Assist team for assistance if you experience financial difficulties.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

So the offer that I signed up for is now "identified as being discount pricing" and to "maintain the value and benefits" they are increasing the card fees 152% and reducing the earn rates. How does that maintain the value and benefits, when they are reducing them. They sound like they are doing me a favour ?? I will cancel my cards before the next annual fee is applied and just use a no fee c/c or a debit card.

​

Thats friggin horrible.
Might as well use savings

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The biggest issue in my opinion at the moment is the sheer amount of people travelling.

While I know your point was relating to points, the overall volume of people of travelling internationally is only going to continue to go up as more and more of the world's population (which is also increasing) is becoming affluent enough to travel internationally.

It is one reason why my wife and I now tend to favour travelling to places off the beaten path as places like major cities, or well known sites/attractions are just swarming with tourists and queues. Apart from the swarm, what is then at that site/location is often a an ersatz experience. Sure we still visit major locations, but after each trip what we have most enjoyed enjoyed is always the lesser known locations and activities.



My wife and are just back from walking 400km through mainly Tuscany on the Via Francigena. We walked from hilltop village/town to hilltop village town. The "tourist" meccas like Siena and San Gimignano we overnighted at along the walk were just zoo's during the day. Whereas, there were many amazing villages we stopped at which where fabulous and largely deserted of travellers. There are just so many hilltop villages in Italy that most are just not visited much. Sometimes just as they say lack a good rail connection.

The dining was authentic, and much cheaper too and when dining rather than being just part of an international throng, we were often the only non-Italians there. Whereas is say Rome or Siena if you go to a restaurant you will mainly just be given the English tourist menu, rather thana menu based on what local seasonal produce is best at that time.

 

[SYD]

but back when Amex was running Bonus Point Promotions, rather than Cashbacks, the bonus point promotions were more lucrative than Signup Bonuses. In addition to to the Bonus Point Promotions there have been various other ways to mine points. Very lucrative for many of us. Those were the "Good Ole Days" for myself!

AMEX still does. I just received 20k bonus pts by triggering two promos by purchasing 2x QF J tickets in the last Sale. $10k spend earned 41k pts (including 2x QF bonus pts).

 

[NoName]

Assuming you can make that spend without a surcharge, definitely. But with many surcharges rising and ppd declining in many cases the value is marginal at best.

Agree. I don’t even consider the earn on spend when I sign up for a new CC because I know that in general it is going to be closed so quickly, with such a small amount of spend actually put through, that the difference between say 0.5p/$ & 0.75p/$ is tiny. Would be a different story if I had a sizeable business and was looking for a keeper card to put hundreds of thousands of $ a year through but I don’t and neither do the vast majority of people.

 

[mrsterryn]

Probably sacrilegious to most in this group our Qantas points are going to be redeemed for gift vouchers (son can always use Bunnings cards ). We will wait , hopefully, for one of Qantas deals of a percentage off on buying cards. Have used that deal in the past a couple of times
Our travel isn't going to be locked into OneWorld anymore , also our travel for a variety of reasons is on the decline and I want to try new Airlines and new airports, also by default we do usually travel business
My main card is sadly the one with the lowest credit limit and it is used all the time and I accumulate Coles points on that . Very handy
Also realised the other that one of husband's cards has points which we didn't know about. So now need to investigate the advantage of those

 

[lovetravellingoz]

AMEX still does.

Yes I know they still run some. Though it is a bit like the Crocodile Dundee quote: "That's not a knife, that's a knife."

I just received 20k bonus pts by triggering two promos by purchasing 2x QF J tickets in the last Sale. $10k spend earned 41k pts (including 2x QF bonus pts).

"That's not a Points Promotion, that's a Points Promotion."

Current Amex Points Promotions are very limited and are of the type, such as the example that you posted, that you cannot go to town on to manufacture large sums of points via.

I would now probably not get more than 50K total in a year now of such bonus points as you recently earnt. Whereas, I was earning millions of bonus points per year by earning a lot more points than Amex was intending per promo. Almost 3 million in one promo, over a million several times and often 100 -500K per promo on a fairly regular basis. And then the odd 5/10/20 K on promos such as you mentioned and which they still have.