Can I farm points any other way?

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Hi all,

I live in North West QLD (Cloncurry), and I assume most of you would know that flights back to civilization are ridiculously expensive. Throw in the fact that I am a father of three, and married, and you are looking at on average about $3500 return to Brisbane. $2000 on the best special ever!

VA are the only airline that fly from our town to Brisbane direct. Therefore, we only fly VA as they are much cheaper than the QF alternative via Mt Isa.

We are planning a trip to Melbourne next year. We are looking at $4590 just in flights.

Consequently we are looking to use points to get us there. 178000 points + paid taxes will do the trick.

We currently have 95000. We can also pay for the cheaper BNE-MEL leg, and use our points to get to BNE, and that is 118000 + paid taxes + paid flights (approx $1000)

So, in regards to earning points, we do the following:


  • Family pooling
  • Use of Velocity Credit Card
  • Shop through Velocity store where possible
  • have a swap point agreement with a family member who only flies Qantas (we give them our QF points, they give us their VA points)
  • We have done the CrownBet Rewards thing
  • We have the myPost digital Mailbox

However, in our town we have the following setbacks:


  • No Coles
  • No BP
  • 130KMS to nearest Coles

We don't fly often for work, and we really don't want to sign on with another Credit Card.

Does anyone know of any other ways to boost our balance? I am open to any ideas.
 
I recall flying there a few years ago just to fly the route. As I'm with QF it ended up being BNE-TSV-CNJ-ISA-BNE.

I guess I would ask if the CC you are using is the best earning you can get? For example, I use a NAB QF Premium card that earns 1.5 points/$ on AMEX and I tend to use that as much as I can. I know NAB offer a similar card for VA so perhaps that could help?

While I understand another CC isn't what you want, the sign-up bonus can be exactly what you need in some circumstances, then you just need the willpower to cancel the card.
 
A tedious but totally free way to earn points is signing up for erewards (available through Velocity) You have to complete online surveys to earn erewards, which can then be transferred into Velocity points at various rates; ie: 6000 erewards = 2000 Velocity points.

I manage to do a survey every couple of days and to date, I have amassed a tidy little profit of over 10,000 Velocity points. There are T&Cs which limit the earn and redemption rates, but it can get you over the line if you're a few thousand points short. Points generally take a couple of weeks to be deposited, but sometimes they'll appear the next day.

Also, there are many affiliates associated with the Flybuys and Velocity programs. You don't just have to shop at Coles. Some of the big ones even have very attractive sign up bonuses going at the moment.

I'm also a big credit card advocate - but only if you have a watertight attitude to spending. I'm going to buy petrol, food and pay bills every week, so I may as well use the NAB credit card and reconcile before the end of the month. The points bonanza is incredible.
 
Both hubby and I earn 2000 points every 4-6 weeks via eReward surveys.

For the Velocity store, check every now and then what you can buy via them. We buy our chemist/toiletries, ebay, Kathmandu ect.

Any electric provider offers in your area? We got 10K points when we signed with our provider and get 6 points per dollar spend.

All these little things add up.
 
Why not sign up for a new credit card with bonus points. Just time it and say pay your rates, rego or insurances to meet minimum spend and then cut up the card. For example NAB visa rewards will get you 40000 Velocity pts for a free sign up and David Jones Amex will get you 20000 (or 25000 if you transfer by SPG) Velocity points for $99 sign on fee and 3 Maccas ice creams (bonus points after 3 spends). In fact if you spend the 3 spends in the first day of activation the card you can probably move on the bonus points, pay the $1.50 for the ice creams off you card over the phone and then cancel before the fee posts. Worked for me.

There is a potential 65,000 points for $99 (or zero if you are quick)and normal spend. Just cut the cards up after you get the points.
 
Sounds like erewards is a nice little booster. Looks like a new CC is inevitable for the points I need. The issue is that we have 2 places in town that accept Amex, and I can't see us spending enough there to teach the minimum spend required for the points bonus. So then I'm just left with an expensive credit card that I can't use very often.
 
In fact if you spend the 3 spends in the first day of activation the card you can probably move on the bonus points, pay the $1.50 for the ice creams off you card over the phone and then cancel before the fee posts. Worked for me.

There is a potential 65,000 points for $99 (or zero if you are quick)and normal spend. Just cut the cards up after you get the points.

Not bad. So the only expectation is 3 seperate transactions?
 
Have a look at your electricity/gas provider. EnergyAustralia are offering 10000 Velocity points to change over
 
I understand the small town challenge with lack of 'big box' spending / amex acceptance although I am no where near as remote as you! And, TBH it's one of the joys of living in the country :)

If you're planning on flying VA the virgin money credit card is offering 40,000 points (10k per month bonus if you spend $1500 a month) for $129, but you also get a $129 VA credit, so net zero for you. Disadvantage- will take you 4 months to earn the points, but the advantage is it's a visa not an amex.

Good luck!
 
Google says you have a Woolworths (if so you are definitely not isolated by our standards). If you use Amex edge card to buy discounted Woolworths gift cards a 3ppd you can then buy visa one cards at a 65c cost to use everywhere else you shop.
 
Google says you have a Woolworths (if so you are definitely not isolated by our standards). If you use Amex edge card to buy discounted Woolworths gift cards a 3ppd you can then buy visa one cards at a 65c cost to use everywhere else you shop.

Oh it's the smallest Woolworths in Australia. That's not even a joke. I've seen IGA's that are bigger. It is here because it was a once-booming mining town. But you are right, it is here. So I will definitely look into this voucher idea
 
VA are the only airline that fly from our town to Brisbane direct. Therefore, we only fly VA as they are much cheaper than the QF alternative via Mt Isa.

.

Though now you have shifted your thinking to buying flights via points rather than cash, it may best to sometimes redeem via VA and sometimes via QF. This may well have you flying more often.

Remember that too that while some spend or points earning opportunities can go to either program, that may points (particularly from promos) can only be gained to QFF and some to Velocity.

So earning points in both programs can allow you to earn more points overall.

Remember too that minor spend easily extends the life of all earnt points. So even if you end up redeeming say 3 times on VA for every 1 time on QFF it would be worth doing.

In addition generally speaking there are probably more points to be earnt to Qanats than to VA, and so not earning to QFF as well is forgoing free and very cheap points.
 
Not bad. So the only expectation is 3 seperate transactions?

Yes. I overindulged on a cheeseburger a drink and a thickshake in 3 separate transactions so spent $7.95 to qualify for the bonus pts. The bonus points were credited once the transactions registered onto my account which was about 2 days after the purchase. I moved them out immediately to SPG rewards and phoned up to pay the $7.95 then closed my card. The $99 Annual fee hadn't been posted so I never paid it.
 
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Yes, and when you perfect the process like some have done here, really not that hard either.

So true. Took me a while to get onto this. But I now average 200,000 points a year from credit cards without too much effort.
 
Google says you have a Woolworths (if so you are definitely not isolated by our standards). If you use Amex edge card to buy discounted Woolworths gift cards a 3ppd you can then buy visa one cards at a 65c cost to use everywhere else you shop.

Hey can you tell me more about how to do this? Am I buying the vouchers through AMEX first, earning points from that and then buying VISA prepaid cards through Woolies?
 
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