Gold Credit Card points question from Newbie

[Quokka]

I have a Commonwealth Bank Gold Credit Card which I put everything on and pay off in full every month. I spend between 3,000 and 5,000 on the card each month.

I do most of my grocery shopping at Woolworths and BIG W (through choice - I don't chase awards) and have joined their awards thingo too but have earned no points because it is not linked???? (can't work that one out).

Currently I have 184,000 awards points on the Credit Card that I was thinking of transferring to Frequent Flyer Points.

But I don't know what to do. Is that the best thing to do with the points?

I will be travelling more by air over the coming years and believe that I could use the Flyer points now whereas previously that was never an option.

I have read somewhere that you can currently joing Qantas FF for free and I have also read somewhere that transferring the points from Commonwealth Awards is not good value to Qantas FF.

I am very confused and quite frankly don't know where to start.

Any advice would be kindly accepted.

 

[Moopere]

G'day Quokka,

Welcome to AFF.

I have a CBA gold card too, and believe me, you need to look seriously at other alternatives.


> and have joined their awards thingo too but have earned no points because it is not linked????

I assume this is the everyday rewards (EDR) system that Woolies has going? If so, you should have been joined to QFF at the same time, I did it this way. You get free QFF membership (normally $82.50). You'll get an orange plastic loyalty card which looks like a credit card but its the thing you need to be giving to the checkout folk whenever you make a purchase at Woolies, BigW, Dick Smith, etc (Woolies conglomerate). Spend over $30 at Woolies ($50 at DSE I think) gets you 1 QFF point / dolalr spent for the amount in excess of $30 (or $50). Also works for fuel if you use Woolies service stations and have opted to trade fuel savings for points (0.5 QFF / cent of savings generally)

Worth doing as it mounts up over time.

Now, credit cards. Two-three years ago or so, QFF changed their policy and a lot of affiliated corporates who were previously able to transfer from their own loyalty schemes (like the CBA's Awards system) has to make a choice ... direct sweep points to QFF or leave the QFF system altogether. As a result, today, if you have points accumulated in the CBA Awards system you can't transfer these to QFF - its just impossible. You can use them to buy flights with whomever CBA is currently partnering with (is it flight centre at the moment?), but generally, the conversion rate is rubbish.

Last time I looked you could transfer Award points to Velocity as 2:1, pretty awful, but perhaps better than other choices - I'm not sure you can still do this though as I have not checked for ages.

The only way to get QFF points from your CBA Gold at the moment is to 'opt-in' to QFF. This costs $10 a year and will cause every CBA Award point you earn from that moment onwards to get swept directly to QFF once a month at 2:1. I've done the above and also opted for the companion Amex as this earns twice Awards points - this translates into VISA at 0.5 QFF / $1 spent, Amex 1 QFF / $1 spent.

As a result of the above, I don't use the CBA VISA for anything, I got a Woolies EveryDay Rewards Credit Card (M/C) which earns at 1:1 for use in those circumstances where Amex is not accepted or over surcharges.

 

[samillionaire]

Last time I looked you could transfer Award points to Velocity as 2:1, pretty awful, but perhaps better than other choices - I'm not sure you can still do this though as I have not checked for ages.

Hi, How do you sweep it into velocity? was wondering as according to Velocity - FAQ 60k velocity points could get a return flight to KL ex fuel+tax. seems that it would be worth more than 120k cba reward points which i was recently quoted by Flight Centre to be worth approx AU$6xx

 

[Moopere]

Hi, How do you sweep it into velocity? was wondering as according to Velocity - FAQ 60k velocity points could get a return flight to KL ex fuel+tax. seems that it would be worth more than 120k cba reward points which i was recently quoted by Flight Centre to be worth approx AU$6xx

You can't "sweep" to Velocity, but you used to be able to 'buy' velocity points with CBA Awards points ... an awards transfer if you like. From memory it was 1:0.5.

However, I've just nipped over to my CBA account and had a look. Awards site is down (of course!!) but the awards PDF was available - doesn't look good, seems like the only travel option now is FlightCentre, no transfer of points to anyone.

Got out the calculator and did a random pick of the various awards to see what the CBA thought the value was - seems like they have nailed their points value at 0.54c / point.

Gold VISA/MC cards get 1 Award point per dollar spent, the paired AMex gets 2 Awards points / $. So, at the CBA's own valuation, thats 0.54c / $ spent on VISA or 1.08c/$ spent on Amex.

The direct sweep to QFF gives me 1 QFF per $ spent on Amex, which, to me, is 3c/$. Even the Visa, at 0.5 QFF points / $ is still 1.5c so, well above the banks own Awards value. Worst case QF value for a QFF point is never below about 0.7c/point.

But in any event, looks like Velocity transfers are gone. Maybe best now to "waste" ones points with a 500$ cash card @ 92,000 Awards points? The flightcentre redemptions seemed fixed to the 0.54c rate ... so unless they were offering some weird CBA only specials you'd just be burning your points.

The whole CBA CC awards scheme, from their basic blue Awards card through Gold, Platinum and now Diamond seems a complete waste of money and time, its been devalued over the years to a shadow of its former self.

 

[samillionaire]

You can't "sweep" to Velocity, but you used to be able to 'buy' velocity points with CBA Awards points ... an awards transfer if you like. From memory it was 1:0.5.

you are right Moo, it's not on the cba website but on the velocity website Commonwealth Bank | Velocity Rewards

Have to dial in to 'purchase' points. with that said you reckon its worth sweeping over given the value of flight centre redemption?
also another question following the redemption for flight link on the velocity is the 60k points fixed or can it go up to ie. 70k -90k depending on travel period., wouldnt want to convert and then later on realise i wont have enough velocity points, if its more i'd rather convert to flight centre and pay less for a ticket

 

[Stephen65]

The whole CBA CC awards scheme, from their basic blue Awards card through Gold, Platinum and now Diamond seems a complete waste of money and time, its been devalued over the years to a shadow of its former self.

Yes I agree. I remember when it was 1 QFF point per $1 on gold and platinum cards uncapped.

The only CBA card worth having anymore is the Amex Diamond card because it 1.5QFF to $1 with a cap of $333,000. The MC Diamond is pretty useless because its only 0.67QFF to $1.

 

[Moopere]

you are right Moo, it's not on the cba website but on the velocity website Commonwealth Bank | Velocity Rewards

Have to dial in to 'purchase' points.

The Awards web site at CBA is back up today so I was able to check. Yes, you can still transfer CBA rewards to Velocity and also to Airpoints (NZ):

Velocity Rewards* is the loyalty program of 
Virgin Australia. Velocity members can redeem their Commonwealth Awards points 
for Velocity Points to book any seat any time with Virgin Australia and 
Velocity's international airline partners including Etihad, Delta and Virgin 
Atlantic just to name a few. A minimum of 3,600 Commonwealth Awards points needs 
to be transferred and additional points must be transferred in increments of 
1,000 points. Your Velocity Account must be in the same name as your 
Commonwealth Awards account.

[B]2 Awards points = 1 Velocity Point[/B]


Air New Zealand Airpoints[SUP][SIZE=2]TM[/SIZE][/SUP]* is the frequent flyer program of Air New Zealand. Airpoint 
members can redeem their Commonwealth Awards points for Airpoint Dollars[SUP][SIZE=2]TM[/SIZE][/SUP] (Airpoints frequent flyer currency) for use on any available 
seat with Air New Zealand or it's partner airlines. A minimum of 4,000 
Commonwealth Awards points needs to be redeemed. Additional points must be 
transferred in increments of 160 points. Your Air New Zealand Airpoints account 
must be in the same name as your Commonwealth Awards account.  


[B]Every 160 Awards points = 
1 Airpoints Dollar

[/B]The rate to Velocity is, as surmised, 2 CBA awards = 1 Velocity point.

with that said you reckon its worth sweeping over given the value of flight centre redemption?

Yes, a pertinent question indeed. I've been sitting on this decision for ages myself. I've done the calcs with the 'old' Virgin, previous to their new re-launch, and couldn't stretch a Velocity point to be worth more than 0.7c to me. It seems fixed, much like the CBA's Awards value. QF, by way of overcharging for some services, notably J class domestic, seems to offer better redemption value of 2-3 or even 4c a point.

I'm guessing that when DJ finally pushes out the full suite of their new product later this year that a similar 'overcharging' for premium services will happen and this will, in turn, push up the potential value of a Velocity point ... however, right now:

Velocity point = 0.7c for Moopere
CBA AWards point = 0.54c via almost any sort of CBA redemption except cash back which appears to be 0.5c/point

To get my Awards points into Velocity requires a 50% hit as the transfer rate is 2:1:

1 CBA Awards point worth 0.54c = 0.5 Velocity point = 0.35c

ouch!

Or I take the money and run at 1 CBA point = 0.5c of real money which I can then use to purchase my own researched ticket pricing rather than Flightcentre's offerings.

On the face of it, the flightcentre deal is probably the best of a bad bunch so long as you are happy with their retail pricing and general business model. Wouldn't suit me though, so the money looks like the next least bad way to go. I've been holding off for nearly a year hoping that Velocity might come up with a 'special offer' and allow me to transfer to them at closer to 1:1

 

[Moopere]

Those watching this thread and thinking of transferring CBA awards to Velocity might find this interesting:

20% Bonus Points Offer | Velocity Frequent Flyer

20% additional Velocity FF points upon trnasfer until 31st October.

This deal would bring my transfer value from 0.35c / Awards point to 0.42c / Awards point. Awards to cash is about 0.5c / awards point.

On the face of it, Cash might still be the way to go. However, points are not easy to accrue in large numbers (cheaply) so one might consider a gamble that Virgins rollout of product this year may provide the potential for greater than 0.7c/Velocity point redemption.

 

[samillionaire]

Woahh Moopere, you beat me to it I was just about to post it till i noticed you posted it 6 minutes after I received the email from virgin ;x
Would you swap it over to VFpoints? you reckon its worth now I might just not sure If I should good thing I held out!

 

[Moopere]

I want to close my CBA Gold this year as it costs me money and doesn't offer anything except the insurance which I can get elsewhere. To that end, I must make some sort of decision fairly soon.

I've been waiting for ages to get a bonus transfer offer and honestly, I was hoping for 50% which would make the decision easy. I suspect this is the best I'll see before decision time on my card.

For the points I still have stashed in CBA I'll be 64$ better off to go with cash, assuming VFF points = 0.7c to me and assuming 0.5c/point to get a cash card out of CBA rewards.

I'm thinking that in my circumstance I might go for the points transfer. I'm cautious with the new VA and am not at all likely to jump into their waiting arms until I see some actual real measurable change on the ground (thats of benefit to me), so, I'm not going to grab a VFF credit card any time soon. So, given this, but a want to test Virgin later in the year to see how their new rollout is going, I think having some points around for a J class upgrade might suit my purposes.

Have to read up on when points expire in the VFF scheme as I won't be posting a lot of activity in the short term, unless my trial run is so unbelievably good that I become an overnight convert