Please help. my head is exploding.....

[derrick]

Hi all,

I was only made aware of the Westpac Attitude platinum (amex+ visa card). and I am seriously thinking of throwing away the Amex plat charge card that I pay 900/yr for....

*** my objective is to earn as much Asia Miles points as possible. I only fly Cathay Pacific and I spend A LOT on amex and visa a yr..

so... here's what I understand thus far, please correct me if I got this wrong.



1) Amex Plat Charge card. (annual fee $900)
$1 = $1.5 RP = 1.5 AsiaMiles points (until end of March). then reverts to 1.1125 AMiles points. capping at 250k


2) Westpac Att Plat AMEX (annual fee $295)
$1 = 3 attitude points = 1.5 Asia Miles points. no capping.

3) Westpac Att VISA (free with above)
$1 = 1 attitude point = 0.5 AMiles

4) Citibank Select VISA. (annual fee $700)
$1 = 2 RP = 1 AsiaMiles points


I have to have a Amex AND VISA for my business.
and once Amex's March promotion of 1:1 asiamiles conversion expires, the Westpac one wins out right?

so am I correct in saying that the cheapest way to accrue maximum ASIAMILES point is to get a WESTPAC attitude platinum (for Amex purchases) and to keep my existing citibank Select card for VISA purchases???

many thanks for the braniacs out there to help me out.
I have completely overlooked this card previously as I didnt know they are with AsiaMiles. must be a recent thing yeah?

 

[cove]

You need card 2 and 4.
On Citi Select (on non Qantas) you can warehouse the points which is a nice feature. I use Kris Flyer because of redemption availability and the 1.333 points a dollar net earning rate. I could transfer to Asia Miles.
Card 3 is a waste of wallet space and card 1 is capped .

By the way it is Westpac Altitude

 

[derrick]

am I correct in that the Altitude platinum has no capping of points like they have with AMEX?? and no expiry??


so I am park the Altitude points until I am ready to transfer to AsiaMiles/Kris flyer??

thanks.

 

[oz_mark]

am I correct in that the Altitude platinum has no capping of points like they have with AMEX?? and no expiry??


so I am park the Altitude points until I am ready to transfer to AsiaMiles/Kris flyer??

thanks.

Correct, there is no capping, and no expiry while they remain in Altitude, and your account is not closed!

 

[RichardKopf]

Amex Business Platinum charge card is not capped for points earning. It has a limit on the bonus points, up to $250000.

I have had Altitude and currently maintain Krisflyer, for the odd Visa-required purchases.

The main issue, if you use the cards for business and use them heavily, is that the Westpac cards are not permitted to be used this way. I have had calls questioning the legitimacy of charges and been told that business expenses cannot be charged to personal cards.

Disregarding the above, the big problem for me is that Westpac won't give me more than about $40k limit per card, so to earn max points, based on our monthly Amex spend, I would have to pay the card off 6 -8 times per month (about every 4 days). This makes no sense to me, so I stick with the 125000 bonus points, then unlimited 1:1 on Amex. Additional benefit is that the money left in my account, instead of paying Visa every few days, earns around $20k per year, which one could use to actually purchase CX flights and earn points and status.

I guess each customer has different needs, but most bank issued rewards cards are not suitable for heavy business spend.

 

[smetana]

Amex Business Platinum charge card is not capped for points earning. It has a limit on the bonus points, up to $250000.

I have had Altitude and currently maintain Krisflyer, for the odd Visa-required purchases.

The main issue, if you use the cards for business and use them heavily, is that the Westpac cards are not permitted to be used this way. I have had calls questioning the legitimacy of charges and been told that business expenses cannot be charged to personal cards.

Disregarding the above, the big problem for me is that Westpac won't give me more than about $40k limit per card, so to earn max points, based on our monthly Amex spend, I would have to pay the card off 6 -8 times per month (about every 4 days). This makes no sense to me, so I stick with the 125000 bonus points, then unlimited 1:1 on Amex. Additional benefit is that the money left in my account, instead of paying Visa every few days, earns around $20k per year, which one could use to actually purchase CX flights and earn points and status.

I guess each customer has different needs, but most bank issued rewards cards are not suitable for heavy business spend.

With the Westpac cards you can top them up above what your credit limit is, so if you have a limit of $40k you can easily put $100k into the card and then use it to accumulate points. You don't need to pay the card off 4-6 times per month. We've been doing this and it works very well for us.

 

[RichardKopf]

With the Westpac cards you can top them up above what your credit limit is, so if you have a limit of $40k you can easily put $100k into the card and then use it to accumulate points. You don't need to pay the card off 4-6 times per month. We've been doing this and it works very well for us.

I agree this is possible, but as I've stated earlier, it makes more sense to me to pay once a month and earn $2000 interest on the money that stays in the bank during the month