Wow. Thanks for sharing the letter. This is definitely a game changer. Makes me think that other transactions that people have been using, like money paid via pay pal for share trades, may also be off limits now.
The fact that they are offering 10,000 points to walk away suggests to me that there may be some wiggle room here. There's a couple of approaches that I'd suggest, depending on how much time you're prepared to spend on this:
1) Send them a response saying that because the term (NOT terms and conditions) did not specifically exclude gift cards it's not reasonable to interpret this as including gift cards. May be able to strengthen this argument by stating that you've bought gift cards before and this has worked to get the bonus points so their interpretation seems to have now changed.
OR
2) Say that you're disappointed but want a chance to get to the minimum spend. Say that you're willing to spend $2000 in the next 30 days if they'll give you the points.
OR
3) Send this directly to the new FOS - AFCA (
https://www.fos.org.au/)
Let us know how you get on. This has significant repercussions for many of us who are in the churning game!