Westpac Altitude vs Westpac Earth - calling on the experts

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DTM1

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I hold both cards and was just assessing distribution of spend (particularly tax bills).

Putting aside the recent double points promotion with the Altitude card, it strikes me that the earn rate is far superior on the Earth card (see the two examples below). Clearly availability is also a relevant issue.

This is based on Earth transferring at 1:1 and Altitude transferring to CX and SQ at an effective tfr rate of 0.75 (clearly the promotion rate of 1.5 was superior, but after the promotion ends, seems to make more sense to revert to QF? As a P1, availability not an issue).

Have I worked this out correctly?

cheers


MEL – HKG in business (return)

Qantas: 120,000 points = $80,000 of spend on Earth Amex Card
Cathay: 80,000 points = $106,000 spend on Altitude Amex Card

MEL – JFK in business (return)

Qantas: 256,000 points = $170,600 of spend on Earth Amex Card
Cathay: 175,000 points = $233,000 spend on Altitude Amex Card
 
The main issue with Earth is the points capping which means that expenditure >$3,750 is effectively wasted.
 
My understanding with points earn is that altitude basically works out the same as earth when you make the transfer.

Earth (Black Amex) earns 1.5QFF per $1, while Altitude earns 3 Altitude Points per $1 which convert at 50% to the Asian programs (so basically, $1 = 1.5 CX/SQ/MH point).
 
Fair enough, but the OP's post implies an earn rate of 1.5/$ which I thought was Black. Do you get that on Platinum too?

No, Platinum has an earn rate of $1:1 for Amex and $1:0.5 for MasterCard.

Really? I thought the earth cards had the same earn. The reason I made them move me to Black was for the cap not the earn rate. I'll have to double check.
 
The basic Earth and Earth Platinum no longer exist, you get the Altitude card then nominate QFF earn rather than Altitude points.
 
My understanding with points earn is that altitude basically works out the same as earth when you make the transfer.

Earth (Black Amex) earns 1.5QFF per $1, while Altitude earns 3 Altitude Points per $1 which convert at 50% to the Asian programs (so basically, $1 = 1.5 CX/SQ/MH point).

I'm not sure that that's right - outside of the promotion period, I think Altitude only earns 1.5/$, which is really at the heart of my initial post.
 
For Platinum Plus, not regular Platinum.

Platinum plus replaced platinum. I started on the platinum card, it then was changed to platinum plus, with platinum being discontinued. Based on that screenshot platinum plus is now defunct as well. The earth platinum/plus should still exist for grandfathered account holders.

The basic Earth and Earth Platinum no longer exist, you get the Altitude card then nominate QFF earn rather than Altitude points.


Which is not an earth card.
 
I'm not sure that that's right - outside of the promotion period, I think Altitude only earns 1.5/$, which is really at the heart of my initial post.

You had me worried for a minute, but I'm pretty sure that outside of the promotion period, Altitude Black Amex earns 3 Altitude points, which then can be transferred to 1.5 KF or Enrich or VA or Cathay points.
 
You had me worried for a minute, but I'm pretty sure that outside of the promotion period, Altitude Black Amex earns 3 Altitude points, which then can be transferred to 1.5 KF or Enrich or VA or Cathay points.

That's correct - Black Amex earns 3 Altitude points per $, which converts to 1.5 FF pts per $ for those programs.
 
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