Earn Frequent Flyer Points for Shopping Online in Australia

Product package boxes and shopping bag in cart with laptop computer which web store shop on screen for online shopping and delivery concept — Earn frequent flyer points for online shopping. Photo: Adobe Stock.

When shopping online, you could be earning up to 10 frequent flyer points dollar by clicking through to your preferred online retailer from an airline shopping portal such as the Qantas Online Mall or Velocity e-Store. That’s in addition to any points you might be able to earn on your credit card.

In Australia, you also have the option to earn United MileagePlus miles, Cathay Asia Miles and even now Emirates Skywards miles when shopping online. It’s an easy way to boost your points balance for purchases you were going to make anyway!

Contents

How online shopping portals work

To earn points through an online shopping portal, you’ll first need to log into your frequent flyer account and ensure your browser cookies are enabled. Then, click through from your airline’s shopping portal to the retailer’s website. The airline will track any purchases you make in order to reward you with frequent flyer points for every dollar spent.

Airlines are able to offer points in this way because, if you click through to the online retailer from their website, they’ll earn a small commission on any sales. They then pass on some of this commission back to you in the form of frequent flyer points.

This is similar to the business model of Cashrewards, except that Cashrewards gives actual money back rather than points.

In Australia, you can earn points by shopping through the online portals of multiple frequent flyer programs. Here are the main ones…

Qantas Shopping Online Mall

The Qantas Shopping Online Mall boasts a large list of online retailers where you can earn bonus Qantas points. These include Fantastic Furniture, Apple, UNIQLO, T2 and Pizza Hut. The number of Qantas points earned per dollar varies by store, and you can often earn bonus points during special promotions.

To ensure you never miss a points-earning opportunity, Qantas Frequent Flyer even offers a Points-Prompter browser extension. This works on desktop computers and highlights bonus Qantas point offers available when you’re shopping online.

However, you should be aware of and be comfortable with the possible privacy implications before downloading this extension. If you see something you wish to buy, you’ll still need to go to the Qantas Shopping portal to earn points for the purchase.

Velocity e-Store

The Velocity e-Store is Virgin Australia’s online shopping portal. With most retailers, you’ll earn 2 Velocity points per dollar spent. But, as with Qantas, there are regular offers where you can earn bonus Velocity points with certain retailers for a limited time.

There are more than 200 online retailers participating in the Velocity eStore including Menulog, iTunes, Myer, Bing Lee, Groupon and Specsavers.

Although there are many online retailers that participate in both the Qantas and Velocity shopping portals, the number of points awarded per dollar is not always equal. So, it pays to shop around!

United MileagePlus Shopping Australia

Since 2019, United Airlines offers its own shopping portal for the Australian market called MileagePlus Shopping. You can earn United miles for shopping at participating online retailers including Chemist Warehouse, Rebel, R.M. Williams and The North Face.

Asia Miles iShop

Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles iShop awards miles for every USD1 spent. The Cathay Pacific shopping portal has coverage for several different countries – simply select “ANZ” (Australia/New Zealand) as your region if you live in Australia.

Stores covered include Apple, Bonds, Menulog, Tommy Hilfiger, Baby Bunting and Samsung.

Emirates Skywards Miles Mall

Emirates has just launched its own online mall for the Australian market called Skywards Miles Mall. Emirates Skywards members can earn miles for every $10 spent with over 300 partner retailers such as Apple, eBay, BWS, Sunglass Hut and Appliances Online.

Leave a comment or discuss this topic on the AFF forum

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.

________________________

Community Comments

Join the discussion →

Loading new replies...

SYD Jul 05, 2023 #1

I don’t do a lot of online shopping but I invariably forget to go via QF shopping when I do…😔

Reply Like

W WilsonM Jul 05, 2023 #2

If you use google chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari, install the QF "Points Prompter" - it'll at least flag where you can earn points by shopping through QF Shopping

https://shopping.qantas.com/points-prompter

Reply 4 Likes

K Kerrodt Jul 06, 2023 #3

If you use google chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari, install the QF "Points Prompter" - it'll at least flag where you can earn points by shopping through QF Shopping

https://shopping.qantas.com/points-prompter

Does anyone have any insight into what data (if any) the points prompter harvests from you while you are using the browser just generally?

Reply 1 Like

bussyboy Jul 06, 2023 #4

I think there's two models for earning airline points/miles - the cookies/click-through options discussed in the article, as well as separately hosted shopping (earn and burn sites) such as Qantas Marketplace and KrisShop - some more in-depth analysis of the value/points earn in various platforms would have been good ;)

W WilsonM Jul 06, 2023 #5

It collects at least your web history, and you'll have to enable to cookies to use QF shopping (from the Google Chrome Extension page). Beyond that I doubt it would collect anything else, as it only really highlights that you could get QF points from this purchase, then directs you to QF shopping. It could also possibly use your web history to show 'tailored' recommendations/ads, but that's similar to every other website these days.

SYD Jul 06, 2023 #6

Yes, that’s in the article but not very useful if shopping on an iPad.

Michael Smith Jul 07, 2023 #7

I have to fight for every transaction under Qantas....sometimes for months. It registers under "click history" through my browser, but never seems to transfer to shopping history.
So after a month, I have to submit a request to ask why its not reflecting.

Some orders, like Nespresso, are the exact same every month, some go through, some get declined. Nespresso said it shouldn't be declined, Qantas "investigates" for months.

When they do rectify it, its the wrong points amount, so a few more emails to rectify that.

justinbrett Jan 30, 2024 #8

Well, looks like Godfreys has gone into administration, and my points claim for a 2.5K Robovac was almost 3 months old already. 7x points promo.

QF was emailing me once a week saying they were still investigating.

I'm assuming QF won't be giving me the points if Godfreys don't pay for them, and I doubt they'll be doing that now.

justinbrett Feb 02, 2024 #9

Well, looks like Godfreys has gone into administration, and my points claim for a 2.5K Robovac was almost 3 months old already. 7x points promo.

QF was emailing me once a week saying they were still investigating.

I'm assuming QF won't be giving me the points if Godfreys don't pay for them, and I doubt they'll be doing that now.

Update, they just credited (over 17K points).

Wonder if QF stepped in to honour the points, or perhaps mine slipped through before the administrators turned the tap off (purchase was Nov so it's been a while, but still within the 3 months)

Reply 2 Likes

Join the full discussion at the Australian Frequent Flyer →