3. EARNING POINTS WITHOUT FLYING.
One of the best things about frequent flyer programs is you can earn points without flying anywhere.
In fact, you can and should be earning frequent flyer points on everything from your shopping, phone, credit cards, petrol, going to the movies, eating out and numerous other ways, you can even earn points just for walking.
It sounds like hard work to organize your life to be earning maximum points but once you are set up you are earning without effort and it won’t cost you any extra money. When you are sitting sipping champagne in Seat 1 A you will be very glad you did.
CREDIT CARDS
These can be your biggest “on ground” points earner.
Banks are regularly trying to entice more customers with their frequent flyer offers, I have received five offers in the last two weeks to apply for a new credit card, with up to 100,000 bonus points offered as a reward. You can do a lot with 100,000 points , upgrade you to business class on a long haul flight, or upgrades to business class on Australian domestic flights, or business to first class London to Singapore, and plenty more.
Credit cards as points earners sometimes get a bad review, but if managed correctly you can earn a lot of points very quickly.
If you can’t afford a credit card or don’t normally use one then I would just advise you activate your Qantas Frequent Flyer Debit Master card or Virgin Global Velocity Debit visa card and earn points that way.
For those of you that can afford a credit card make sure you pay it off every month, this is probably the single most important point, there is no point at all earning enough points to redeem a $300 flight when you’ve spent twice that on interest.
Most of the points/credit card offers will insist on a minimum spend within 3 months, so just pay your bills early to get to the amount, don’t overspend for the sake of it, it’s not necessary, once you’ve spent the eligible amount you can cut your card up and wait for the next card offer. The quickest way to earn points is by “card hopping” and you aren’t spending any more money in fact you can save money. Most of the offers include the first year free of the annual fee. This means you could effectively apply for a card, do the minimum spend in 3 months, cut up the card, apply for another card with different bank do the same again and repeat, in one year you’ve paid no annual fees and earned 400,000 points!
If there are no current card offers after your 3 months is up, there are Amex Cards that have no annual fees that still earn you points so use that whilst waiting.
If you don’t want to card hop find a card that meets your needs financially and best meets your frequent flyer needs.
If you travel a lot, a card that includes travel insurance is well worth it, your annual fee will be much less than travel insurance.
Some cards offer two Qantas lounge passes. This is handy if you aren’t yet a Gold member (stick with me and you will be soon) flying economy or have friends you want to take into the lounge with you. These are not needed if you fly business class, are a Qantas lounge member or are a gold member or higher.
Several Amex cards offer lounge passes to American Express lounges, again unless the airport you are travelling from has one of these lounges this benefit is no benefit.
Read the fine print!
Once you’ve got your credit card use it to pay for everything. Amex pays more points than Master card or Visa and even though you may get charged %1 more than the other cards earning almost double the points per dollar spent is worth it in the long run.
If you use your card to pay for items that are also paying points you start earning double, triple and quadruple points.
Take for example spending $1500 on hotel accommodation. If you book a hotel on the Qantas website you can earn 6 points per dollar spent on certain hotels, add the 1.5 points earned per dollar spent on Amex when you pay online then you have earned 11,250 points, that’s enough points to redeem a short flight, in Australia, Europe or USA and it has cost you no more money than you would have spent anyway. (Qantas has a price guarantee and will match lower prices)
See how easy it is and that’s just the start, stay tuned for more ways to earn points on the ground.
If you want individual help setting up your life to earn points, follow me on instagram and facebook and message me.
My latest client has just received her Platinum status a jump from silver..you could be next.
disclaimer
Information is correct at time of posting.
THE MINDFUL FLYER 