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September 15, 2025 — 5:00am
If you use credit cards to earn airline points, changes are in the wind that might affect your choice of providers. Towards the end of 2025, American Express will devalue the number of airline points Australians earn when they exchange their membership rewards points.
Effective from December 15, 2025, you will need three Amex Membership Reward points to buy one airline point with British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic, up from the current transfer rate of 2:1. Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus will cease to be a transfer partner, but it’s not all bad news. The two Amex rewards points currently required for one Qantas or Virgin Airlines point are unchanged, so too is Singapore Airlines, at its current exchange rate of 3:1.
The story behind the change
Amex is not alone. It’s part of a general trend that has seen Australia’s banks devaluing their airline reward schemes, or even cancelling their reward partner programs, since mid-2025. For example, from October 1, points acquired under the CommBank Awards program can only be used for Virgin Velocity points. The trend is a response to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s proposal to ban card payment surcharges and reduce interchange fees.
Scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2026, if approved the RBA move will cut the interchange fees that apply to card payments. These are the fees banks collect from a merchant – an airline in this case – when a card is used for a transaction. Part of that fee is used to buy airline points that reward customers, increasing the appeal of the banks’ credit cards.
When the banks earn less from their interchange fees, as the RBA proposes, they respond by reducing the value of their reward points, or ditching some or all of their reward partnerships. On the flip side of the coin, the RBA proposal would be a win for flyers since it reduces airline surcharges on credit and debit cards.
If your favourite airline is one of those affected, shift those points from your Amex account to your airline before the stroke of midnight on December 14. Before that date you might want to consider which card is going to work hardest to earn points for every dollar spent – and the answer is co-branded cards.
These are a partnership between a bank and a specific airline. Rather than earning rewards points which must be exchanged for airline points, they earn airline points, often at a rate of one point per dollar spent. When banks and other financial institutions are devaluing their rewards points, the points-earning power of co-branded cards makes a lot of sense.
Which cards come out on top?
For building your Qantas points balance, the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card is hard to beat. You earn 2.25 Qantas points per dollar spent on eligible Qantas products and services and 1.25 Qantas points on everyday purchases per dollar. For every dollar spent on government bodies in Australia, the rate drops to 0.5 Qantas points per dollar. The sign-up bonus is 70,000 Qantas points when you spend $3000 on eligible purchases within the first three months. Offsetting the annual $450 fee is a $450 Qantas Travel Credit to use on eligible domestic or international Qantas flights when booked through American Express Travel.
For an even bigger sign-up bonus, the American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card drops 150,000 bonus Qantas Points plus $250 in your Qantas Business Rewards Travel Fund, provided you apply before October 7, 2025 and spend $6000 on eligible purchases on the card within three months of approval. The earn rate is lower than the Amex Express Ultimate Card, at two Qantas points per dollar spent on Qantas products and services, but the same for everyday business spend and 0.5 Qantas Points on government, utilities and insurance per dollar. The annual fee is $450.
Another handsome Qantas points earner, the ANZ Frequent Flyer Black card, earns one Qantas Point for every $1 up to $7500 per statement period. That’s on top of 90,000 bonus Qantas Points and $200 back when you spend $5000 on eligible purchases in the first three months from approval. The annual fee is $425.
Virgin Australia’s Velocity High Flyer Cardholders earn one Velocity Point per dollar spent on retail purchases, up to $8000 per month. That’s on top of 40,000 bonus Velocity Points for each month when $3500 or more is spent on eligible purchases for the first two months after approval, and 20,000 Velocity Points if you keep your card open for over 12 months. There’s also a swag of ancillary benefits such as two complimentary single-entry lounge passes each year and up to 100 Status Credits per year for eligible bookings. The annual fee is $329.
Since the sign-up bonus applies only to new members, that might not factor into your choice of cards. In that case, one card that might work well for you is the HSBC Star Alliance credit card. This earns one Star Alliance Point per dollar spent on eligible purchases, up to $3000 per statement period. That’s not an earth-shaker. For example, those HSBC points convert to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer points at the ratio of 1:0.8, and the same for United Airlines, Air Canada and Eva Air points.
There’s also no sign-up bonus, but spend $4000 on eligible purchases within 90 days of approval and you’re on the fast track to Star Alliance Gold status. That brings solid benefits, including access to more than 1000 Star Alliance airport lounges around the globe, priority airport check-in and boarding, dedicated airport security lanes and priority baggage handling. On the downside, keeping that gold status requires a minimum annual spend of $60,000 on eligible purchases.
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