Qantas is again offering the opportunity to earn bonus points when purchasing gift vouchers until the end of the year, with 5 Qantas Frequent Flyer points earned for every dollar spent. Vouchers start of at $50, and increment upwards to $2000. They come with quite a number of terms and conditions, which can be found in the main link for the deal.
This offer is not as good as the 10 points per dollar offered in previous years, but below are the reasons it might make sense to consider buying one:
* Qantas gift vouchers are valid for 12 months from issue. If you know that you'll be travelling with Qantas in the next 12 months, particularly if you're planning an expensive, long-haul trip, it can make sense to pre-purchase gift vouchers to 'double dip' with your points earn. Not only will you earn points when purchasing the voucher, you'll also earn points when flying
* Purchasing gift vouchers can also help you avoid the dreaded credit card surcharge fee. Qantas doesn't levy credit card fees when you purchase gift vouchers, nor does it levy charges when you redeem them (even if you redeem the voucher for only a portion of your flight cost). So, if you were to purchase a $50 voucher and apply this to an international booking (which comes with a $30 card fee), you could then pay the remainder of the flight with your credit card and the $30 credit card surcharge would be waived.
* If you are looking for a way to purchase via Qantas to cheaply qualify for the annual flight earned as part of the AMEX Qantas Ultimate Card Offer, a $50 voucher could be a good way of doing so with minimal cost outlay.
Note that QF vouchers can very much be a PITA to use if you don't use the full voucher balance in one shot - the QF systems often don't issue refund vouchers correctly and require manual intervention to obtain the refund (and sometimes to make further bookings using the refunded voucher).
Given the hassles I've had with using them this year, and the fact that it's only 5 rather than 10 points per $, I may give it a pass…