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Westpac Altitude Black: 120L Qantas/Altitude/Virgin Points + ($250 Mastercard, $199 AmEx Annual Fee) + $50 Virgin/Qantas Fee

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As the title suggests 120k bonus points from the westpac black card.

The BIG change I have just noticed here (and why I am posting again) is the points on offer.

Qantas OR Altitude OR Virgin (!)

The virgin redemption also gives bonus status credits for meeting a minimum spend

I notice virgin is a newcomer to this list. I have found virgin points hard to find in big chunks like this, so I would rate this as a pretty damn good find for those who like singapore airlines redemptions.

Happy Churning

80,000 bonus Qantas/Altitude/Virgin Points when you apply, are approved and spend $4,000 on eligible purchases on the Mastercard within 90 days of card approval. ^
40,000 bonus Qantas/Altitude/Virgin Points when you apply, are approved and spend $3,000 on eligible purchases on the new American Express Westpac Altitude Black Card within 90 days of Card approval. ~

$250 for the mastercard + $50 for virgin/qantas cards
$199 for the amex card

75k minimum income requirement

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closed Comments

  • Seems to to be a $50 annual fee which will make this a pretty hot deal if so.

    • +1

      That the velocity fee. There is $250 card fee also

  • +4

    Wasn't it always 120,000 for the bundle? (80,000 for MC and 40,000 if pairing AMEX)?

  • +4

    U need to provide more details, is it bundled with amex for 120k points ? Fees ?

    It's vague post, according to me.

    • Have added the additional information

  • +2

    For velocity to get 120k you need spend $4000 on Mastercard (80k) and $3000 on Amex (40k) in first 90 days

    Card fee look be $250 + some $50 velocity fee

    You do get:
    Two complimentary Economy X Seat Upgrade Vouchers (for eligible domestic flights only)

    • plus 2x virgin lounge vouchers. same with qantas 2x lounge vouchers

    • +1

      The Virgin Economy X seat upgrades are interesting, I have not seen that before on a card. It's subject to availability, so it'd be interesting to see what availability is like. Ideally they'd tell us how they work out whether this is availability - e.g. what fare class are they looking for? Does it come from the pool of award seats? You'd really want to have an idea if you can use these vouchers before booking a flight, and then use them straight away after booking.

      • +1

        I'd expect it just means availability of that grade i.e. if it's completely sold out they can't force someone else out so you can use your voucher. But they're a lower value upgrade of a single class, without any regular award benefit so they don't otherwise segregate the class. So I doubt they'd segregate upgrades to it just for this benefit.

  • +1

    $449 annual fee and $50 Qantas rewards program fee from the looks of elsewhere on the Westpac site for the same card

    https://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/credit-cards/rew…

    Can you clarify if this is the same one OP or different fee wise

    • +1

      Same fee wise. Approx $500 for the bundle

  • -2

    Income requirement?

    • its in the blurb. min 75k

  • +11

    Not worth it at full price. The qantas ones tend to come up with no annual fee every now and then and would be better value

    • Waiting patently for this fingers crossed

  • +17

    Apparently Qantas is going to announce major changes to its points programme shortly. Expect disappointment.

    • Jeez -do you know any more?
      I wonder if it's good to spend them now before the value goes down?

    • That article mentions that Qantas Loyalty is extremely profitable. Is there a reason to expect disappointment, or should we expect them to further extend it?

      • +1

        I suspect some form of revamp, potentially one that will provide more award seats, but at a marginal increase in cost for example, or they may revamp it to a revenue/dynamic cost model. So I don't think it will be a clear enhancement/disappointment, but either unclear, or some winners, some losers depending on your preferences.

        • I also have to wonder if they would consider adding family pooling of points & status, to match Velocity.

        • Strangely they have ramped up a whole lot of feel good articles lately. I expect disappointment.

        • -1

          Just devalued the points by around 13% and supposedly reduced the taxes on the Qantas fares. But wait until the next fuel surcharge kicks in. With the reduction in points earning on cards lately, this is a cruel joke.

  • +2

    Fyi 2 credit checks

    • +1

      For those with Amex cards already, I had an existing Amex Essentials card and Amex didn't do a credit check when I got the Altitude card – only one check from Westpac.

  • +1

    There will be two inquiry on your credit file, something to think about if your credit file isn't very healthy.

    • For those with Amex cards already, I had an existing Amex Essentials card and Amex didn't do a credit check when I got the Altitude card – only one check from Westpac.

  • Should I go for Qantas or Virgin points? I've got 90k Qantas and 190k Virgin now. We're thinking of going to the USA next year. Any thoughts?

    • +4

      Neither if you hope to redeem for US flights (unless economy, which aren't great value i.e. paying the annual fee cost, plus all the booking fee costs would likely be more than many US tickets currently). The US is high demand and hard to get with FF points on either airline.

    • personal opinion here: VA's a better product to the states.

      • VA business is a better product domestically as well as internationally!

      • +1 , took VA Business to LA last month and it was great. Delta on the way back wasn't bad either.

  • +2

    I don't see anything about having had any Westpac credit cards in the last year. I just closed my Westpac Altitude Rewards card 2 weeks ago. Can anyone else see anything?

  • I'm not an experienced OZBargainer can I get it again after getting this deal and cancelling my cards?

    • +3

      Usually have to wait 12 months between cancelling and signing up for most cards. Amex is 18 months I believe.

      • Too early then, thanks!

  • T&Cs say: Switches, upgrades or Westpac group staff are ineligible on Westpac issued cards.

    I have an existing cc with Westpac and hold the Altitude Qantas Card.

    Does anyone no if I apply for this card in addition to my existing card if I will be excluded from getting the points?

    • These terms make it sound like you could the Altitude points - but not the Amer Ex points: "Card Members who currently hold or who have previously held any other American Express Westpac Altitude Card product issued by American Express Australia Limited in the preceding 18 month period are ineligible for this offer." i.e. just the 80000 points. Unless you don't already have the American Express in which case it sounds like both would apply.

  • +2

    Better sign up directly with AMEX and get their perks than this. Too expensive annual fee for what it is

    • the bonus points v annual fee is on the high side. However not many cards offer virgin points, so this is a good way to collect them.

      If you just take the westpac card not the amex, the value is far better.

  • +6

    I used to have this card and Westpac Credit cards are not the easiest to deal with if you ever have a dispute. Their letters in the mail never seemed to arrive/arrived 2 weeks late. When I sent documents through via an online hub, they were lost, even though I got a confirmation from their system that it was received. They never follow up on anything and just assume it wasn't sent in. I have had disputes reversed against my favor due to the missing documents and am still trying to sort out the transaction 4 months after closing the account. Compared to AMEX directly, they are such a nightmare.

    • +3

      I had a small issue with them ($15)and while they followed up initially to ask more questions never came back with answer or remedy. Luckily I have a Westpac personal banker and got him to follow up. Two weeks later he said he did not think he would ever receive a reply to his query and credited me an amount 3 times the disputed sum. I have still not heard back after 6 months. So if you do not have a personal banker bad luck.

    • +5

      I did this deal previously and Westpac are the most useless bunch. Happiest moment of the week when I was able to cancel the card with them :)

  • +1

    be aware of the fine print for the 'eligible purchases'.

  • My card from last bonus is nearly up for the 12 months, I may ask to get these bonuses to keep the card

    • +2

      Good luck with that.

  • +1

    TL;DR = if you already intend on travelling in the near future, get these CC deals. If you aren't, don't let the card trick you into doing so. :)

    • +2

      Not a bad piece of advice. I have 700k points and haven't had much of a chance to use them. And when you do eventually use them to redeem flights, the tax is still pretty significant.

      • Goddam 700k!

      • Have you considered just selling them? That's a decent chunk of money you're just sitting on there.

        • Yes but apparently Qantas are cracking down so I decided against it.

  • +1

    So annual fee is combined $250 Mastercard, $199 Amex Annual Fee) + $50 Virgin/Qantas Fee = 499 all up…. seems a lot….

  • That’s a bunch of annual fees that aren’t on first year promo…

  • +1

    this is great but im probably excluded for having a westpac one in the last 12 months

  • Noob question: Which countries are best value to book economy tickets using Qantas FF points?

  • $300 in fees for 80,000 points is relatively poor value. Can often get $0-200 fee for this amount of points during promos.

  • +8

    Sorry, don't see how it's much of a deal.

    $250 and $199 fees are the standard. No discount or waiver.
    80k bonus and 40k bonus again not much more than previously and at the fees paid.

    In comparison generally:

    Amex 100k points. Lower min income. Still get the qantas lounge and amex lounge memberships and higher point conversion on the amex deal for the amex card. $450 fees also but you can get some/all that back in travel credit.
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/461222

    St George 60k points $99 fee.
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/461896

    Qantas Premier 42k pionts $29 fee
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/460544

    Qantas Platinum $199 120k points
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/460398

    • -1

      It's mainly a deal for virgin points (transfer to singapore airlines). Not many high bonus point virgin cards out there.

      Yes for qantas, its relatively poor value I agree.

      • +1

        But even for Virgin you are better off with the Virgin flyer.. 75k bonus for $64 https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/448085

        • +1

          My 3rd month on this card starts this weekend. My first 25k points came with first statement. Pretty happy. Claimed my points pro-rata (80K from previous offers) for 2x business class ADL-MEL return. Same seats were $1,760 total for cash. Not bad for $64!

  • +1

    How is this a deal..?

  • +8

    Probably gonna be neg voted, but $500 in annual fees for 120,000 points doesn’t seem like quite a deal to me. Guess I’ve been spoilt by all the awesome credit card deals from yesteryears. I accumulated up to 350,000 points on $0 fee offers. Flew halfway across the world for basically nothing but my own expenditure.

    • +7

      Completely agree. In August 2018 this card was 120,000 points with no annual fee in the first year. That was an awesome deal, but this is terrible. I have a spreadsheet that gives an overall rating based on annual fee (big penalty for this), points, min spend, whether it's all one spend or split across several month, and whether it has any included value (such as lounge passes, flight credits, etc) albeit at a discount since those inclusions come with conditions & limitations & expiries. This card literally went from a rating of 222 for that previous deal (the best on the market) to 22 (the second worst on the market).

      Since this is effectively 2 cards, I would like to propose an alternative & comparison - namely that the best back-to-back 2 card combo for Qantas points currently is:
      * 90K Qantas Points, $49 First Year @ Citibank VISA Signature Qantas Card - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/456908
      * 90K Qantas Points, $135 First Year @ Bankwest Qantas World MasterCard - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/459579
      Those 2 together will get you 180,000 points (versus 120,000 for this, so earning 50% more points), cost $184 in first year annual fees (versus $499 for this, saving you $315), incur you 2 credit inquiries (exactly the same as this), get you 2 priority pass lounge passes (versus 2 Qantas lounge passes for this, basically same value), you have a min spend of $10,000 which you can do back-to-back over 6 months (versus $7,000 min spend on this concurrently, i.e. just 3 months for that whole spend).

      This could be a great deal if they eliminated the annual fee or discounted it substantially. But with $500 in annual fees, it's a dog. Heck, you get more effective value (number of points valued at 1.2 cents each, minus annual fee) in the Citibank VISA signature Qantas alone than you do in both of these cards ($1056 for Citibank versus $991 for this). So, sorry, but it's a hard pass, plus a "the deal is not the cheapest available" neg from me.

      • I use velocity points and OP made a mention it's better targeted at those that want to fly virgin/SQ. But very good share nonetheless.

        • Yup agree. $500 for 120k qantas points = no thanks. But $500 for 120k velocity points is justifiable

  • +2

    You're better off getting the bankwest card with 90k points for $135

  • +2

    FYI - there is also this deal on at the moment - Velocity Platinum 100K points, $375 annual fee but get a free domestic flight included. This also has a low credit limit (3,000), single credit check and relatively low minimum income (65K I think). Min spend is also more reasonable at $1K per month for 4 months (total $4K)

    https://www.americanexpress.com/au/credit-cards/velocity-pla…

  • just got a letter today from westpac saying they will be changing my auto redemption to the virgin direct earn card 0.75 / $1 from august 2 and charging $50 per year but the first year fee being waived. also 2 free virgin lounge visits and 2 upgrade vouchers but you need to make a virgin eligible purchase every year. anyone else get this mailed offer and what is a virgin eligible purchase and what is the minimum spend?

    • Got the same letter, wondering whether it is better to stay back in the original programme to save $50 (2nd year)

  • The Amex $199 fee has now been waived until 5 August for Westpac members.

    • what kind of members?

      • Seems to be any Westpac bank account or card holders, just need to sign in to your Westpac account on the page to see the offer.

    • Where did you find the August 5 detail?

      • Doesn't seem to show publically anymore, but if you sign in to the Westpac app, go "Products" and Credit Cards, then select the Altitude Black Bundle, it shows this on the page:


        American Express Westpac Altitude Black Card

        Exclusive annual card fee offer: $0 in the first year, $199 thereafter**

        Interest Rate on purchases: 20.24% p.a.

        Cash advance rate: Cash advances are not available

        Interest free days on purchases: Up to 45

        Minimum credit limit: $3,000

        Exclusive annual card fee offer is only available for existing customers who apply online via this page by 15th October 2019. New cards only.*


        Seems like it's now 15 Oct 2019, the other $250 rate is still applicable.

        • Mine reads as follows:

          **First year Annual Card Fee waiver: The American Express Westpac Altitude Black Card will have a $0 introductory annual Card fee for the first year of Card Membership. After the first year, the annual Card fee will be $199 per year and is payable on the anniversary of card approval. Offer only available to new American Express Westpac Altitude Black Card Members who apply between 27th June 2019 and 12th December 2019 and are approved.

          FYI - I already have the Black Mastercard as part of my home loan package.

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