Fees: $60 per year for Qantas Points earning option (free for CommBank Awards Points earning option). $19 per month credit card fee, or spend at least $2,000 on your Smart Awards credit card in your statement period to qualify for no monthly fee for that month.
edit: DISCLAIMER: a few people are getting their knickers in a knot over this card in particular not being exceptional value which I do tend to agree with so I do encourage you to consider the table comparing various credit cards below to see best option for your circumstances. This card does require to be open for 4 months and spend $2k per month in everyday spending to avoid fees. There are better options available but this was best suited to me and my circumstances and is the best points to fee ratio but does require a large $$ spend and require the card to remain open for 4 months
To get the best value out of this card you need to spend $2,000 per month on everyday transactions to receive 12,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points each month for four months totaling 50,000 Qantas Points and also to avoid the monthly fee of $19. You will only pay $60 per year to opt-in to earn Qantas Points, meaning you can get 833 points per dollar spent in fees.
What can 50,000 Qantas Points get you? You can get a Classic Rewards Economy Flight from Sydney to Los Angeles one way for 41,900 points. That same flight in cash would cost $1,500. Not bad for only $60 in CommBank fees and 8,100 points leftover to play with…
Alternatively, you can go with 90,000 CommBank Awards points over Qantas points which will cost you NOTHING monthly if you spend over $2k per month and you can convert your points into $425 in digital Coles, K-Mart, Target or Myer vouchers(shop.commbankawards.com.au).
Earn up to 50,000 Qantas Points (or 90,000 CommBank Awards points)
- Earn 12,500 Qantas Points (or 22,500 CommBank Awards points) each month when you spend $1,500 or more per month for the first four months.
- $60 per year to opt-in to earn Qantas Points. No monthly fee if you spend at least $2,000 during your statement period. Otherwise the monthly fee is $19
- Offer commenced 23 July 2024 and is only available to customers in CommBank Yello when applying for the credit card. Terms and conditions apply.
- Earn up to 0.6 Qantas Points for every $1 spent up to and including $5,000 in a statement period on eligible purchase.
- Points Boost: Earn up to 0.8 Qantas Points per $1 spent on your highest eligible purchase made in a statement period up to 400 Qantas Points
- Pay no international transaction fees for purchases you make overseas or online
- Access to international travel insurance when you spend at least $500 in a single transaction on prepaid travel using your card and activate before you travel
- 20.99% p.a. purchase interest rate. Minimum credit limit of $3,000. Up to 44 days interest-free on purchases. Pay no additional cardholder fee.
- Enjoy access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide for a fee with Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass with your Smart Awards credit card
I've gone looking across all the banks because I'm due for a new Qantas Points earning credit card. I know this isn't a proper churning card as you need to keep it open for four months, but I've done NAB, Suncorp, St George, Westpac, ANZ & Bankwest all in the last 12 months so this is the one which is most suitable for me, and also one of the best Qantas Points earning cards per dollar paid in fees.
Off memory, I think they've just reintroduced the bonus points offer which was not available for a lot of this year. Not necessarily too many benefits outside the bonus points, but it is one of the few cards though which offers 0% international transaction fees (most are 3%).
CommBank (Yello) also have an offer on their Ultimate Awards card(commbank.com.au) which works out better value in fees than this one, if and only if you spend $4k per month to not attract a monthly fee of $35. This one is much more achievable of $2k per month to not get the $19 fee.
Disclaimer: everything applies below if you haven't held any of these banks specific cards in the last 12 or 18 months (depending on the bank). Some of these cards have additional bonus point offers if you keep them open for 12 or 18 months, but who'd do that, meet spend criteria, receive bonus points & cancel… just keep churnin'. I dare say there might be one or two errors, but it'll point you in the right direction based on your monthly everyday spending to what offer you can best take advantage of. I've put some weird 60 day spend criteria or exuberant total spend amounts in bold to highlight potential shortfalls in making the bonus spend criteria. Really depends what you want from your card, a lot of the ones towards the bottom of the list offer better perks, but if you're purely after points, aim for the ones towards the top.
| Credit Card | Annual Fee | Sign-Up Qantas Bonus Points | Bonus Criteria | Qantas Points per $ in fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CommBank Ultimate Awards (Yello)(commbank.com.au) | $60 (+$35/m under $4k spend) | 15,000/m for 4 months | $3.5k spend each month | 1000 (if you spend $4k p/month) |
| CommBank Smart Awards (Yello)(commbank.com.au) | $60 (+$19/m under $2k spend) | 12,000/m for 4 months | $1.5k spend each month | 833 (if you spend $2k p/month) |
| Westpac Altitude Qantas Platinum(westpac.com.au) | $124 (reduced) | 60,000 points | $4k spend in 90 days | 483 |
| St George Amplify Platinum(stgeorge.com.au) | $124 (reduced) | 50,000 points | $3k spend in 90 days | 403 |
| Westpac Altitude Qantas Black(westpac.com.au) | $225 (reduced) | 90,000 points | $6k spend in 120 days | 400 |
| ANZ Frequent Flyer Black(anz.com.au) | $425-$200 cashback = $225 | 90,000 points & $200 cashback | $5k spend in 90 days | 400 (after cashback) |
| ANZ Frequent Flyer Platinum(anz.com.au) | $295-$100 cashback = $195 | 75,000 points & $100 cashback | $2.5k spend in 90 days | 384 (after cashback) |
| St George Amplify Signature(stgeorge.com.au) | $214 (reduced) | 80,000 points | $6k spend in 90 days | 373 |
| NAB Rewards Premium(nab.com.au) | $195 (existing customer) | 60,000 points | $2k spend in 60 days | 307 |
| CitiBank Premier Qantas(www1.citibank.com.au) | $350 | 100,000 | $6k spend in 90 days | 295 |
| Bankwest Platinum Qantas(bankwest.com.au) | $160 | 40,000 points | $3k spend in 90 days | 250 |
| Suncorp Clear Options Platinum(suncorpbank.com.au) | $178 | 40,000 points | $4.5k spend in 90 days | 224 |
| CitiBank Prestige Qantas(www1.citibank.com.au) | $749 | 150,000 points | $7.5k spend in 60 days | 200 |
| Qantas Premier Platinum(qantasmoney.com) | $349 | 70,000 points | $3k spend in 90 days | 200 |
| NAB Rewards Signature(nab.com.au) | $320 (existing customer) | 90,000 points | $3k spend in 60 days | 281 |
| Qantas Premier Titanium(qantasmoney.com) | $1,200 | 150,000 points | $5k spend in 90 days | 125 |
| Amex Qantas Amex Ultimate(americanexpress.com) | $450 | 50,000 points | $3k spend in 90 days | 111 |
| Amex Qantas Amex Premium(americanexpress.com) | $249 | 20,000 points | $3k spend in 90 days | 80 |
Is there a minimum income requirement? I don't want to apply for a CommBank Yello account to later realise you need to meet the minimum income requirement.