Strong offer here from AMEX.
$375 annual fee.
Earn up to 1.25 Velocity points per dollar spent.
Complimentary Virgin Australia return domestic flight each year.
100 Velocity Status Credits when you spend $50,000 in your card membership year.
Two complimentary Virgin Australia lounge passes each year.
Two complimentary entries to the Centurion Lounge each year.
Complimentary travel insurance.
Offer not available if you have held an American Express issued card in the past 18 months.
Enjoy!
Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points
Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
Yeah I wouldn't really call 75K a strong offer!
The complimentary return flight is pretty good though (I think OP should add this to title)
Thats always part of the card though. The deals are the bonus points, and when you have to wait 18 months to go again with Amex it needs to be a good bonus.
Just because its a part of the card doesn't mean it's not a good deal. I have this card as the one that I retain, while cycling others, as a return flight to the eastern states is like $600 anyway from Perth, plus 1.25 points per $1 spent is fairly high.
@Sim69: You’re lucky you can fly Perth to eastern states using the complimentary flight. The other way round (to Perth) is unfortunately not an option
@ilikedeals: If you live on the East Coast, it's very hard for the complimentary flight to justify the annual fee ever since they started restricting the locations you could fly to. It's very easy to find Syd->Melb return flights for less than $250 which is significantly cheaper than the $375 annual fee. Biggest bang for your buck are those who live in Perth and fly to the east coast at least once a year.
@Sim69: I read that wrong - I thought it was just the return leg of a flight (ie one way only).
Have you successfully booked a return flight with this bonus before?
Where did you fly? I'm looking at return flights to Hobart next year… how did you check eligibility for destination/dates for the complimentary tickets?
Strong for them, not us LOL
I think nab velocity points sign up offer is more attractive, up to 70,000 velocity points with spend $1,000 on everyday purchases within the first 60 days. First year annual fee:$95.
But the everyday earning rate for this Amex card is higher
Yes I agree, I posted this deal last week: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/791396#comment-14108914
In my opinion it's better, AF is less than half for 5000 less points, but slightly higher min spend
This might be an ok card if you aren't going to churn it though
Not the best card currently. The NAB is far better than this.
If you decide to churn this, beware that you cannot earn an Amex sign up bonus for 18 months. So if the 500k platinum comes back, you will not be able to earn the 250k QFF points.
Agreed, I haven't got an AMEX card yet as I am waiting for a better deal
Pretty weak offering!
Do you get the $375 af as a travel credit?
You get a return flight you need to book well in advance via a special virgin booking link. For those in Perth it is a good deal, as it includes flight starting in Perth. For those on the East Coast it isnt as good a deal, as you cant fly from the east coast to Perth (there is a map you can use to see what routes are available)
Strong…. opposite day?
Status isn't too bad a perk I guess but I don't think this has much advantage over the Virgin Flyer offers we've seen
Worth noting
- This is the fairly limited free flight map https://www.americanexpress.com/en-au/credit-cards/frequent-…
- it's only 2 entries to the Amex Lounge in SYD/MEL, not any of the other Centurion lounges around the world
I should note for the Amex Lounge at SYD/MEL, during peak hours (morning and evening international rush hours) they will often restrict/have a 20-40 min wait for those using commentary guest passes in favor for Amex Platinum and Centurion cardholders.
Same goes with the Virgin Australia guest passes - they are often denied during peak hours at MEL/SYD/BNE/PER.
Tried the amex lounge recently for the first time and imo it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be, it was ok. Ended up leaving for The House as it's much quieter and better options. Same thoughts about the velocity domestic lounge, the breakfast options were extremely basic and place was packed (expected for monday morning).
I tried to go in to the Amex lounge just after the refurb in Syd, there was a line to get in and when I made it to the front they said my card wouldn’t swipe and offered no workaround. So I went to The House and it was much better.
You only get it if you spend 50k in a year? No chance of me doing that with a mortgage to pay
100 Velocity Status Credit - probably much easier to just fly return business… $349*2, even better when there's a double status promo like a few days back
when i signed up for this offer few months ago it also had +25,000 after commencement of the second year but ended up getting that, and the free velocity return flight together with the 75,000 so didn't have to wait.
Got this offer around feb/march and it was 100k points + 25k if you stayed for a second year.
As well as this it was an additional 30K points through a seperate velocity promo that was running.
So i got 130k points from it.
I wouldnt say this is a strong offer, compared to what it used to be.
yep ditto had the same one, i got that 30k from velocity too, forgot about that lol.
pee weak offer
I have been getting Qantas cards for years but have found international business flight redemptions very difficult to obtain. Thought I would switch over to Velocity and see if I can get Singapore airlines business but I have not had much luck searching (and the Virgin website does not make it easy to see if there is business redemption available have to click on each flight).
Has anyone had luck/ tips for searching for business class international flights using Velocity points?
From what I've heard you pretty much have to use the krisflyer site to check and book (esp biz or first class). Find that available flight then transfer your velocity points to krisflyer to book.
thanks for that, shame about the loss of points but I will keep churning and getting my points up then.
You can also subscribe to expertflyer site to see availability in the reward class. I used krisflyer miles to book star alliance around the world ticket, 280k miles for business class using expertflyer and flightconnections. But it's very hard work finding routed with availability in I class.
Using Singapore website to find one way flights is easier, I went one way biz to Jakarta on krisflyer miles and then booked using velocity website to come back in economy.
It says "available to new American Express Card Members only."
Does anybody know if I can combo this with a pre-existing AMEX Velocity Escape Card ($0 annual free, point per spend card)? I assume I can't because using the Escape Card makes me a member already, but just wanted to double-check.
https://www.pointhacks.com.au/credit-cards/american-express-…
this card had a great promotion with free annual fee + 100k points
I feel like when i got this a few years back it was like 125k points or more..
feels like they've cut back on the 100k+ offers big time