Qantas’ flagship rewards program allows you to earn frequent flyer miles for, well, not actually flying all that frequently! You can earn Qantas points on brands you love through the Qantas Shopping store, convert points from other rewards programs, or by spending with any of Qantas’ family of brands like Qantas Wine, Qantas Hotels or BP Rewards. Points for filling up with fuel?! Yuhuh!
Another neat way of juicing up your Qantas points balance is by shopping with a points-earning credit card. You can earn as much as three points per dollar spent*, take advantage of bonus points earning opportunities, and even double-end your earnings by getting points for your transaction and for the retailer you’re shopping with. For example, pay with a Qantas-earning card for a hotel via Qantas Hotels, and you’ll get the hotel points and the credit card points. With that kind of earning, you’ll be jetting off on your next adventure in no time.
Virgin Australia’s answer to frequent flyer perks is the Velocity program. You can pick up Velocity points anytime you fly with Virgin Australia or its partner airlines, and on the ground with points-earning partners like Medibank, 7-Eleven, and YouFoodz.
Much like other frequent flyer programs, your highest earning potential often comes from a points-earning credit card. Stacking your everyday expenses onto a Velocity points credit card can see you earning one point per dollar spent*, and maybe even a stack of bonus points for joining.
Formerly known as Woolworths Rewards, Everyday Rewards is the free-to-join points-earning club card under the Woolworths brand. Collect one point per dollar spent* on transactions at the Woolworths brand family (including Dan Murphy’s, Big W and BWS). This rewards card offers a range of ways to redeem your points, including banking them for Christmas, converting them to Qantas points, or vouchers towards your groceries. The program also recently launched its paid offering, Everyday Extra. For a small monthly fee, you’ll score 10% off per month on Woolworths or Big W spends, plus a higher per-dollar earn rate.
Coles’ signature rewards program, Flybuys, is one of Australia’s favorites. Earning one point per dollar* at participating retailers (with the exception of Coles Express at 0.5 points per dollar), you can collect Flybuys points at Kmart, Target, eBay, AGL, First Choice Liquor, Liquorland and more. You can then convert your Flybuys to Velocity Frequent Flyer points, or as vouchers for brands under the Flybuys umbrella. 72,000 Flybuys points could get you a business class seat from Melbourne to Perth!
Myer One is the rewards program held by the department store, Myer. Earn two points per dollar spent in Myer stores and online, and get a $10 credit every time you reach 1,000 points. Advance to the silver, gold and platinum Myer One tiers and receive birthday vouchers, free delivery perks, and exclusive offers and bonus point opportunities,
Shopback is one of Australia’s leading cashback sites, partnering with the likes of Booking.com, Catch.com.au, The Iconic, Net-a-Porter, and more. Shopback splits its affiliate commission with shoppers who use their app or browser extension, and pay you real money for shopping as normal!
You can earn up to 30% cashback just by shopping with Shopback enabled. The system will track your spending immediately, and credit your account within 90 days. That balance can then be redeemed to your bank account — yep, real money — whenever you like. Getting paid to buy things you would have bought anyway? We like!
Another popular cashback rewards program is Cash Rewards. Also offering a percentage of your total spend paid in cashback, you can earn money back on your transactions from brands like Lululemon, Hotels.com and Adore Beauty.
Check and compare cashback sites before making a purchase to make sure you’re getting the best cashback available. Often boosted promotions can mean there’s big cashback on offer!
*Earn rate depends on a variety of factors and may be subject to change at any time.
Emma Edwards is a finance copywriter and blogger, on a mission to humanize the financial services industry by creating meaningful content that’s accessible and empowering. You’ll find her penning money tips at her blog, The Broke Generation, sharing financial insights on Instagram, or injecting life into content for her business clients.