American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card

⇢ Bonus points: You’ll get a huge 170,000 Qantas Points if you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases using the card in the first 3 months from the day you’re approved. The points will be added to your account 8 to 10 weeks after you meet the minimum spend.

(And, if you’re wondering what an eligible purchase is, the card’s PDS says it does not include “Card fees and charges, for example annual fees, interest, late payment, cash advances, balance transfers, traveller’s cheques and foreign currency conversion.”)

⇢ Earning points: I’ll dive into points in more detail in the Qantas Points section below, but here’s a snapshot: you'll earn Qantas Points on everyday spending plus bonus points on eligible Qantas flight bookings and when shopping with Qantas Business Rewards Partners. You can also transfer unlimited points to other frequent flyer accounts including employees and clients.

⇢ Travel insurance: The complimentary travel insurance is a nice deal since it covers you, your spouse and your 99 Employee Card Members for return domestic and international trips (as long as they meet eligibility criteria, such as being under 79 and that at least $500 of the trip costs were paid for on the card). Amex credit card insurance even includes scheduled cruises, which is rare.

⇢ Qantas Club lounge: You’ll get two complimentary passes to Qantas Club lounges in Australia once you’ve made an eligible Qantas purchase each year, such as booking a flight with a QF flight number, or a membership fee for Qantas Business Rewards, Qantas Frequent Flyer or Qantas Club.

⇢ Consolidate business expenses. Another benefit of a business charge card is keeping your expenses in one place. You can automate your reporting and statements with a direct feed from your card’s account into MYOB, Quicken and Microsoft Excel.

⇢ Monitor employee spending. You’ll be able to see what your employees are purchasing and gain better control over your business’s cash flow with up to 99 Employee Cards. These cards earn Qantas Points at the same rate as the primary accountholder.

⇢ Don’t pay interest. Plus, you won’t pay interest on the Amex Qantas Business Rewards card, because it’s a charge card and not a line of credit. You’ll have no pre-set spending power - but that doesn’t mean unlimited spending! Your purchases are approved by Amex and can evolve as your spending changes over time. You’ll need to pay the card off in full each month (missing payments may incur interest) but you do have up to 51 days to pay for purchases.

⇢ Flexible repayments. Amex gives you access to the Flexible Payment Option (FPO), where you can choose to pay off a portion of your monthly balance over time if you need a hand with cash flow. When you apply, you'll be given a maximum amount you can use towards a FPO (much like a credit card limit, but for the amount you can allocate to flexible repayments). FPO's are charged at either the normal purchase rate or the rate specified on your monthly statement and may include other fees.

*With Flexible Payment Option, you will be charged interest if you do not pay your Closing Balance in full by the due date each month. Full terms and conditions can be found on the Amex website.

•  2 Qantas Points per dollar spent on Qantas products and services. This includes passenger flights with a QF number, Qantas Holidays and Qantas Club membership and annual fees.
•  1.25 Qantas Points per dollar on everyday business spend. This excludes annual fees, late payment fees and charges for foreign currencies. After a total of 500,000 Qantas Points is earned in a calendar year, the everyday business earn rate will change from 1.25 to 0.75 Qantas Points per $1 spent.*
•  0.5 Qantas Points per dollar on utilities, insurances and government bodies. Utilities include gas, water and electricity providers, government includes the ATO, Australian Postal Corporation, federal/state and local government bodies, and insurance excludes insurances by Amex.
•  The Qantas Points your business earns when flying with Qantas will be tripled. This applies when you make an eligible Qantas flight booking and excludes Jetstar flights. Points earned from flying using this card are capped at 4 million per membership year.
•  Earn bonus points with 50+ Qantas Business Rewards partners. Partners include BP Plus, Xero, Alinta Energy, Avis, Accor Plus and BizCover.

*Note: From 10 January 2024, once you have earned a total of 500,000 Qantas Points on your Card Account in a calendar year, your earn rate of 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 spent will change to 0.75 Qantas Points per $1 spent on everyday business purchases. All other earn rates (Qantas products, services and government, utilities and insurances spend) will remain unchanged. The points threshold is based on eligible Qantas Points earned during a calendar year and will be reset on 1 January each year. Qantas Points earned by all Card Members on a Card Account contribute to the 500,000 points threshold each calendar year. Bonus points earned from Acquisition bonus offers and marketing campaigns are excluded from the threshold.