In recent times, many have asked about my family’s ability to fly around the world for around a decade for free (excluding taxes*). So, I’ve decided to spill the beans on my point hack strategies.

Let’s dive into the two primary programs I rely on for earning and redeeming points.

VIRGIN/VELOCITY POINT HACKS

• Firstly, if you haven’t already, join Velocity Rewards. It’s free. You should join even if you don’t fly with Virgin Australia – you’ll see why later.
• Join Flybuys and set up automatic point conversions to Velocity. By activating Auto Transfer, you’ll snag 500 Velocity Points for every 1,000 Flybuys points transferred.
• Join OnePass and earn 5x Flybuys points for every $1 spent at Kmart, Target, Bunnings Warehouse and Officeworks. There are other reasons I love OnePass, but for this blog, I’m focusing on just points.
• Make it a habit to swipe your FlyBuys card whenever you shop at Coles, Officeworks, Liquorland, Kmart, Bunnings, Catch, and other partners.
• Stay updated with Flybuys emails or through their app to seize bonus points offers. They will frequently invite you to claim $$ off your shop or bonus points if you spend over a certain amount – usually 2-4 weeks in a row. Always choose the points. The amount you have to spend to get the points varies, but it appears that the more often you shop at Coles, the more you need to spend to qualify, so we usually mix it up with Woolies.
• Consider applying for a credit card that not only accumulates points but also offers a substantial bonus for meeting spending thresholds within the initial months. Choose wisely based on your ability to pay credit card bills promptly and avoid their high-interest rates. Note, if you apply for too many credit cards, it can also affect your credit rating.
• I am frequently asked “is it worth paying a high annual credit card fee in order to get more points?” The answer is usually “yes” (after you have considered your financial circumstances). For example you may need to spend $300/400 on a credit card annual fee to receive 100,000 points. Those points are, if used wisely (i.e. you use them on international flights and NOT a toaster!) worth so much more than $300/400. When you apply for a credit card, you should also check how many points you will earn per $1 spend.
• Don’t worry if you already have a credit card and are not looking to change. you will miss out on the bonus points, but many of them allow you to convert the points to Velocity. In fact, Velocity usually runs a points transfer promotion every 6 months or so with most bank partners.
• Check out other Velocity partners, such as Virgin wines, Apple, car rental, hotels, G’Day caravan parks and Optus.
• Install the Velocity Shop & Earn Chrome extension on your laptop for seamless point accumulation. Just click on the V icon while shopping online and ensure you’re logged in to earn points.
• Scout for additional offers on FreePoints, including lucrative gift card promotions at Coles. Stocking up on gift cards for your favorite stores or venues can be a game-changer, especially during 20x points promotions. While flying with Virgin Australia or its partners can also earn you Velocity points, I usually rely on the above methods to accumulate points, as redeeming points for flights doesn’t earn additional points.
• Now, let’s talk about redeeming your points. While Virgin Australia primarily covers domestic routes, you’ll extract greater value by redeeming points for international flights. Unfortunately, Virgin Australia currently only flies to the following international destinations:  Queenstown, Bali, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Japan. However, you can also earn and redeem Velocity points with all of their airline partners, such as Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Etihad Airways. 
• Although you can technically use points for flight upgrades, please note that domestic upgrades are currently the only option available. And, without elite Velocity membership, your chances of securing an upgrade are slim.

QANTAS POINT HACKS

• Firstly, if you haven’t already, join Qantas Frequent Flyer. Unfortunately, it’s not automatically free, although it is free if you have an Everyday Rewards membership so join that first if you haven’t already.
• Set up automatic point conversions from Everyday Rewards to Qantas. Every time you collect 2000 Everyday Rewards points, they will be automatically converted to 1000 Qantas Points.
• Join Everyday Extra to earn 2x points at Woolworths and Big W on every shop and other exclusive promotions (as well as 10% off one shop a month at both stores). 
• Ensure you tap your Everyday Rewards card whenever you shop at Woolworths, Big W, BWS, and other partners.
• Stay updated with Everyday Rewards emails or through their app to seize bonus points offers. They will frequently invite you to claim $$ off your shop or bonus points if you spend over a certain amount – usually 2-4 weeks in a row. Always choose the points. The amount you have to spend to get the points varies, but it appears that the more often you shop at Woolworths the more you need to spend to qualify, so we usually mix it up with Coles.
• Similar to the advice above regarding credit cards with bonus Velocity points, Qantas offers the same. and likewise, you can often convert from other bank reward points to Qantas.
• Check out other Qantas partners, such as health insurance, Uber, Afterpay, Qantas Wine, Red Energy for your utilities, BP service stations, and the Qantas Wellbeing app. There are probably stores/services that you‘re using already, where you can simply add your QFF number. 
• Install the Chrome Qantas Shopping Points Prompter extension on your laptop/PC, to accumulate points whilst you shop. Click on the Qantas kangaroo icon to ensure you’re logged in before purchasing.
• Check out more offers on Freepoints, including gift card promotions (look out for 20x points) at Woolworths.
• Similar to Velocity, you can, of course, earn Qantas points by flying with them or a partner airline, if you purchase the ticket using cash/credit card (not points).
• Our number one tip when you’re redeeming Qantas points for flights is to ensure you tick ‘Classic Rewards’ button (see screenshot below). Fortunately, the ‘Points Plus Pay’ option has now moved to the payment page, which is great news as it means you won’t get the two options to pay for flights using points mixed up. In summary, Classic Rewards are great value (e.g. from 55,200 for Sydney to London one way) whereas Points Plus Pay are usually awful value (e.g. 400,000 or more for Sydney to London one way) and not worth using your points unless you’re really desperate.

Disclaimer – Please note, that the links for Red Energy and Everyday Rewards are affiliate links. If you use our Red Energy affiliate link and switch your household electricity and/or gas to one of their residential plans, you’ll receive a $25 eGift card or 1,500 Qantas Points (if on a Qantas Red plan). If you use our Everyday Extra affiliate link, you’ll receive a bonus 1,500 points. 

SO, WHICH FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAM IS BETTER?

To be honest, I generally find it easier to earn Qantas points, but it’s so much easier to redeem points for Virgin (or partner) flights; especially on international routes. For example, we booked last September flights to the UK – we had enough Qantas points for us all to fly one-way from Sydney to London and enough Velocity for all us to fly one-way from London to Sydney. For the Qantas sectors, there were very little options in July 2024, whereas with Velocity, we had our pick from all flight times and dates at the same time of year. This is a common theme each time we book, but we usually do find 3 Qantas Economy reward tickets eventually (especially if we are willing to fly with a less popular partner airline).

So in summary, I would advise joining both programs if you live in Australia. Before deciding which program you will focus on (i.e. where you have a choice of both with shopping, hotels, car rental, gift cards etc), I recommend checking if the route(s) you wish to fly has availability at the time you wish you fly, with both Qantas and Velocity. Like us, you may end up flying one way using Qantas points and one-way using Velocity points. Or maybe Qantas for domestic and Velocity for international.

*  I mentioned at the start that our flights were free, except for taxes. This is because Qantas doesn’t allow you to use points for taxes. Velocity, on the other hand, do allow you to use points for taxes, but it is a terrible use of them as the value isn’t as great.