Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

Hi,
Does anyone have any advice about credit cards in NZ they have used to earn air miles ?
I have not had a credit card before (always avoided them) but if I could use one to earn airmiles for flights I think I'd be mad not to ! Just a bit of a dilemma as to where to start ?
We will be arriving in Auckland in August and are planning to do the big purchases as we arrive e.g. cars etc, so would like to earn as many points as possible on the big purchases. I know it may not be realistic to get a card sorted so quickly when we arrive as I would want to get the cars bought within the first week or so of arrival but if anyone has been able to apply for cards before arriving it would be good to know.

I look forward to any advice/experiences,

Annabel:)

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

ANZ do a Qantas points platinum card. Annual fees are relatively high but it include international travel insurance. We collected enough points in 3 years for a one way flight to the UK.

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

The Air New Zealand website has a handy summary table comparing all the Airpoints-earning credit cards here:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airpo...mparison-table

Note that all of the Airpoints-earning cards carry an annual fee. Also, although the highest 'earn-rate' is with American Express, Amex is not as widely accepted in NZ as Visa and Mastercard are. Finally, in NZ as a whole, many shops and cafes have a policy of not accepting credit cards. They all accept EFTPOS, which is a bit like direct debit.

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

We've just got a KiwiBank Go-Fly Mastercard for Air New Zealand AirPoints. Were already collecting airpoints so made sense to go with then, and KiwiBank offered the same miles/$ ratio for a lower fee than ANZ who we bank with so we went with them.

In the UK we have a Virgin Mastercard earning miles, and in the few years we had that we managed to occur enough for 4 upgrades from economy to premium and 2 flights to Florida so worked great for us. Ran everything, except the mortgage through it to get max benefit.

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

We get good points on Amex - you have to pay it off every month though which we don't mind- but as I have said in previous post, you spend an awful lot of money in a year and it mounts very quickly.

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

Really?? How many times has your credit card been rejected? I collect ASB rewards and I pay for absolutely everything I can by credit card, including a $2.40 stamp at the Post Shop today. :rofl:

In several years of spending I can only think of one shop I have been in that had the 'Credit' button taped over and I seem to recall that they don't accept credit card payments at the Post shop for things like vehicle rego, but you can get around that by paying online directly at LTNZ.

There was a lot of talk a while back about some petrol stations that were imposing surcharges for using credit cards and how this was going to spread and become the norm, however I have yet to see this in action - except for our council which charges something like 5% extra if you pay your household rates with a credit card.

Just an aside, I read this past week that Air NZ were going into some new deal with Flybuys too, so another opportunity to rack up some points or freebies I believe.

Note to New arrivals: Don't forget to apply for your Flybuys card(s) asap

https://www.flybuys.co.nz/CollectPoi...px?OfferID=115

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

There's no credit in any of my 3 local Post Shops, cash or Eftpos only?:confused:

Re: Credit cards that earn air miles ?
 

Lots of my local cafes don't accept credit cards.

Quite right, too. As a cash/EFTPOS payer, I don't really want to subsidise other peoples' airpoints balances!