Qantas American Express Ultimate
91 reviews
I thought it would be a great option considering a decent amount of Qantas Points and the $450 travel credit. However, it is nearly impossible to use the travel credit since it has to be booked through Amex's travel agency with Qantas and they always have tickets more expensive than when booking other options. It has to be booked in a single… Read more
purchase and the purchase must be above $450 (hence not a cheap flight, so I would be loosing big every time I tried to book). Doesn't work with Jetstart either.
I would recommend going for a different card as this one is definetly not paying back its cost.
I hate that I cannot prepay my balance when I want, only after I receive the bill, though that may just be me.
started out a worthwhile card then all the changes have made it a rip off. Used to be able to use the $450 annual credit on a variety of things, now only usable on Qantas flights using at least the entire $450 for one transaction. I can usually buy the same ticket for half the price. They also dropped the rental car option and the insurance waiver… Read more
on rental cars as well. They try their best to keep you out of the Qantas travel lounges In its favour though, it still has good FF points value and reasonable travel insurance. Will shove it soon as we get another card.
The credit offered when you sign up for this credit card is not worthy. Only valid for qantas flights, but the flights are way more expensive than compared to other booking platforms. Now that I have tried to utilised the credit, I am very dissapointed with the experience. Show details
Reviews with attachments
- +3
Never transfer my points always come back with a new excuse and charge high fees – I have the Qantas Ultimate American Express Credit Card and for an year I have been battling for American Express to transfer my points to my Qantas Frequent Flyers and they always come back with a new excuse. I won't recommend it to anyone. They also charge a high fee and never give you the benefits they offer when applying for it. Don't waste ur… Read more
time and money on it have a lot of others credit card way better that doesn't give u this stress and headache.
Positive reviews
Pretty damn good in almost every aspect – Love this card, it's my go to for most things and the rewards are great. The app works really reliably and makes using it easy. Not sure if all the benefits of the card are the easiest to access and use sometimes, the insurance especially. I have seen apps that literally shown you all the benefits in the app and has a section explaining them all… Read more
and where they apply and where they don't, how they work and where to go to use them when you do need them.
Only worth it if you travel – This card has a very big annual fee of $450. You do get $450 Qantas Travel Credit. So if you don't travel very much then it's of little use to you. In our case we travel a lot so it's all good. Show details
Maybe one of the best Qantas FF rewards card – The only down side is the annual fee is high and it can become credit to spend on flight for qantas only and spend at amex travel only. If you travel at least twice or more at annual basis probably this card is for you. Spending on this card is accumulating points 25% faster and auto redeem to your QFF monthly. Booking thru amex travel is easy and… Read more
their customer service is brilliant, don't be shy to contact their CS team if you can't find the flight that you after online, and best of all they charge the same as any flight merchant (only that amex has coop with) offer at their website. The best of all, it comes with 4x lounge accesses (2x Amex, 2x Qantas). To get the QFF lounge access, you have to spend QF ticket direct from Qantas website.
Negative reviews
Car rental protection – It won't provide any car rental protection. I emailed them (Chubb) and received this reply: Subject to its terms, conditions, and exclusions there is complimentary travel insurance with the Qantas American Express Ultimate card but I’m sorry to say that there is no car hire benefit with that type of card. You'll still need to buy a separate insurance policy to get car rental protection. Needless to say I'm looking at switching to another card.
NOT WORTH THE $450 FEE – I’ve been a Qantas Amex Ultimate card customer for 20 years. What was once a reputable brand has become joke. Not worth the $450 annual fee. I can’t recall the last time I was able to redeem the $450 Travel credit. Nigh on impossible lodging a travel insurance claim. I tried 5 times to complete the online form. Uploading the relevant information… Read more
is impossible. I attempted to complete the form five times each time I attempted to upload the required documents. I was unable to return to the form… It’s a complete joke!
Betrayed. Unsecure. Fraud – Been a member for 5years. Their dispute team is the worst. Tried to dispute a transaction of $300 for a lost key in a hotel which was overpriced/overkill.. They decided to close the dispute because the merchant showed them a receipt and said, there was not enough evidence on my side that it was not reasonable to be charged $300 for a lost key. The… Read more
dispute personnel even went as far as asking me the details about my 30year old door barrel and why I didn't complain about this in the first place, etc.. Dispute personnel turned out to be toxic and acted like this customer is very dumb. Like seriously, train your customer service team. All they can say is - - they empathise with me and that they value my membership...but will refuse to dispute the charge because really, they don't value their customer. I really really reaaaaally hope the dispute staff experience this inconvenience in her life so she knows how it feels to be betrayed by a company you initially trusted in your travel and feel hopeless because you're talking to dumb people. I can't wait to close my account for good and transfer to a better big bank. I don't even want to recommend Amex to any of my friends anymore. They used to ask me for tips. I felt disgusted to even recommend this previously after this first hand experience. No. The security part was fraud. They aren't on their customers side.
Recent reviews
SCAM! Regret getting this card! – Not Impressed at all and I've only just signed up. Got sucked in with the lounge passes and travel credit but you don't get them until the SECOND year! That's if you purchase Qantas flights too. Advertised also was 12 months interest free on balanced transfers but apparently AMEX have never had that available. No benefit at all to this card. I'll cancel when I get my 100k points.
American Express Cards are not allowing potential customers to contact them – Prior to signing up we wanted more specific information, NOWHERE on AE website can one have a chat with AE. Only members can speak with AE that is AFTER signing up. I went to facebook on AE website and on there one can use Facebook Messenger, so I wrote a message as it says it is available 7am to midnight. No reply. Why do other companies have… Read more
messenger on Facebook and it is a two way conversation. AE doesn't want to talk to anyone UNLESS they sign up. Now they demand payment of $450 even though card never received. Approved but not received. What a [Content Removed].
Understand the limitations, enjoy the benefits – High cost is the access point to the Travel Credit which expires annually but can be used for booking benefits for use in the next year. Good reward points accumulation. Easy to contact, but hate their robot. Like all other robot services, just say “human” or “complaint“ and you’ll speak to a person. Staff try to help with issues but are… Read more
hamstrung by their one-sided policies. Lounges are not great, but better than being in the main public spaces. FX rates not good. Commissions charges also. New policy enforcement of full use of the $450 travel credit in one booking is very inconvenient. I found fares for $370 & couldn’t book online. Rang & they got me “a more expensive fare” so I had to pay an extra $19!!! Complaint in writing got me a refund. Happy with that but it’s a poor policy item. Will probably just use the Travel Credit for hotels in future. Not accepted everywhere so need another card. This is still my main card though and put about $50k through it annually.
Find out how Qantas American Express Ultimate compares to other Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Know better, choose better.
A useless credit card with barely any benefits – This credit card is fairly useless now. Qantas is not the airline it use to be and you are locking yourself more with this card. There is hardly any benefits and despite the number of lounges around the world, this card gives you 2 complimentary access to the Amex lounge but in fine print you can ONLY go to the Sydney or Melbourne lounges and… Read more
nowhere else in the world. It supposedly gives you also 2 complimentary Centurion lounge access passes but once again in fine print ONLY in Sydney or Melbourne where neither airports have a Centurion lounge. So Amex likes to deceptive tell people you get complimentary lounge access but you can barely use it. Amex is a dying company and not worth it under any of their cards anymore.
Overpriced and big rates and fees – I paid $450 annual fee for this premium card in a hope that it would be good interms of not paying overseas fees and charges etc. However, this is not the case. Just back from on an overseas trip and got stung with a very poor exchange rate and a $50 commission on one expense. This is in contrast to my HSBC Global Card which was FREE and offered… Read more
me a much better exchange rate and ZERO fees. Do yourself a favour and avoid AMEX and sign up for the HSBC card.
The value of the Travel Credit – A number of years ago the $450 travel credit sounded good until you went to Amex travel and all airfares were totally overpriced. The policy also was if you picked an airfare less than $450 then you lose the difference. Now you can’t book an airfare under $450. The offer of a $450 travel credit sounds good but they structure the prices on Amex travel to make it difficult to actually use it. Beware.
Travel Credit wrought – Booking Qantas flight on the Amex app, to use the $450 travel credits, are 5x and more the price than if I just used the Qantas booking app. Absolutely no value just another rip-off Show details
Stay away from this card – firstly this card is not accepted anywhere, not even in big businesses leave small businesses alone. very high annual fee. The app is extremely user-unfriendly robots chatting is terrible. all the benefits are a mirage! booking travel to claim your travel credit is more expensive than booking through others, so what is the point? Show details
Be careful - they will lock your card even if your card has been paid out – My card has been locked and cannot be used - firstly because I had over paid the balance eg in credit to me and secondly I had used my $5000 credit limit in one cycle so even if credit balance is 0 you cannot use it until the next monthly cycle. I called to find out and was told my card was fine to use. Went to use it again and after yet another… Read more
phone call was told the above - not helpful at all for making large payments on this card - rewards not worth the angst so disappointing.
Can't use benefits. Too many restrictions – I was upgraded and the screen says I can start using the card. For my first flight, I couldnt use the 450 credits because i must do it through amex travel. For my second flight, I tried amex travel but the flights are more expensive and at an unearthly hour than if I'd used other agencies. I still couldn't use the credits because you must use them… Read more
at one go or forfeit the balance. So I ended up with a crappy flight for no reason. Then, I couldn't use the lounge although I booked through amex travel because that flight is not eligible. So no credit, no lounge and crappy hour flight. Oh, the customer service don't care. You are subjugated to their rules even if you're the customer. I regret ever signing up to amex. As soon as I used my credits, I will cancel this card.
Expensive and onerous – The best thing about this card is the points earning rate and the non-travel customer service. However, there are too many issues with the card to make it worthwhile. It is still not widely accepted, particularly at smaller retailers, and incurs considerable extra transaction fees online. Then there's the pain of the travel "credit". Yes you pay… Read more
$450 annual fee and receive a $450 credit. But it is restricted to Qantas flights only and only those booked via the Amex website. This causes many issues. The first is that Qantas is extremely expensive in comparison to other airlines, even well im advance of travel dates. The second is that the Amex website is even more expensive than the Qantas website. So you're paying a premium on top of a premium for no benefit - extremely frustrating. You're also time limited and can't combine vouchers so you find yourself further restricted. And a lot of the time you find Qantas "seats" on Jetstar flights than would cost you half if you just booked directly with Jetstar.
In short the travel credit is hugely stressful and very poor value. Too many restrictions and requirements to make it worthwhile. Which means the card itself is pretty poor value (note Qantas points - and Qantas itself, as well as the lounges - really aren't what they used to be).
Save yourself the stress and the hassle and go with another card that doesn't lock you into crummy travel deals.
Don’t do this for the Qantas rewards – To be fair American Express Australia is easy to get hold of and responsive. It is the Qantas part that is the issue. Points are fine and all is well if you pay off your card monthly. However the complimentary Qantas Lounge passes are a sham. To start with you can only get them if you purchase a full fare on your Amex card. You don’t get them… Read more
for purchasing your flight with your $450 fee. After making the required purchase a few days later you get an email to say they have been added to your FF account. ..and then you can’t use them. They have some vague warning that they reserve the right to suspend them in peak times such as holidays but my flight is on the 1 September out of holiday season. You can attempt to phone their help line, but I have tried about 5 times in the last two weeks. The staff have no training in this and no understanding of the issue. There is no one you can escalate the issue to. To be honest I am not sure why a company such as Amex that has fantastic customer service links itself to Qantas which does not..and by the way was my flight a cheap one? Not at all, over $5000 return to Italy on premium economy. My suggestion, get another reward card. This one does not give the value it says it will.
Find out how Qantas American Express Ultimate compares to other Balance Transfer Credit Cards
Know better, choose better.
Terrible travel credit scheme even now traveling seems resumed – Yes now you can go on aboard again but AMEX, this brand, does not have any compassion or understand the needs of their customers. It is still hard for people to book international flights since 2020 to present. What they said is they have provided an extension for the travel credit in 2019 but not 2020 and 2021. Now, I have paid $900 for two years. My card cancellation services you right. Show details
DO NOT Trust Their schemes and benefits – I registered for American express through a referral and I was told by my referral that I would be getting 110k points and $200 cashback as per the offer also their marketing campaign affirmed that. I was surprised to see that I got only 65k points and nothing else. When I enquired about it I get told that I was registered in the old scheme. How… Read more
is that possible!? When the offered scheme of 110k points and $200 cashback was already in place. The customer care launched a complaint with no one following it through. I quite honestly feel cheated and I would never recommend anyone get a card from American express, you are better off with other banks' offerings. Trust me!
Their marketing campaigns are a web of lies with misleading information built to deceive people
Bad customer service and ridiculously hight annual fee with travel credits which is useless during COVID-19 pandemic – Complained last Sep about the $450 travel credit which I could not use due to COVID-19 lockdown and a year later, AMEX still do not take into consideration of extending the travel credits and now they are due to expire on 5 Oct 2022. They don't seem to care about customer and they said it is their partner Qantas who does not allow extension of… Read more
travel booking. What a bunch of craps. I said to them it is your policy which needs to adapt to the new COVID-19 pandemic and you have to be flexible to allow customer to use $450 travel credits next year. Very disappointing with Amex. I have no choice but to cancel my card as I do not wish to get charged another $450 for annual fees and a total of $900 I have to pay for the last year and this year annual fees. Also not many merchants allow me to pay with Amex card as your fees are ridiculously high according to the retailers.
Annual Fee Rip-Off – They say you can use the annual fee for travel, but with COVID-19 restrictions, it's useless. If you complain, they would ignore you. Disgusting customer service, they won't bother to help you. Show details
Terrible Customer Service – Appalling. They offer a flight credit voucher for signing up to a credit card. They are now trying to cancel the voucher when there is no way to spend it. Whilst I appreciate the COVID mess is unfortunate for all that's not a customers' fault and AMEX need to wait for customers to be able to spend, not cancel the credits. Truly terrible service.
Worst customer experience - I hate being lied to – I took out an American Express Ultimate card about six months ago because I wanted the Qantas points. I received a promotional email offering 10,000 reward points if I spent a minimum of $500 by October, I would receive the points within 5 days. I spent the $500 in September. The points did not arrive within 5 days. I called their customer… Read more
service team in Sydney to close my account and I asked specifically whether I would still get my points, and was assured that I would. Several phone calls since, the last call I made I was told I wouldn't get my points because I cancelled my card. So I feel that Amex has lied to me and ripped me off. Would I ever sign up for Amex again? Never!
Worst customer experience – The Managing Director of AMEX Australia, [name removed] needs to be aware of the very poor service and uncaring customer culture we recently experienced when seeking a refund for cancelled airline tickets via AMEX travel insurance. This has included 1) Automated, robot emails sent to us in July requesting documents that had already been sent to… Read more
AMEX in April. 2) AMEX staff making promises over the telephone to ring us back about our case. Their calls never eventuated. 3) Our bank statements for the AMEX Qantas Ultimate card show AMEX initially refunded the charge, waited a few weeks then reimposed the charge, then waited again to refund the charge, only to wait a couple of more months more to reimpose the charge. No explanation was given for these very strange, unprofessional transactions. We then receive a letter and bank statement saying they could not refund the money and therefore the case was "resolved". Clearly AMEX does not include the customers opinion with their definition of case resolution. 4) Never once over their three month investigation did AMEX mention we may be eligible for the travel insurance that is automatically offered with the Qantas Ultimate Card. We find this ethically challenging that AMEX can market their card with all the travel insurance benefits to help sell the product, but when customers are actually required to use the insurance, they were offered no guidance whatsoever. We ended up working it out for ourselves and we now await feedback from AMEX Chubb Insurance about our claim.
5) We have found AMEX actively discourages and has practices in place to discourage email or written communication from customers to AMEX. They encourage telephone calls to their call centres, which always involved a new staff member handling your case who then asks for the reason for your call. We we forced to explain our case over five times to five different staff members over the course of the investigation. It is also difficult to accurately record historical events via oral communication only. Strangely or by coincidence, the letter sent to us by AMEX contained no employee name or signature who wrote the letter, no email address only a telephone number, postal address and a fax number should we wish to reply. To date, nobody from AMEX has replied to our fax, which we consider to be very antiquated technology at best. Why not email communication AMEX and let us know the name of a person who is handling our case?? We received plenty of corporate spin from AMEX about "how they take their customer concerns very seriously" seems to have been really lacking in our case.
Finally, the outcome of our case is that we have been offered a travel voucher that our family will find impossible to use, or we wait over 180 days for a refund where the refund date is constantly being extended by the airline and has no guarantee of actually eventuating. Our list of grievances about our experience with AMEX could go on, however we are restricted for space. Over to you [name removed]!
Very bad customer service!! waste of time!! – Applied for the card called the customer service next day ID and income were verified and got the approval called after few days to chase up /track my card and it's been the worst customer service I had ever with longest call duration 45 minutes!! I spoke to 4 persons every one was asking for my details, application number and my inquiry then… Read more
she tells me that they will get my data from the system and put me on hold for about 10 minutes before I find my self speaking with another person who has no idea about my inquiry and asking me the same questions again and put me through other person to talk to!!!! I 've been over the phone for more than 45 minutes just for one simple question "where is my card?"
just keep in mind that I am speaking to AMEX ultimate card customer service which I was expecting to get better customer service form the big name but unfortunately not. what a waste of time !!!
Also, this customer service centre is in Philippines and the voice was breaking and the people you talk to are not good enough to provide the minimal customer service level !!!
Honestly , I never had this type of customer service with my ANZ credit card before. They have been always providing me with a fantastic level of customer service every time and I never needed to spend more than few minutes even in more complex issues including card replacements, refunds of unauthorised/fraud transactions and cancelling my card. In ANZ credit card service, they are on 7 days a week. They also offered me another year with $0 annual fees but I chose to cancel it which I regret it !!! I don't think I am having a good start with AMEX anyway . Seriously thinking of canceling this card and back to ANZ.
Great bonus points and extras – Easy to use. 100,000 bonus points credited as soon as minimum spend. Travel credit covers cost of annual fee. Would highly recommend this card to anyone who loves to travel Show details
Pretty good except for steep annual fee – The annual fee is $450 but you do get $450 to put towards flights (on the Amex website, which I havent tried personally). Used overseas, worked fine. Points go to your account every month automatically. Show details
Perfect card for shopping as well as travelling – Solve recharge problems Good customer service Provide so many app offers Good sign up bonus points. Easy to handle and it is useful for all categories like shopping, travelling and many more
Great for shoppers – Negs: $450 annual fee. Pros: good sign up bonus points, good referral points, great in app offers. Great if you are in to shopping, the offers are enough to pay off the annual fee. + the points wasn’t adequately cover it. Show details
Travel credit is a joke – $450 qantas credit is a joke Newcastle to goldcoast $1500 flights booking through America travel
Extra Information
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.