Qantas Points Expiry: The 18-Month Rule and the Cheapest Ways to Keep Points Alive
By Craig McNamara · Published on 26 July 2026
Qantas Points don't have a fixed expiry date, but they absolutely can expire — and once they do, they're gone. The rule is simple on the surface and has a couple of traps underneath, the biggest one being that family transfers don't count as activity.
If you churn credit cards for Qantas Points, this matters more than you'd think. A big bonus lands, life happens, and 18 months later a six-figure balance can vanish overnight. Here's the actual rule, straight from Qantas's own pages, and the cheapest ways to keep the clock ticking.
The rule: activity once every 18 months
From the official Qantas Points expiry page:
"To ensure you keep your Qantas Points from expiring you'll need to earn or use Qantas Points through your account at least once every 18 months."
The full Frequent Flyer terms and conditions (clause 9.2.2) are more precise: your entire balance expires at midnight Sydney time at the end of the 18th consecutive month in which you haven't earned Qantas Points or Status Credits, or redeemed Qantas Points.
Three details worth knowing:
- Every eligible activity resets the clock to zero. The 18 months runs from your last eligible earn or redemption, not from when each batch of points was earned. One activity protects your whole balance.
- For flights, the date that counts is the date you flew — not the date the points posted.
- Earning Status Credits counts too, per the same clause. A cheap paid flight resets the clock twice over. (More on that in fastest ways to earn Qantas status credits.)
This is activity-based expiry: one action protects the whole balance, no matter how old the points are. But it punishes the set-and-forget account.
What counts as activity — and what doesn't
| Activity | Resets the clock? |
|---|---|
| Earning points from a flight | Yes (date flown) |
| Points from a credit card statement | Yes |
| Earning with any program partner (shopping, hotels, wine) | Yes |
| Converting Everyday Rewards points to Qantas Points | Yes |
| Redeeming points for anything (flights, upgrades, Marketplace, Points Plus Pay) | Yes |
| Earning Status Credits | Yes |
| Family transfer in or out | No — on either account |
| Transfer from Qantas Business Rewards | No |
Those last two rows are the trap. The expiry page says it directly: activity "does not include transferring points to or from an Eligible Family Member (Family Transfer) or the transfer of points from Qantas Business Rewards."
So topping up a dormant account with a family transfer does nothing to protect it. The points arrive, the clock keeps running, and the whole balance — including the freshly transferred points — expires together.
The cheapest ways to reset the clock
You need one eligible earn or redemption every 18 months. In rough order of effort, these are the ones I actually rely on:
- A Qantas-earning credit card. If a card deposits points to your Qantas account each statement, your clock resets every month automatically and you never think about this again. The Qantas cards page tracks which cards currently do this and what their bonuses are.
- Convert Everyday Rewards points. If you shop at Woolworths, flip your Everyday Rewards account to "convert to Qantas Points" — every 2,000 Everyday Rewards points automatically becomes 1,000 Qantas Points, per the expiry page's own fine print. Grocery shopping you were doing anyway becomes ongoing account activity.
- A small earn or redemption at Qantas Marketplace or Qantas Wine. Both earning and spending points on a purchase count. A gift card or a bottle of wine is enough.
- A tiny Points Plus Pay redemption. Booking a hotel through Qantas Hotels lets you put points toward the cost — the minimum is 2,000 points per the page's terms — and a redemption is activity.
- Take a flight. Any eligible paid flight earns points and Status Credits; resets everything.
Redeeming points on a partner award also counts — if the balance is big enough, the best reset is just using them, which I cover in using Qantas Points on partner airlines.
I wouldn't buy anything purely to reset the clock. Every option above piggybacks on spending that was happening anyway — that's the whole game.
How family transfers actually work
Family transfers are still genuinely useful — for pooling points toward a redemption, just not for keeping an account alive. From the official family transfers page and clause 11 of the T&Cs:
- Minimum 1,500 points per transfer, whole numbers only
- Unlimited transfers, no transaction fee when done online (a Reward Assistance Fee applies if you phone a consultant)
- The sender must have been a member for at least 3 months; the recipient must already be a member
- Transfers are irreversible — no undo for typos, so check the membership number
- Qantas can ask for proof of the relationship
- They don't count as activity for expiry or as earning toward Points Club (relevant if you're chasing Points Club)
The "eligible family member" list in the T&Cs is broad: spouse or de facto, parents and step-parents, children (including foster and step), siblings and half-siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and first cousins.
One more clause worth knowing (8.5): if a member dies, their executor can ask Qantas to transfer the unexpired points to an eligible family member — but the request has to be made within 12 months of death, and the transferred points then follow the recipient's expiry clock.
Velocity's expiry clock and family pooling rules work quite differently — I compare the two programs in Velocity points expiry and family pooling.
What happens when points expire
Two things, per the T&Cs:
- Warnings come in the last 60 days (clause 9.2.3): a warning on your online activity statement, plus a notification in the monthly email newsletter if you're opted in to email. That's it — easy to miss if you never log in and the emails go to spam.
- Expired points cannot be re-credited (clause 9.2.4). The terms are blunt about this. Whatever goodwill stories float around, the written rule is that expiry is final — plan on that basis.
Also note clause 5: if you cancel your membership, all accumulated points expire immediately.
The short version
- Points expire after 18 consecutive months with no eligible activity — one earn or redemption resets the clock for your whole balance.
- Family transfers and Qantas Business Rewards transfers don't count, on either side.
- The cheapest insurance: a Qantas-earning credit card posting points monthly, or Everyday Rewards auto-conversion at the supermarket.
- Family transfers: 1,500-point minimum, unlimited, free online, irreversible.
- Expired points cannot be re-credited — the warning is a statement notice and a newsletter line in the final 60 days, so don't rely on noticing it.
External sources
- Qantas — Qantas Points expiry
- Qantas — Family Transfers
- Qantas — Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions (clauses 9.2.2–9.2.4, 11, 8.5)
