Weekly News Roundup: Apr 20 - Apr 26, 2026
Published on 4/27/2026
A quieter news week than the RBA-driven chaos of earlier this month, but two stories matter a lot if you're sitting on a points balance: Velocity is doing its biggest buy-points sale of the year, and the Westpac Altitude Qantas Black 90k offer is back for existing Westpac customers. Plus, Aeroplan dropped a nasty award-chart hike that hits Aussies travelling premium cabins. Here's the rundown.
Velocity Points Sale: Up to 40% Off (Ends April 29)
Velocity is running its largest buy-points promo of the year. The sale started April 21 and the headline tier was a flat 40% discount on purchases of 50,000–250,000 points until 11:59pm AEST April 23.
From April 24 to April 29, the discount changes to a tiered structure:
- 50,000–100,000 points: 30% off
- 110,000–190,000 points: 35% off
- 200,000–250,000 points: 40% off
In other words, the sweet spot for the second half of the promo is 200,000+ points to keep the full 40% discount. There's no offer activation needed — discounts apply at checkout.
Whether buying points is "worth it" depends on what you redeem them for. Velocity reward seats on Singapore Airlines or ANA business class to Asia/Europe routinely give you 4–6 cents per point in value, which makes the maths very kind at a 40% discount. Topping up to hit a sweet spot is usually fine. Speculative point-hoarding is not.
Sources: Buy Velocity Points Booster — Point Hacks | Buy Velocity Points 40% Discount — Flight Hacks
Westpac Altitude Qantas Black: 90,000 QFF Offer Returns ($75 First-Year Fee)
For existing Westpac customers, the Westpac Altitude Qantas Black is back with 90,000 bonus Qantas Points for $6,000 spend in 120 days. Annual fee is $295 plus a $75 Qantas program fee — but Westpac is discounting the first-year card fee to $75 for existing customers, so total first-year cost is $150 for 90,000 points.
Eligibility caveat: you can't have held a Westpac Earth or Altitude card (Classic, Platinum, Platinum Plus, or Black) in the last 24 months. So this is squarely aimed at Westpac transactional customers who haven't churned a Westpac card recently.
The offer turned up on OzBargain on April 24 via branch notifications — historically a sign Westpac is pushing this through staff to hit acquisition targets, which means it's worth applying sooner rather than later.
Source: Westpac Altitude Qantas Black — OzBargain
Air Canada Aeroplan Hikes Partner Award Prices (June 1)
Aeroplan announced increases to partner award seat prices on the Pacific zone effective June 1, 2026. The headline change for Australians: Australia–Asia business class jumps from 45,000 to 52,500 points (+16.7%) on flights over 2,000 miles.
Other notable hits:
- Pacific to North America: business and premium economy up to 21.4% more
- Pacific to Europe: economy +33%, business up to +25%
This matters because Aeroplan has been one of the most flexible Star Alliance currencies for Australians — you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Aeroplan and book Singapore Airlines, ANA, or Thai Airways business class without paying the eye-watering surcharges that Velocity adds to the same seats.
If you've got an Aeroplan booking in mind, lock it in before June 1. Award seats are bookable up to 354 days out, so you can still snare 2026/27 travel at current rates if you move quickly.
Source: Air Canada Increasing Partner Award Seat Prices — Point Hacks
Qantas Wine: 10,000 Bonus Points on $550+ Spend
Qantas Wine refreshed its bonus points promo this week — earn 10,000 bonus Qantas Points when you spend $550 or more in a single transaction. It's a simple stack: bonus points on top of the standard Qantas Wine earn rate.
Worth doing if:
- You actually drink decent wine or are stocking up for end-of-year gifting
- Your ATO income year is wrapping up and you want to clear a corporate gifting budget
- You can pay with a Qantas-earning card to triple-stack (card points + Qantas Wine earn + 10k bonus)
A 12-bottle case in the $50–60/bottle range gets you over the line. Don't buy wine you wouldn't otherwise drink — the points are nice, but $550 of mediocre shiraz is still $550 of mediocre shiraz.
Source: Qantas Wine Promotion — Point Hacks
Emirates Premium Economy Now Bookable on Skywards
A small but useful change: Emirates Skywards is finally letting members book Premium Economy reward seats and upgrades. Previously, Skywards rewards skipped over Premium Economy entirely.
The catch for Aussie Qantas Frequent Flyer members: you still can't redeem Qantas Points for Emirates Premium Economy. Qantas redemptions on Emirates remain economy and business only. So this is mainly relevant if you've been parking Skywards miles or transferring Amex MR directly to Emirates.
Source: Emirates Premium Economy Rewards — Australian Frequent Flyer
Notable Offers Still Running
- The American Express Velocity Platinum Card: 70,000 bonus Velocity Points (spend $5,000 in 3 months), plus 30,000 in Year 2. Apply by April 30.
- The American Express Platinum Card: Standard offer is back to 150,000 Membership Rewards Points after the 220k bespoke offer expired April 14. Still the strongest premium card on the market by a margin.
- Qantas Premier Titanium: 150,000 bonus Qantas Points (spend $5,000 in 90 days). $1,200 annual fee. Two Qantas First Lounge invitations a year. 24-month Qantas card eligibility window.
- Coles Rewards Mastercard: $250 Coles Gift Card bonus on $3,000 spend in 90 days. Apply by June 30.
- American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card (untracked): 170,000 bonus Qantas Points on $6,000 spend in 3 months. Apply by June 16.
- Latitude Rewards (untracked): $260 bonus when you spend $2,000+ a month for the first 3 months. Apply by April 30.
What I'm Watching
The Velocity buy-points sale is the standout this week — it's the cheapest the market has been all year. If you've got a specific redemption planned, this is your moment.
Looking ahead, we're now five months out from the October 1 interchange reform that drops consumer credit card interchange from 0.8% to 0.3%. The expectation is that banks announce a wave of fee hikes and earn-rate cuts in the lead-up. NAB went first earlier this month. CBA, Westpac, and ANZ are still quiet, but I'd expect at least one more big-four announcement before the end of May.
If you've been sitting on a "should I apply" decision for a high-bonus card, the offers we're seeing now are likely better than the ones we'll see post-October. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the points.
