Weekly News Roundup: May 18 - May 24, 2026
By Craig McNamara · Published on 28 May 2026
A quieter week on the new-card front, but a useful one if you're sitting on Amex Membership Rewards points. Amex opened a 15% transfer bonus into Everyday Rewards — which doubles as a back-door route into Qantas Points — and Malaysia Airlines released a generous batch of Brisbane-Kuala Lumpur reward seats that you can grab with Qantas Points. Velocity also kicked off a 30% hotel transfer bonus that runs into June. Here's the rundown.
Amex Membership Rewards: 15% Bonus Into Everyday Rewards (May 21 - June 17)
This is the most useful card-points lever of the week, and it's a slightly sideways one. From May 21 to June 17, 2026, American Express is offering a 15% bonus on Membership Rewards points transferred into Everyday Rewards (Woolworths). Minimum transfer is 500 MR points, there's no activation required (you just need to be enrolled in Membership Rewards), and you can do it multiple times across the promo. Bonus points are credited by June 26.
The interesting bit isn't the Woolworths shop. Everyday Rewards points convert onward to Qantas Points, so this becomes a two-step Amex → Everyday Rewards → Qantas play — and the 15% kicker improves the effective rate of that route versus transferring at the standard ratio. It's a back-door into Qantas Points for Amex cardholders, sitting alongside (not replacing) Amex's usual direct routes.
Eligible cards are the Membership Rewards Ascent Premium, Ascent, Gateway, New Corporate Ascent, Spirit and Corporate Spirit tiers. Run the maths on the full two-hop conversion before you move anything — the indirect path only makes sense if the end rate beats your other options, and you should be transferring toward a redemption you'll actually use, not banking speculatively.
Source: The Amex Transfer Hack to Qantas Points — Flight Hacks
Malaysia Airlines Drops Brisbane-KL Reward Seats (Bookable With Qantas Points)
A genuinely good redemption story for anyone in Brisbane. Reported May 22, Malaysia Airlines released a large batch of reward availability on its Brisbane-Kuala Lumpur route, covering October 2026 through May 2027 — including peak windows like Christmas 2026 and Easter 2027, which is exactly when these seats usually evaporate.
The seats are bookable with Qantas Points (as well as Cathay Asia Miles and British Airways Avios), so this is squarely useful for Aussie points-holders:
- Economy: 34,700 points + about A$176 each way
- Business: 90,000 points + about A$190 each way
- Up to 5 Economy and 2 Business reward seats per flight across both directions
Those Business rates are sharp for the distance, and seeing genuine award space land over the Christmas/Easter peaks is the unusual part — Malaysia Airlines doesn't normally open this much. If a KL trip (or onward connection into Asia or Europe) is on your radar, this is worth a look before the good dates get picked over.
Source: Malaysia Airlines Business Class Reward Seats Brisbane-Kuala Lumpur — Australian Frequent Flyer
Velocity 30% Hotel Transfer Bonus Launches (May 18 - June 5)
Separate from the credit-card transfer bonus that's been running all month, Velocity launched a 30% bonus on hotel-program transfers into Velocity this week, live from May 18:
- Accor Live Limitless (min 4,000 pts), IHG One Rewards (min 10,000 IHG pts), Choice Privileges (min 2,000 pts) run May 18 - June 5; Shangri-La Circle (min 1,000 pts) started a few days earlier
- No activation needed, you can transfer multiple times, and bonus points credit within 60 days
I'll keep this one short because the practical advice hasn't changed: hotel-points-to-airline transfers are usually weak value at the base rate, and a 30% kicker doesn't fix a bad ratio on its own. But if you've got an orphaned hotel balance you'll never burn on a stay, topping up Velocity for a specific redemption is a reasonable way to clear it. Don't transfer speculatively.
Sources: Velocity's Latest Transfer Bonus Offer — Flight Hacks | Get Bonus Velocity Points When Transferring From Hotel Programs — FlyStayPoints
Quick Hits
- Choice Privileges buy-points sale: Choice ran a buy-points flash sale of up to 50% bonus on purchased points, May 18-24 — neatly timed against the Velocity 30% hotel transfer window above. Buying hotel points to feed an airline transfer is rarely the play, so only relevant if you had a Choice stay or transfer already lined up. LoyaltyLobby
- Velocity 10-20% credit-card transfer bonus (recurring context): the two-month promo continues — 10% on manual transfers if you transfer in both May and June, 20% on auto-transfers — across Amex MR, ANZ Rewards, Westpac Altitude, NAB Rewards and MyCard Rewards (CommBank excluded). Skipping May forfeits the manual bonus, so read the terms. Australian Frequent Flyer
Notable Offers Still Running
- The American Express Velocity Platinum Card: 50,000 bonus Velocity Points — and the cleanest pairing with the Velocity credit-card transfer bonus running across May and June. Remember you have to transfer in both months to bank the manual 10%.
- The American Express Platinum Edge Credit Card: an entry into Amex Membership Rewards — the most flexible points currency on the market right now, and the program behind both this week's Everyday Rewards back-door and the Velocity transfer promo.
- Qantas Premier Titanium: 150,000 bonus Qantas Points on $5,000 spend in 90 days. Premium card, premium fee, but still the biggest single Qantas haul going.
- ANZ Frequent Flyer Black: a reliable mid-tier Qantas earner if Titanium's annual fee is too rich for you.
What I'm Watching
The theme this week is routes, not card bonuses. The Amex-to-Everyday-Rewards bonus and the Malaysia Airlines seat release are both about getting more out of points you already hold rather than chasing a new sign-up — and honestly, that's where the value usually is. A confirmed redemption (a Brisbane-KL Business seat over Christmas) beats a hypothetical points stockpile every time.
On the broader picture, issuers are still tinkering at the edges rather than competing hard on headline bonuses, which fits the run-up to October's interchange reform. I'd keep banking confirmed value now and stay sceptical of any "earn now, figure out the value later" pitch. Lock in the redemptions where the maths already works.
