Five ways to avoid the Qantas credit card booking surcharge

With Qantas set to replace fixed-price credit card surcharges with a variable 1.3% fee, travellers on the more expensive tickets – including international business class and premium economy – will be faced with up to a $70 fee for paying with their credit card, up from the current $30 fee.

Read: Qantas to change credit card booking fees from September 1

But clued-in flyers can beat the hike and in many cases avoid paying credit card surcharges entirely. Here's how.

1. Buy Qantas gift vouchers, even for yourself

Qantas sells 'gift vouchers' from $50 to $2,000 which can be redeemed on travel with the Red Roo – and when you use a Qantas voucher to pay for even part of your booking there's no credit card surcharge.

Of course, these needn’t be given as a gift: you can buy these for yourself and use them to book your flights without that plastic penalty.

Booking that $8,000 business class return airfare to Los Angeles? Pay with a $50 Qantas gift voucher plus $7,950 from your credit card and there's no booking fee.

Just keep in mind that gift vouchers can only be used to book one-way and return journeys which begin in Australia and can’t be used to book multi-city, round-the-world or other Oneworld alliance fares.

Read more: Should you buy Qantas flight vouchers?

2. Book via an online travel agent

Some online travel agencies including Expedia Australia and American Express Travel allow you to book Qantas flights without paying the Qantas credit card surcharges, and the fare is often the same price as booking directly with the airline.

However, be aware that any changes or cancellations to your journey attract extra fees from the travel agency in addition to those normally charged by the airline.

For instance, Expedia Australia levies a $50 fee for some flight changes atop Qantas’ own fees where changes are permitted.

In the same way, AMEX Travel charges a $33 fee per change and has its own $55 cancellation charge, in addition to whatever fees are charged by Qantas.

In short, you’ll save money on bookings that don’t need to be altered or cancelled – but when your plans change, the added costs significant outweigh the otherwise-smaller credit card surcharge you’d have paid by booking direct.

3. Use Qantas Cash or other pre-paid/debit cards

Whip out your Qantas Cash card or other pre-paid or debit cards when making a booking and you’ll pay a surcharge of just 0.6% from September 1 2016, as opposed to the higher 1.3% charged to credit card users.

Although this means a smaller fee, there are still the same caps of $11 for domestic and trans-Tasman bookings and $70 for international bookings, as apply to credit cards.

For instance, using a credit card attracts the maximum $11 fee on domestic/trans-Tasman fares of $846 and above, but use a debit card instead with the lower 0.6% surcharge and you'd not reach $11 in fees until your ticket exceeds $1,833.

On international flights, all fares above $5,385 reach the $70 ceiling when paying by credit card, but use a debit card and you'd pay less than $70 unless the price of your ticket is $11,666 or more.

Fares above those markers will be charged at the same $11/$70 cap, so if you're paying the same fee you may as well pull out your higher-earning credit card to earn more frequent flyer points.

Also read: How the RBA's interchange cap will affect credit card points

4. Pay with BPAY

You can also use BPAY for fee-free online bookings, but Qantas will only accept this if your date of travel is at least seven or more days out.

That's not an issue for most travellers, although of course some business trips are made on very short notice – and that's when you want to flip to the final option.

5. Pay with POLi

Another online payment option, and one that's often overlooked, is POLi.

This is an Australia/New Zealand payment system which makes a direct connection with your bank and offers immediate transfer of funds to the airline (POLi is also supported by Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand).

There's no booking fee and you can use POLi to buy a ticket the same day you fly. 

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Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.