Airpoints vs CashBack vs Rewards Cards?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Airpoints vs CashBack vs Rewards Cards?

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#3400152 5-Aug-2025 15:15

Zeon:

I get enough Airpoints dollars for at least 1 or 2 long-haul international trips for the household each year. Yes Air New Zealand is an unreliable airline plagued by delays and cancellations. So I would steer away from them for business trips, for vacations its usually not such a problem.

I guess do the maths because for low levels of rewards, there is quite a fee.

I've flown a lot over the last 3 years and personally have had far fewer issues with Air NZ compared with anyone else. Their big issue is a lack of spare planes to cover operational issues.

I like the fact I can use the points for any flight. I've always found it near impossible to use flight rewards with any other airline due to the lack of "rewards" seats.

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#3400153 5-Aug-2025 15:28

I would gently disagree with the general contention that it is hard to use Airline points and that Air NZ's Airpoints program is better because 1 Airpoints Dollar = $1NZD for a cash fare. For example, in the past year I've booked and flown 2x passengers on return Business Class flights from Auckland on Cathay to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur via Singapore Airlines and to Japan on Qantas + Japan Airlines. These 3 trips booked via my NZ Amex Rewards points.

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#3431988 7-Nov-2025 21:43

With the demise of Kiwibank airpoints we're looing to change to amex for the first year (as 2nd year onwards the the value is the same as many others

Questions:

Does Amex support Google Pay I ask as their web site says Apple Pay but not Google Pay
As Amex is primarily attractive for us due to the $300 joining incentive has anyone tried to get another card provider to match the joining incentive in value especially if we are prepared to move our day to day transactional banking
Anyone using TSB credit cards and services?

Delorean

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#3432043 8-Nov-2025 08:13

xlinknz:

With the demise of Kiwibank airpoints we're looing to change to amex for the first year (as 2nd year onwards the the value is the same as many others

Questions:

Does Amex support Google Pay I ask as their web site says Apple Pay but not Google Pay
As Amex is primarily attractive for us due to the $300 joining incentive has anyone tried to get another card provider to match the joining incentive in value especially if we are prepared to move our day to day transactional banking
Anyone using TSB credit cards and services?

No, it doesn’t support Google Pay.

I’ve got the Gold Business card myself, and it’s basically the same as the personal Gold. Just keep in mind AMEX is seen as a premium card provider, so approvals are stricter. If your credit score or financial situation isn’t solid, they just won’t approve you. And lately, it’s pretty common that you’ll need to close your existing card before they’ll issue a new one. I see this all the time in my work as a financial adviser.

With rewards, the points you get on ANZ, Westpac and other bank cards were mostly funded by interchange fees (the fees Visa and Mastercard charge in the background). Those fees keep getting reduced, so the banks simply don’t have the same money to fund high rewards anymore. Because of that, points cards from the main banks will likely fade out over time.

AMEX is different. They’ve always offered rewards because they’re “vertically integrated”, they are both the bank and the merchant service provider. Visa/Mastercard are just the middleman, so they’re more restricted by fee rules. AMEX doesn’t get squeezed in the same way, which is why their rewards have been stronger and will likely stay around even as the banks reduce theirs.

So overall, we’re heading back to the 90s, where premium cards are mainly about perks like travel insurance rather than big points……except for AMEX, which will probably remain the better option for rewards compared to the main banks.

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Aucklandjafa

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#3432048 8-Nov-2025 08:26

xlinknz:

With the demise of Kiwibank airpoints we're looing to change to amex for the first year (as 2nd year onwards the the value is the same as many others

Questions:

Does Amex support Google Pay I ask as their web site says Apple Pay but not Google Pay
As Amex is primarily attractive for us due to the $300 joining incentive has anyone tried to get another card provider to match the joining incentive in value especially if we are prepared to move our day to day transactional banking
Anyone using TSB credit cards and services?

I’ve since moved away from TSB for banking but have retained my platinum Mastercard - best reward rate (and annual fee) on the market outside of AMEX.

One of the perks is you can claim (once a year) a screen, or back, replacement for your smart phone - excess is $55.

MaxineN

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#3432049 8-Nov-2025 08:26

I was looking at switching to ANZ's Platinum Airpoints Visa card (after Westpac continuously gaslights and pretend to know but then come up with new excuses), but the 8K limit is a little spooky, so I tried to apply for the AMEX equivalent.

Immediately denied. I apparently failed the overall requirements, which I haven't been told what or why. Was meant to get a letter but I haven't gotten that either. The contact centre people also can't say why.

This is someone who has a solid job, solid income and have savings every month... With most expenses being on my current Westpac card with the exception of rent and power.

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#3432051 8-Nov-2025 08:29

MaxineN:

I was looking at switching to ANZ's Platinum Airpoints Visa card (after Westpac continuously gaslights and pretend to know but then come up with new excuses), but the 8K limit is a little spooky, so I tried to apply for the AMEX equivalent.

Immediately denied. I apparently failed the overall requirements, which I haven't been told what or why. Was meant to get a letter but I haven't gotten that either. The contact centre people also can't say why.

This is someone who has a solid job, solid income and have savings every month... With most expensive being on my current Westpac card with the exception of rent and power.

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if you say you are cancelling the Westpac Mastercard it should go though - PM me as I might be able to give you some help

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MaxineN

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#3432052 8-Nov-2025 08:30

Delorean:

MaxineN:

I was looking at switching to ANZ's Platinum Airpoints Visa card (after Westpac continuously gaslights and pretend to know but then come up with new excuses), but the 8K limit is a little spooky, so I tried to apply for the AMEX equivalent.

Immediately denied. I apparently failed the overall requirements, which I haven't been told what or why. Was meant to get a letter but I haven't gotten that either. The contact centre people also can't say why.

This is someone who has a solid job, solid income and have savings every month... With most expensive being on my current Westpac card with the exception of rent and power.

🤷‍♀️

if you say you are cancelling the Westpac Mastercard it should go though - PM me as I might be able to give you some help

I did explicitly state that to them I would be killing the Westpac card over the phone but they denied me right there and then.

Yeah will message you.

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xlinknz

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#3432055 8-Nov-2025 08:51

Delorean:

No, it doesn’t support Google Pay.

Thank you for the reply and insight.

@Delorean Strange no google pay so can't pay using my Android phone for contactless payments... I wonder why AMEX don't support google pay?

Aucklandjafa:

I’ve since moved away from TSB for banking but have retained my platinum Mastercard - best reward rate (and annual fee) on the market outside of AMEX.
One of the perks is you can claim (once a year) a screen, or back, replacement for your smart phone - excess is $55.

@Aucklandjafa any reason you moved away from TSB, poor service?

mrgsm021

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#3432079 8-Nov-2025 09:25

Also have an Airpoints AMEX since 2014, with no annual fee, earn rate has gone up to 100:1.

My main credit card is the Westpac Master Card with their rewards program, so AMEX gets used infrequently.

Mainly redeem the Airpoints in airpoints store, haven't amounted to anything big. Since not annual fee, keeping it as a back up.

Like others have pointed out AMEX is strict, I had to try couple of times before they approved my limit increase.

Unlike Westpac, AMEX would have offers to encourage spending/usage such as spending $xxx to get $xxx back with xxx retailer, which I quite like and would often use the app to check for offers.

Generally happy with their call centre for the few times I've had to call them.

Only thing though is I wish they had Google Pay available.

Aucklandjafa

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#3432085 8-Nov-2025 10:33

Nah, service was ok. Bought a house and went with another bank via a broker.

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#3432095 8-Nov-2025 12:12

AMEX is best for almost everything apart from acceptability and SP earn.

If you want a nearly universally accepted credit card Westpac Airpoints World Mastercard is similar to AMEX Airpoints Platinum with a slightly better SP earn and slightly worse APD earn and slightly higher fee.

NB: Holding an ANZ Airpoints Platinum card gets you a 50% uplift on SP earned on flights regardless of which credit card purchased the airfares. So if you have one of the above two and plus the ANZ one you can boost your SP earn.

Delorean

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#3432142 8-Nov-2025 12:57

johno1234:

AMEX is best for almost everything apart from acceptability and SP earn.

If you want a nearly universally accepted credit card Westpac Airpoints World Mastercard is similar to AMEX Airpoints Platinum with a slightly better SP earn and slightly worse APD earn and slightly higher fee.

NB: Holding an ANZ Airpoints Platinum card gets you a 50% uplift on SP earned on flights regardless of which credit card purchased the airfares. So if you have one of the above two and plus the ANZ one you can boost your SP earn.

I agree entirely. The American Express rewards ecosystem is more flexible and isn’t locked exclusively to Air New Zealand. (That’s on the non AirNZ cobranded ones, e.g. Amex Gold)

Once you compare Air New Zealand’s program to other international airline loyalty schemes, its limitations become pretty clear, especially for anyone travelling outside of New Zealand.

For instance, Qantas offers a significantly better Amex points-to-miles conversion rate for the same level of spend. If your travel is mostly domestic or strictly with Air New Zealand, then the standard bank-issued Airpoints cards can be sufficient in the short term. However, as interchange margins continue to shrink, it’s likely the banks will eventually overhaul these reward structures.

As I’ve mentioned before, I expect most major banks to shift toward either proprietary points systems or simple cashback models. That move gives them full control over the value of the rewards. The catch for consumers is that these in-house points can be quietly devalued at any time. You might earn 5,000 points expecting it to cover a certain reward, only to find later it now costs 6,000 and you wouldn’t know until you try to redeem them.

In short: American Express offers more flexibility and transparency, while bank-issued cards are drifting toward controlled, devalued reward schemes that favour the issuer, not the customer.

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#3432211 8-Nov-2025 17:01

The advantage of the airpoint branded platinum cards is the SP earn which you don't get with the non-airnz-cobranded cards. If you fly enough with Air NZ that the SP you earn from card spend can push you into the next status level that may be worth something on top of the airpoints you also earn. So basically airpoint branded plat cards you kill two birds with one stone - SP and AP, whereas the others are points only (although flexible as to where you convert to). When I had a plat card I used to get enough SP to push me up over the line into silver which was a nice bonus e.g. free upgrade, 2x koru entry. But whether or not this benefit stays around will be interesting to see -- we've seen ANZ already switch to just doing 50% bonus on flying rather than SP based on card spend.

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#3432550 10-Nov-2025 00:56

MaxineN:

Immediately denied. I apparently failed the overall requirements, which I haven't been told what or why. Was meant to get a letter but I haven't gotten that either. The contact centre people also can't say why.

This is someone who has a solid job, solid income and have savings every month... With most expenses being on my current Westpac card with the exception of rent and power.

🤷‍♀️

Hey Maxine, the same thing happened to me - I applied for an AMEX, got a call to say my application was declined with no explanation, but was told that I would receive a letter, which never came.

I'm not sure what the problem is - I maintain a literally perfect 1000 credit score. I am 3 years away from paying my mortgage off, no other debts, loans or HPs, and my current ANZ card is paid off in full every month.

Maybe AMEX did the math and realised they won't make any money off me LOL.

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