Organic spend is a simple way to accrue Qantas or Krisflyer frequent flyer points. When combined with tactical Credit Card sign up bonuses it is a very effective way of getting enough points to fly first of business class.
Julie and I currently have two cards in our wallet to accrue frequent flyer points: the Commbank Ultimate Awards and the NAB Rewards Signature Card. The question is which card should we be directing our organic spend,
In this post:
What is Organic Credit Card Spend?
Organic credit card spend is your monthly spend on a credit card that converts into airline frequent flyer points. The easy way to calculate your organic spend is to take last years credit card transactions and put them into Google sheets or Microsoft Excel.
TIP: you may be shocked at the outcome, I was.
Are Qantas And Krisflyer Frequent Flyer Points The Same?
There is a huge difference between Qantas and Singapore Airlines for redeeming business class flights. To fly from Sydney to Zurich one way you need 159,000 Qantas points vs 116,000 Singapore Airlines Krisflyer saver. You need nearly 40% more points to fly with Qantas.
Read my story on why I love Krisflyer.
How many points do I get from Organic Spend?
The short answer is it depends. Banks have a dizzying array of points accruals per dollar spend that convert into different airline programs. I currently have two cards in my wallet: the CommBank Ultimate Awards Credit Card and the NAB Rewards Signature Card.
When you combine the difference in how many points you need to fly with an airline and different credit card points accruals the choices are baffling.
| Qantas with CommBank | Krisflyer Saver with NAB | Qantas with Amex Ultimate | Krisflyer Saver with Amex Explorer | |
| Points for one way Business Redemption | 159,000 | 116,000 | 159,000 | 116,000 |
| Points Per $1 spent | 0.8 | 0.417 | 1.25 | 1 |
| Total Spend to Acheive Business Class | $198,750 | $278,177 | $127,200 | $116,000 |
| Monthly Spend needed over 12 months | $16,563 | $23,181 | $10,600 | $9,667 |
While at face value CommBank seems better than NAB to accrue points they significantly reduce the number of points once you spend more than $10,000 per month. While NAB has no points cap.
Use American Express For Organic Spend
What becomes obvious is that American Epress is a much better way to obtain frequent flyer points than the commercial bank credit cards. When combined with a sign on bonus it is possible to have a return business class flight within 24 months. Much better than spending 8k for the same trip
