Sneaky Qantas points 'rubber duck trick' sends Aussie travellers into meltdown
A frequent flyer has discovered a Qantas points loophole for the ages - one that could see you fly business class from Sydney to Paris for just $1050.
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Ready to hear something quacking mad? Aussie frequent flyers are peddling their feet (like ducks chasing down a piece of Wonder White bread) towards their local Big Ws, after a sneaky Qantas points loophole has gone viral.
That loophole? Buying yellow rubber ducks.
That's right, purchasing this random bath toy from Big W has been exposed as a loophole that enables you to boost your Qantas points balance faster than what ought to be possible.
How? Well Qantas allows you to earn Qantas points in a number of ways beyond just booking flights.
By purchasing petrol, doing grocery shopping and even buying wine, there are a number of ways you can build your points balance without ever stepping foot inside a plane.
Enter: Big W. This iconic Aussie store is part of the Woolworths Group and participates in the Everyday Rewards program, which also partners with Qantas Frequent Flyer.
One frequent flyer - the editor of Flight Hacks - Tom Goward, recently stumbled upon a lucrative points-earning opportunity in the system which allows you to earn far more points than you are able to normally, in the form of a yellow bath duck.
See also: Points guru: how do frequent flyer points work?
How does the rubber duck frequent flyer hack work?
Occasionally, bonus promotions go live that allow shoppers to earn additional points on certain transactions.
As it turns out, Big W was recently offering 1,000 bonus points per duck with very few terms and conditions—i.e. very few checks in place to prevent savvy customers from taking advantage of an arbitrage opportunity.
"Each bath toy was on sale for $3.50, and when combined with various other promotions, it worked out to just 0.59 cents per Qantas Point," Flight Hacks founder Immanuel Debeer told Escape.
Considering a one-way Business Class ticket from Sydney to Paris costs 144,600 Qantas Points, it’s easy to see the potential savings.
All you would have to do is buy 290 ducks for $3.50 each (a total cost of $1050) and that would earn you enough Qantas points to fly from Sydney to Paris in business class (a journey that usually would cost well in excess of $8000).
Once you paid the requisite taxes and fees (these are normally a couple hundred dollars), this means you'd be getting a Qantas business class fare that normally costs between $8,000 and $9,000 for approximately $1250.
Or, if you combine this with other deals and offers, like Tom did, you could potentially even get it for as low as $853.14 plus fees and taxes.
See also: 20 easy ways to earn more Qantas Points
This revelation caused a bit of a stir online: when Tom posted it on the Flight Hacks Facebook page it quickly blew up, earning him the nickname “duckfluencer.”
Just 45 minutes after Tom's post, the Big W ducks sold out around Australia online and for Click and Collect. A lot of people had their orders canned because Big W ran out of ducks but in many cases everyone still got the points.
As for what is going to happen to all the ducks, Debeer told Escape: "Tom has decided to give away his ducks to charity and friends with kids."
What are the best frequent flyer loopholes in history?
1. The chocolate pudding hero
Way back in 1999, before airlines and credit card companies figured out most of the common frequent flyer tricks, a US civil engineer David Phillips earned himself 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles by buying 12,150 servings of packaged chocolate pudding. While the puddings cost him US $3,000, they netted him the equivalent of 21 return tickets from the US to Australia, making it well worthwhile (he enlisted the help of a local charity to help him peel all the vouchers off before the deal expired, and then donated the food).
According to Executive Traveller, "The chocolate pudding company initially baulked at making good on their points promotion, claimed it hadn't received Philips' redemption forms. But after showing them proof of registered delivery, they honoured the promotion, and he started receiving thick wads of vouchers in the mail, able to be redeemed with his choice of airline for points."
2. The 'one cent transaction' trick
In 2013, NAB offered 100 extra frequent flyer points for each purchase made on a NAB Qantas credit card. But they didn't say how much you had to spend on each purchase.
Aussie entrepreneur Anthony Agius spotted the loophole and pounced. He made 7000 purchases of one cent each, mostly to CityLink - Melbourne's toll road operator.
"CityLink did call me, but they were mainly concerned with the fact my credit card may have been stolen, or that their billing system went crazy," Agius said at the time.
"Once I told them I was doing it on purpose to get points, they were relieved and didn't say anything after that."
NAB weren't so chill though. The bank did not expect their promotion to be used in this way, claiming the 1c transactions did not meet the qualifications for "eligible purchases" and quickly shut the scheme down.
Before this happened though, Mr Agius got to keep the points that he did manage to obtain before NAB cottoned on, news.com.au reports.
3. The long-haul lampoon
Travel blogger Sam Huang recently went viral in 2016 for cashing in his Alaska Airlines frequent-flyer miles for a $60,000 trip around the world.
"Huang's trip spanned 11 cities, seven countries, and five continents, and he managed to pay only $300 for the journey -- in addition to cashing in his frequent-flyer miles -- by taking advantage of a clever loophole when booking the trip," independent.co.uk reports.
The loophole? Huang said it involved booking the journey as one long flight with multiple layovers." While this might be tedious in economy, up in Emirate first class surrounded by showers and champagne, we can see the attraction...
4. The eBay extravaganza
Back in 2020 a man allegedly realised that when he bought a product on eBay and returned it, despite receiving a refund, he still kept his frequent flyer miles gained in the purchase.
What's more, at the time, this program was offering 2 points for every dollar spent. The airline then ran a double points campaign, which equated to 4 points per dollar spent. Wild.
As reported by Man of Many, he bought more and more expensive products (returning them all but magically keeping the miles) and accumulated enough points to go to Europe three times, Africa, India, the US (on multiple occasions), Kazakhstan and the Whitsundays.
5. The $1 coin scam
Apparently, when the US was trying to introduce the dollar coin, they were offering each coin for exactly $1, no tax, free shipping, in an effort to get them into circulation.
Some savvy operators allegedly maxxed out their credit cards purchasing these coins for the frequent flyer miles, then went and deposited these coins back into their account, costing them zilch.
How can I find frequent flyer loopholes myself?
- Frequent flyer deals and loopholes come and go so it's important to stay in the loop if you want to take advantage of them. One of the easiest ways to be notified of hacks like this is to join travel hacking Facebook groups
- Keep an eye out for solid frequent flyer card sign up bonuses and other easy wins such as Qantas Wine bonus offers
- Keep on top of new bonus offers: Each Wednesday Woolworths Rewards and Flybuys release their new bonus offers for the week. These are the ones to keep your eyes peeled for as they often contain generous promos such as the duck for points offer
Originally published as Sneaky Qantas points 'rubber duck trick' sends Aussie travellers into meltdown
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