Qantas American Express Ultimate Card – Review

Quick verdict

The Qantas Amex Ultimate is a strong card for a dedicated Qantas flyer: 1.25 Qantas points per $1 (one of the highest everyday earn rates going), a $450 Qantas Travel Credit that offsets the $450 fee, two Qantas Club lounge invitations and two Centurion Lounge entries a year, plus complimentary travel insurance. It was highly commended for Best Qantas Frequent Flyer Credit Card in the 2026 Finder Awards. The catches: it earns Qantas points and only Qantas points — so it’s only useful if Qantas is the program you want — and the travel credit can only be spent on a Qantas flight booked through Amex Travel. Both are fine if Qantas is your airline — and the reason I personally moved on if it isn’t.

Why I moved off it

Nothing went wrong with the card. My travel just changed, and three things stopped fitting:

I’d rather warehouse flexible points. I like banking points in a flexible currency and moving them when a good redemption or transfer bonus appears. The Qantas Amex Ultimate earns Qantas points — full stop. They go to Qantas, and nowhere else. That’s perfect if Qantas is your program, but it takes away the flexibility to wait and pounce on the right deal.

I mostly fly Singapore Airlines now. Both paid and on points, Singapore Airlines is my airline these days, which means KrisFlyer is where I want my miles. This card earns Qantas points — the wrong currency for me. KrisFlyer miles also expire, so I’d rather earn into a flexible program I can hold and move on my own timing than build a Qantas balance I’d have little use for.

The travel credit was a faff. The $450 Qantas Travel Credit sounds like it cancels the $450 fee, and technically it does — but only if you book a Qantas flight through the Amex Travel website, in a single booking worth $450 or more. So you have to actually buy a Qantas ticket to claim it. Compare that to the American Express Explorer I now use, whose $400 travel credit can go on flights, hotels or car hire — I put mine toward hotels every year, which is far easier to use up. Same idea, much less friction.

So I switched. Not because the Ultimate is a bad card — it isn’t — but because a Qantas-locked card with a Qantas-flight-only credit didn’t match a traveller who wants flexible points and flies Singapore Airlines.

Qantas Amex Ultimate earn rate: points per dollar

The earn rate is the card’s real strength, and it.s high for Qantas points:

At 1.25 Qantas points per $1 on everyday spend, this is among the highest-earning Qantas cards in the market — and the points go straight to your Qantas account with no transfer step. The earn rate drops to 1 point per $1 once you’ve earned 100,000 points in a calendar year, which only affects very high spenders.

The travel credit: how it works (and its catch)

The headline that the “$450 fee is effectively free” rests entirely on the $450 Qantas Travel Credit. It’s real, but read the conditions:

• It can only be redeemed on a Qantas flight (a QF flight number) booked through American Express Travel Online.
• It must be used on a single booking worth $450 or more — book for less and you forfeit the unused portion.
• It’s valid for 365 days and doesn’t carry forward.

If you fly Qantas anyway, that’s no hardship — you’d buy the flight regardless, and the credit covers it. But if you don’t have a Qantas flight to book in a given year, the credit is harder to use, and the “free fee” logic falls apart. This is the single biggest thing to be honest with yourself about before applying: will you actually book a $450+ Qantas flight every year?

Lounge access and insurance

This is where the card earns its keep on perks. Each membership year you get:

• 2 Qantas Club lounge invitations (after your first eligible spend on Qantas products/services).
• 2 entries to The Centurion Lounge in Sydney or Melbourne — Amex’s premium lounges, a genuine step up.

That’s four premium lounge visits a year across two networks, which is a strong lounge package. For how card lounge access works in Australia and which cards get you in, see our lounge access guide.

The card also includes complimentary domestic and international travel insurance, activated when you pay for an eligible return trip on the card (maximum age 79, with pre-existing condition exclusions). As always, the conditions and limits are what matter — our credit card travel insurance guide covers which cards actually pay out and the activation traps.

The fees

• $450 annual card fee — offset by the $450 Qantas Travel Credit if you use it (see the catch above).
• 23.99% p.a. purchase rate — high, so pay in full; carrying a balance wipes out any points value.
• Up to 4 additional cards at no extra fee (a way to pool more Qantas points on one account).
• Minimum credit limit $3,000. The welcome bonus excludes anyone who’s held an Amex in the past 18 months.

The card I switched to, and why it might suit you too

I moved to the American Express Explorer, and the contrast explains who each card is for. The Explorer earns Membership Rewards points — a flexible currency you can transfer to KrisFlyer, Velocity and a range of other airline and hotel partners, which is exactly the warehousing flexibility I wanted. Its travel credit ($400 against a $395 fee) can be spent on hotels and car hire as well as flights, so it’s far easier to use than a Qantas-flight-only credit. And it still comes with two Centurion Lounge passes.

If you’re a committed Qantas flyer who’ll use the flight credit, the Ultimate’s higher direct Qantas earn may suit you better. If you want flexible points and an easy-to-use credit, the Explorer is worth a look. They’re built for two different travellers — and knowing which one you are is the whole decision.

Before you apply: can you afford the fee?

The $450 fee is only “free” if you’ll book a $450+ Qantas flight each year to claim the travel credit — so be honest with yourself about that before applying. And as with any card application, check it won’t dent a borrowing position you care about. The tools hub has spend and balance-sheet calculators to sanity-check an application against a future loan, and the FX Rip-off Calculator shows the real cost of using an Amex overseas.

Who is the Qantas Amex Ultimate for?

• Dedicated Qantas flyers who’ll book a $450+ Qantas flight each year to use the travel credit.
• High everyday spenders who want one of the top direct Qantas earn rates (1.25 pts/$1).
• People who value the lounge package — four premium visits a year across Qantas Club and Centurion.

Who should look elsewhere?

• Anyone who wants flexible points to move between programs — Qantas points are locked to Qantas. Consider the Amex Explorer.
• People who don’t fly Qantas every year — the travel credit is hard to use, and the “free fee” logic breaks.
• KrisFlyer or Velocity collectors — a card earning those currencies suits you better.

Frequently asked questions