If you’ve ever booked a flight on Qantas.com, you’ve probably noticed a little sting at checkout. The credit card payment fee. It’s not massive on its own, and it depends on which card you use. While they are capped at $22 for a domestic flight or up to $120 for an international one, there’s a catch: it’s charged per person, per booking. So if you’re traveling with a group, those fees can snowball pretty quickly.
The good news is you don’t have to just accept it. Qantas does give you a few ways to sidestep the surcharge, though some come with trade-offs. For example, if you pay with BPAY or PayID, you’re basically using your own cash instead of credit. That works fine, but you won’t earn Qantas Points or other loyalty perks. And while Qantas UATP is technically an option, it’s not something most travelers will ever use.
That leaves the most practical workaround: Gift Vouchers. They’re simple, widely available, and let you dodge the credit card fee without too much hassle. If you’re booking for multiple people, grabbing a voucher ahead of time can save you a tidy sum.
So next time you’re planning a trip, think about whether a voucher makes sense. .It could be the easiest way to keep more money in your pocket for the fun stuff, like a nice meal when you land.
Gift Voucher
Gift vouchers are a bit of a hidden perk when it comes to booking Qantas flights. They let you pay with a credit card but still dodge that annoying credit card fee. In fact, it’s become my go-to method for buying tickets these days.
The best part? You still earn points on the purchase. So it’s a win-win: avoid the fee and rack up those Qantas Points at the same time.
Of course, there are a couple of quirks to keep in mind:
- It’s a two-step process—you’ll need to buy the voucher first, then use it to book your flight.
- Vouchers only work for straightforward one-way or return trips that start in Australia.
- The booking engine they use can sometimes miss certain fare options, so it’s not always perfect.
Even with those little downsides, the savings and points make vouchers a pretty handy trick. If you’re booking regularly, it’s worth getting into the habit, it keeps more money in your pocket and still lets you enjoy the perks of paying with a card.
Using Gift Vouchers
In order to use this technique, you first need to purchase a gift voucher, and this is done on the gift voucher page at Qantas.com. You select to Buy the voucher, the number of passengers, and the value of the voucher per person. This should be less than the value of the airfare, although Qantas will re-issue a voucher for the unused funds if the full value is not used.
In most cases, I will limit myself to $50 per passenger. There is no real need to go over this amount, as even a $50 voucher will remove the credit card fees.
On the Details page, you enter your details as the purchaser of the gift voucher, and you can also enter yourself as the recipient. Note that the recipient details are the names of the passengers that will be on the tickets.
Following this step, you go to the payment page to pay by credit card. Qantas will give you a reference number for the voucher, and it may be worth recording this number.
Qantas will also email the electronic record of the voucher to you – although sometimes this seems to vanish into cyberspace.
Once you have the voucher, you can go back through the voucher page, and redeem the voucher. After flight selection, you again make payment via a credit card, and there is no credit card surcharge.
BPay
If making a booking more than 7 days prior to departure, Qantas provides a BPay option that allows you to transfer funds from your bank account to Qantas.
In order to use this option, you make your booking as normal, and at the Payment stage select BPay as the payment method. Qantas will provide a Biller number and a reference number for your booking. You use these numbers to initiate a BPay from your bank account to Qantas.
Due to the way in which BPay works, this can take a few days to process before you get your finalised booking.
PayID
POLi is probably the most overlooked payment option available. The system works by making a payment directly from your bank account.
You can use PayID when
- your bank offers PayID,
- your flight departs from Australia, and
- you’ve made your booking directly with Qantas.
Qantas does expect the payment to be received within 10 minutes. This can be an issue if your bank holds your first PayID payment to a new merchant for any length of time.
