How to turn your Christmas shopping into 55,000 frequent flyer points

Opinion

November 7, 2026 — 5:10am

It’s just under six weeks to Christmas, a fact that might be as distressing as last week’s interest rate rise was for mortgage holders. But this year – just in time for Christmas – I’ve honed my points hacking, and I’m ready to start stacking them from the silly season.

It’s a simple strategy: buy gift cards that come with a bonus points offer and use them, instead of cash, to buy things. Indeed, you can start in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, when Aussie shoppers are expected to spend an average of $346, an increase of $22 from last year’s event, according to Shopify.

Let me add the crucial upfront caveat, as I often do, that this is for money that you were going to spend anyway. As if any of us has any to spare! But with necessary, planned spend, why not deploy my proven tactics this year to max the points hacks?

Visa/Mastercard gift cards – 10,000 points
Now, this is not my favourite strategy but let’s start here and work up to the best; the reason is that these gift cards charge a $5.75 to $7.95 activation fee per card. Any fee comprehensively erodes the value of the points you earn.

The advantage of these cards, though, is that they can be redeemed just about anywhere.

But let’s back up and explain that the common theme in the gift-card hack is to buy them on boosted points. It’s simply adding an interim step that nets you cherry-on-top potential travel. The other thing to realise is that sweet new gift-card deals come up all the time.

After the expensive Christmas season, the gift-card points hack could see you with a motherlode of points.

For example, a few months ago I snared Visa gift cards for 10 times the number of points per dollar spent – 10,000 points for $1000.

Apple gift cards – 20,000 points
Now we move into the straight-up sweet deals with no activation fees. I upgraded my iPhone a few months ago. But I waited and watched first. What I waited and watched for was a very common – indeed, often every two months – deal where Apple gift cards offer points up to 20 times the dollar value.

Sometimes you need to purchase them in person, rather than online. There are usually limits on how many you can buy, so be sure to always read the fine print on any gift-card deal.

I only purchased $1000 worth, so only received 20,000 points. But, in fact, I could have doubled that if I’d used gift cards to pay the cost of the phone in full. These can be redeemed even for Apple subscriptions on apple.com. You can use up to eight gift cards per purchase, and it’s really an easy process.

Multipurpose, multi-merchant gift cards – 22,250
There are a bunch of these that often go on bonus points, up to 20 times again. I have just bought replacement furniture for my daughter’s decrepit old bedroom setting.

But I did so only after I could snare gift cards that worked at IKEA, under the brand Ultimate Home. These are also on offer for other multi-merchant products, such as those grouped for Her/Him/Kids. There are hundreds of retailers in such gift-card grouping.

The limit this time was $250 per Flybuys account because this deal was just so generous: 2000 bonus points per gift card, even on low $50 denominations. So I bagged 10,250 points (which includes the base $1 per point rate) for $250 spend.

That wasn’t enough to purchase the furniture, so I lurked a little longer and waited for IKEA cards themselves to go on bonus – then I also purchased three $200 dollar cards at 20 times points: 12,000. So the transactions all up netted me 22,250 Flybuys points.

But note that unlike with a straight 20 times points deal, as with Apple above, with 20,000 points from $1000 spend, these 22,250 points were only for parting with $850.

Everyday Wish gift cards – 3000 points
It is also often possible to purchase grocery vouchers themselves, for say three times points from the grocery store itself of via Qantas Marketplace (and watch the latter for other gift-card deals too). I bought $1000 worth of Everyday Rewards cards a few months back for triple points.

Extra hacks to stack points
Of course, when you pay for gift cards at a supermarket, you need to swipe your rewards membership card to get any offered bonus points. (And realise that when you buy groceries with a grocery gift card, you also get the points on offer on your purchases, so long as you swipe.)

And, if you have such a thing, the gift cards themselves could be purchased with frequent flyer credit cards, to add whatever you accrue per dollar spent. That’s the triple stack that true points hackers love. How many points did I earn? 55,250 in just a few months.

These gift card deals are common, changing weekly, often advertised in the supermarket’s physical catalogue or the digital version (check the apps) only. So after the expensive Christmas season, the gift-card points hack could see you with a motherlode of points – which you can use for money off future shopping – too.

Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is author of How to Get Mortgage-Free Like Me, available at nicolessmartmoney.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

Expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money delivered to your inbox every Sunday. Sign up for our Real Money newsletter.

From our partners