ANZ have two Air New Zealand Airpoints linked credit cards (Visa Platinum and Visa). ANZ are currently offering new cardholders 300 bonus Airpoints Dollars with the Visa Platinum, and 150 bonus Airpoints Dollars with the Visa. Offer not available on transfers from any existing ANZ credit card or if you have or have had an existing ANZ Airpoints or ANZ CashBack credit card within the last 6 months, and the bonus Airpoints Dollars won’t be added to your account until February 2018.

The bank usually alternates their promotions between waiving the annual fee for a year, or offering bonus Airpoints Dollars with minimum spend. This guide covers their different earn rates and benefits.

As most Kiwis and others with previous experience of the Air New Zealand’s Airpoints program know, it is not a complex program – 1 Airpoints Dollar = $1 of flight credit with Air New Zealand when it comes to redemption time and making use of the points earned with these cards. Another benefit is that your Airpoints Dollars will never expire as long as you are an Airpoints Visa cardholder with ANZ.

Digging into the details of the ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum

Earning Airpoints Dollars from spend with the ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum

The ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum will earn you 1 Airpoints Dollar for every NZ$75 spent on the card, with an effective earn rate of 0.013 Airpoints Dollars per dollar spent.

While this is on par with other Airpoints Platinum cards issued by the banks, in terms of earn rate, the card is pipped by the American Express Platinum Airpoints which earns 1 APD for every NZ$59 spent with a $195 annual fee. Visa is however more widely accepted both in New Zealand and abroad, and the annual fee for this card is also lower.

Visa Platinum Concierge and Travel Benefits

ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum cardholders will gain access to the Visa Platinum Concierge service, useful for arranging restaurant or ticket reservations. You will also have access to an assortment of other Visa Platinum benefits, offering exclusive travel and dining experiences across the globe. We have written an in depth article on these benefits here.

You will also be charged 0% commission on foreign currency purchases from any ANZ branch in New Zealand.

Airpoints Dollars Advance

ANZ will also provide an extra 200 APD advance (kind of like an overdraft facility) to the primary card holders Airpoints account, a useful extra benefit of the card when just a little short of a chosen Airpoints dollar redemption with Air New Zealand.

Earning Airpoints Status from spend

Alongside the Airpoints Dollars earned, you also earn Airpoints Status Points with your spend, with an earn rate of 1 status point for every $250 spent.

The earn rates for Status Points on spend are not high enough to make a huge dent in what you need to achieve status with Air New Zealand, with Gold membership requiring 900 Status Points and half of those have to be earned from Air New Zealand or Star Alliance partner flights.

Even if you maxed out the 450 Tier Points toward elite status, with the Status Points earned from the card you’d need to spend $112,500 on the ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum to earn them, so for all but the biggest spenders, Status Points will just be a portion of your status earn to help top you up.

Koru Club – no joining fee, annual fee reduction, and free passes

Air New Zealand’s Koru lounge membership program offers Air New Zealand lounge access for a member and a guest when travelling on an Air New Zealand flight, regardless of class of travel.

You’ll also get access to the impressive LAX Star Alliance lounge, along with Virgin Australia lounges when travelling with Virgin Australia in Australia, and priority check-in for Air New Zealand flights.

The standard joining fee of $255 is waived for ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum cardholders, while the annual membership fee is reduced by $145 to $454 annually, which helps cover the cost of the annual fee of the card if you were going to be buying membership anyway.

The primary account holder can also get two complementary single entry Air New Zealand Lounge passes per $20,000 spent on eligible purchases each year. For example, if you spent $50,000 within a year, you’d get four passes. A year is based on either the 12 month period from the date your card was issued, or if it was issued prior to 1 April 2015, then from 1 April each year. You will receive your passes in the month after you have hit the $20,000 spend mark (e.g. if the qualifying spend is met in May, you will receive your passes in June) and they will be added directly to your Airpoints account which you can check by logging in on the Air New Zealand website.

ANZ Premium Card Travel Insurance

If you are an ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum cardholder, you will receive insurance and assistance benefits for when you travel overseas.

As with any insurance products, we all hope these benefits are useless and you never have to use them.

Full information and the latest PDS can be found on a special website that AIG has set up for ANZ Platinum cardholders. Make sure you read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before relying on the insurance products below.

Travel Insurance with the Platinum Visa

The ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum card provides a range of travel benefits to you and your immediate family (travelling with you), each time you travel overseas, including cover for:

• Medical expenses and personal injury
• Travel delays and missed connections
• Personal effects and luggage
• Loss of income.

Simply use your ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum card to pay for at least half of the prepaid travel costs associated with your overseas trip, and you will be covered. You don’t need to apply or tell ANZ when you plan to travel.

If you redeem Airpoints Dollars for your flights, simply pay for half of the rest of your prepaid travel expenses using your ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum card. If you have no prepaid expenses, call the AIG call centre to activate your cover before you travel. In addition, cover for some pre-existing medical conditions may be available for an extra charge. As part of your Overseas Travel Insurance, you’ll also receive 24-hour emergency assistance and a concierge service through Travel Guard™.

AIG provide this helpful questionnaire so that you can determine your eligibility for cover.

Note that the policy only covers you for domestic travel that is part of your overseas travel arrangements.

24-hour emergency and medical assistance

24-hour access to emergency and medical assistance is available through the Travel Guard worldwide network of medical and travel professionals. Travel Guard can help you:

• Find the nearest English-speaking doctor
• Arrange emergency travel and medical evacuations
• Find translators and interpreters in over 70 languages
• Replace lost passports, money, other documentation and luggage
• Get legal advice
• Comprehensive case monitoring
• Credit card replacement services
• Help with any other problems that may arise while you and your family are away from home

24-hour concierge service

Travel Guard also provides a concierge service that can assist you no matter where in the world you might be. The Travel Guard concierge can:

• Make hotel, restaurant and even golf-course booking
• Provide information on local sporting and cultural events
• Organise car or business equipment hire
• Arrange conference facilities
• Arrange and deliver couriers, messages, or gifts

Call Travel Guard for 24-hour emergency and medical assistance, and 24-hour concierge service when travelling overseas.

Transport Accident Insurance

You will receive Transport Accident Insurance if you use your ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum card to pay for the full cost of any overseas or domestic trip on a plane, tourist bus, train or ferry licensed to carry passengers. That means you would usually be covered should a fatal accident occur while you’re boarding, on-board or getting off any of these transport types.

Digging into the details of the ANZ Airpoints Visa

Earning Airpoints Dollars from spend with the ANZ Airpoints Visa

The ANZ Airpoints Visa will earn you 1 Airpoints Dollar for every NZ$120 spent on the card, with an effective earn rate of 0.008 Airpoints Dollars per dollar spent.

While this is on par with other standard Airpoints cards issued by the banks, in terms of earn rate, the card is pipped by the American Express Airpoints which earns 1 APD for every NZ$100 spent with no annual fee. Visa is however more widely accepted both in New Zealand and abroad, and the annual fee in this instance is also lower.

Airpoints Dollars Advance

ANZ will also provide an extra 50 APD advance (kind of like an overdraft facility) to the primary card holders Airpoints account, a useful extra benefit of the card when just a little short of a chosen Airpoints dollar redemption with Air New Zealand.

Summing up – ANZ Airpoints Credit Cards

The ANZ Airpoints Visa Platinum card is a solid offering for Airpoints Dollars earn, with no earnings cap. The card also comes with a range of other benefits, including access to Visa Platinum Concierge and Platinum Offers, which can be beneficial if you find yourself travelling frequently overseas. You will also receive discounted Koru membership with no joining fee, and the opportunity to earn free Koru passes each year. You can also receive travel insurance that can provide for longer trips overseas than some other cards, such as the Westpac Airpoints Platinum Mastercard which only provides for 35 days of overseas travel.

While not coming with any of the benefits of its Platinum cousin, the ANZ Airpoints Visa has a lower barrier to entry – both in terms of income, and with the lower ongoing annual fee. There is also still no cap on the number of Airpoints Dollars you can earn. It’s a good starter card for someone who perhaps travels domestically on Air New Zealand grabaseat Deals and is unlikely to redeem Airpoints Dollars on international flights. The one downside is the number of interest free days – 44 days is quite low compared to the standard Airpoints card with Westpac, which offers 55 interest free days.

And it’s worth noting that for both ANZ Airpoints cards, eligible purchases that count towards points earn do not include cash advances, interest charges, government charges, bank fees, disputed transactions, business related expenditure, payments on your card account, balance transfers, foreign exchange purchases and the purchase of travellers cheques or gambling transactions.

If you are not already an Airpoints member, you should join for free before signing up for these cards, so you can enter your membership number into the application form and not need to ring ANZ to add it later.