600,000 Everyday Rewards points in one year: here’s how I did it

In the past twelve months I have earned over 600,000 Everyday Rewards points, worth either 300,000 Qantas points or $3,000 if redeemed on goods at retailers like Woolworths, Big W and BWS. Here’s a detailed breakdown of where I earned them, how much it cost me and what I’ll be spending them on.

This chart provides an overview of all the points I earned between 27 Jun 2023 and 26 Jun 2024. The underlying data was gathered using a combination of my own records and the activity page for my account on the Everyday Rewards website.

Gift card promotions – 258,000 points

Cost: $21,000

Buying gift cards for the bonus points is by far one of the most popular and effective ways of earning points nowadays. Woolworths have promotions almost every week where you can earn either 10x or 20x Everyday Rewards points per dollar spent on a variety of gift cards.

Gift cards commonly included in these bonus offers include Apple, Uber, Airbnb, IKEA, Google Play as well as multi-retailer gift cards that can be used at the likes of JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Officeworks, Baby Bunting and more.

My personal favourites are the prepaid Visa, Eftpos and Mastercard gift cards that you can use to pay for expenses that wouldn’t ordinary accrue points (e.g. ATO payments, bills etc). I also like to buy merchant category gift cards like the TCN Restaurant and Restaurant Choice that you can spend at almost any restaurant or eating place.

The prepaid Visa, Eftpos and Mastercard gift cards typically only earn 10x points whereas most other gift cards earn 20x points. This is why I only received about 12x points per dollar spent on average.

If you’re interested in earning Everyday Rewards, Qantas, Flybuys or Velocity points on gift cards, we publish detailed guides every week that show you how to take advantage of each offer. You can also access a list of past gift card promotions here.

Everyday Extra – 130,000 points

Cost: $70

Everyday Extra is an optional paid subscription that gives you additional benefits on top of the standard free Everyday Rewards membership. For $7/month or $70/year, you can earn 2x points, save 10% on one Woolworths and Big W shop each month and receive the occasional free item.

Earlier this year they launched a referral programme that allowed subscribers to earn 1,500 points for each person they referred to Everyday Extra (up to 20 per month). Thanks to all of you who were kind enough to sign up with my referral link, I was able to boost my balance by 120,000 points.

Whilst you may not be able to refer quite as many people, you could still potentially pick up a few thousand points if you think your friends and family would benefit from joining Everyday Extra.

Aside from the referrals, I also earned about 10,000 more points on my shops at Woolworths and Big W thanks to the 2x points perk that’s included with Everyday Extra membership. It’s not much but over the course of a year it can add up.

Groceries & fuel – 92,000 points

Cost: $11,000

Our family spent approximately $11,000 at Woolworths, Milkrun, BWS, Big W and EG Fuel in the past year with the majority of that going towards our weekly grocery shops. This works out to be a little over 8x Everyday Rewards points per dollar spent.

Interestingly, this earn rate would appear to corroborate Everyday Rewards’ claim that members who frequently boost their offers earn 7x more points on average than those who just scan their card.

Regularly checking the Everyday Rewards app or your emails to activate your targeted offers (e.g. spend $50 to earn 5,000 points) is essential to earning more points. Be careful with the product-specific points bonuses as you’re usually better off buying those items when they’re on special.

The catch with Everyday Rewards is that the more you spend, the worse your offers get. That’s why we only scan my card when our family’s other cards have no decent offers available. Those other accounts which are only used sparingly earn far more points per dollar on average.

Bupa – 60,000 points

Cost: $80

Bupa had an offer last year where you could receive 60,000 Everyday Rewards points and six weeks free when you took out an eligible hospital and extra policy. I signed up, waited out the required 60 days and then promptly left. All said and done, I earned 60,000 points for about $80 in premiums.

Origin internet – 35,000 points

Cost: $45

In November 2023, Origin were offering 35,000 bonus Everyday Rewards points when you signed up for any home broadband plan. They weren’t the cheapest so I just joined for a month before moving on, meaning the 35,000 points only required me to spend about $45 more than I would have with my previous internet provider.

Travel insurance – 30,000 points

Cost: $119

Everyday Insurance (formerly Woolworths Insurance) had a promotion earlier this year where you could earn 10,000 Everyday Rewards points on any travel insurance policy. Luckily, I had a few small trips planned which I was able to insure for about $40 each.

Other – 7,000 points

Along the way I also received a few thousand extra points here and there. For example, 2,000 points on Everyday Mobile SIM card starter packs, free points and credits of “good will” points from the Everyday Rewards team.

What I’m redeeming my points on

As tempting as it might have been to cash my Everyday Rewards points in for $3,000 of groceries, fuel and other products, I instead opted to convert them to 300,000 Qantas points so that I could book business class and first class flights worth over $10,000.

As an example, a business class airfare from Sydney to Singapore on Qantas costs about $3,240. Booking the same flight as a business class Classic Reward would only require 68,400 Qantas points and $252 in taxes and fees. That’s a “saving” of around $3,000.

With 300,000 Qantas points at my disposal, I’d be able to book four of those flights and have points to spare. That certainly sounds like more fun than $3,000 worth of groceries!

In summary

The intention of this article is to show how you can earn a lot more points just by taking advantage of a few offers and strategies.

Whilst some of the methods I’ve employed won’t be applicable to you (we don’t all have 80 friends to refer to Everyday Extra, for example), the bulk of my points have been earned in ways that almost anyone could emulate.

For example, buying gift cards during a bonus points promotion and then using them for purchases you were already planning to make. Even just making an effort to regularly check your Everyday Rewards app to activate your targeted offers goes a long way.

Many of the best points promotions are only available for a short time so if you want to be alerted to them, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to our weekly newsletter.