Qantas Status Credits On The Ground: How To Earn 140 Without Flying

Qantas Frequent Flyer members can earn up to 140 Status Credits each membership year without boarding a single flight. From 8 December 2026, Status Credits on the ground becomes a permanent feature of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, rewarding members who collect Qantas Points across 10 everyday categories like insurance, banking, energy and shopping.

The new feature builds on an earlier limited-time promotion that let members earn Qantas Status Credits on the ground. The permanent version has more categories and a higher cap, and is more generous overall.

Here’s how Qantas Status Credits on the ground works, what each category pays, and the fine print that could cost you Status Credits.

Qantas Status Credits On The Ground Explained

Qantas has split everyday Qantas Points earning into 10 categories, each with its own points threshold. Reach the threshold in a category during your membership year and you unlock a set number of Status Credits for that category. Each category can only be completed once per membership year, and the total earn is capped at 140 Status Credits.

Nine of the 10 categories require just 1,000 Qantas Points to complete. The outlier is credit cards, which requires 20,000 Qantas Points from direct-earn cards only.

Once you complete a Status Credits on the ground category, the Status Credits land in your account within eight weeks.

Qantas' Ten Status Credits On The Ground Categories

The table below shows Qantas' points threshold and Status Credit reward for each category. In total, you can earn 140 Status Credits on the ground towards earning or retaining your elite Qantas status.

The Catch: Earning Status Credits From Credit Cards

Credit cards are the hardest category to complete by a wide margin. You'll need to earn 20,000 Qantas Points from a Qantas Points earning credit card in your membership year, which is twenty times the threshold of every other category.

Unfortunately, Qantas has excluded all bank rewards points that you transfer into Qantas Points, as well as any credit card sign-up bonus. That feels a little petty over just 20 Status Credits, especially from a program that's usually happy to dangle sign-up bonuses in front of you.

In practice, this category suits members who already put most of their spending on a direct-earn Qantas card. On a card earning 1.25 Qantas Points per dollar, that's $16,000 in eligible spend required. This is based on a card like the Qantas Amex Ultimate, which has one of the highest Qantas Points earn rates in Australia.

Taking a more realistic 0.8 Qantas Points per dollar earn rate, the spend jumps to $25,000 for the 20 Status Credits.

Easiest Ways To Earn Qantas Status Credits Without Flying

The best value sits in the three 20 Status Credit categories that only need 1,000 Qantas Points. Insurance, banking and home utilities together are worth 60 Status Credits, and many members will already hold a qualifying product like Qantas Health Insurance, a Qantas Money Home Loan or a Red Energy plan.

That said, there are a few 10 Status Credit categories where everyday spending does the work quite easily:

• Everyday shopping: Everyday Rewards members converting to Qantas Points should tick this off through their regular Woolworths shop. A few shops with boosted offers will get you to 1,000 Qantas Points.
• Retail and lifestyle: Qantas Wine regularly runs bonus points offers that can get you to well over 1,000 points in a single order. Check out the Flight Hacks Qantas Wine Tracker for the latest drops.
• Car: Uber and BP Rewards are the easiest partners here for most people.
• Hotels and accommodation: a stay or two booked through Qantas Hotels should clear 1,000 points very easily.

Do Qantas Points Earned Before 8 December Count?

Good news - they certainly do!

Qantas says eligible activity from the start of whichever membership year you're in on 8 December 2026 will count towards Status Credits on the ground. If you already hold a qualifying product, like a Qantas Money Home Loan or a Qantas Points earning credit card, the points it has earned since your membership year started will count at launch.

No Status Credits will be awarded until launch, and you won't be able to see which categories you've completed until 8 December. However, you could manually run through your earning statement and check for yourself.

What Doesn't Count

Qantas has carved out four types of points that won't count towards Status Credits on the ground:

• Transferred bank points: points moved into Qantas from a bank rewards program don't count towards the credit card category.
• Credit card bonus points: sign-up bonuses and other bonus points from Qantas Points earning cards are excluded.
• Qantas Wellbeing App: points earned through the app don't count towards the insurance category.
• Hotel loyalty programs: points earned through a hotel program outside Qantas Frequent Flyer don't count towards hotels and accommodation.

How Many Status Credits Do I Need?

On its own, 140 Status Credits won't unlock a tier, but it covers almost half of what you need for Silver Qantas status. Plus, earning status credits on the ground matters more from 2027, when Qantas plans to scrap retention thresholds, meaning members will to need more Status Credits keep their benefits.

• Silver: 300 to earn/retain (was 250 to retain), 7,000 for lifetime
• Gold: 700 to earn/retain (was 600 to retain), 14,000 for lifetime
• Platinum: 1,400 to earn/retain (was 1,200 to retain), 75,000 for lifetime
• Platinum One: 3,600 to earn/retain (at least 2,700 from Qantas flights)

Frequently Asked Questions

Summing Up

Status Credits on the ground is a meaningful change for Qantas members who earn more points on the ground than in the air. Most of the 140 Status Credits come from products plenty of members already hold, like insurance, a home loan or an energy plan. The credit card category is the exception, and its 20,000-point threshold puts it out of reach for anyone not spending heavily on a direct-earn Qantas card.

With tougher retention requirements arriving in 2027, those 140 Status Credits could be the difference between keeping and losing your tier.