Turn business payments into flatbed seats with PayRewards

Flying business class on work trips might feel like a distant dream. A perk to enjoy years down the track, once you’ve scaled and grown your business to new heights. But, we’ll let you in on a secret. Even a small sole trader operation or a startup company could see you flying flat, fast.

Here’s the trick. Don’t spend your limited cash buying business class flights. Instead, be savvy about the way you pay your business’ bills. By earning points on routine payments, the rewards can stack up very quickly. And those points can be your ticket to flatbeds on long-haul flights.

You could earn points on almost any business transaction. For instance, by processing payroll… or even on smaller one-off transactions like invoice payments. In fact, you could even be earning points by paying off a credit card. Now we’re talking!

Welcome to pay.com.au – a payment platform tailored to business owners like yourself. pay.com.au allows you to pay almost any business bill using a credit card – even invoices to suppliers that don’t accept credit cards themselves. You pay us, we pay them, you earn points from your bank. But that’s just the start.

We also have our own points program, called PayRewards. You can choose to earn PayRewards Points on any payment we process. Earn up to 2 PayRewards Points per dollar, without points capping or tiering. Our PayRewards Points are flexible, too. You can convert them across to leading airlines like Qantas, Virgin Australia, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, and more.

You could even double dip. Pay a supplier using your points-earning credit card, opt for PayRewards Points on top, and voila! You’ll have plenty of points to spend when it comes time to fly.

pay.com.au fees, points and rewards

Let’s talk numbers. When making a payment through pay.com.au, you can choose to pay 1% + GST for 1 PayRewards Point per $1 spent. Or for the best value, you can pay 1.8% + GST for 2 PayRewards Points per dollar spent.

For instance, make a $5,000 payment, choose to earn points at the higher rate, and get 10,000 PayRewards Points. In return, you’d pay $90 + GST in processing fees – which can often be tax deductible (talk to your accountant). To put it another way, for every $1 spent in PayRewards fees, you can earn up to 111 PayRewards Points.

Fancy a business class ticket from Australia’s east coast to Singapore? You could book that on Singapore Airlines for 45,000 Aeroplan points, plus taxes, fees and charges. And how do you earn those Aeroplan points? By converting from PayRewards, of course!

Lie flat with this Singapore Airlines Business Class experience. Image credit: Singapore Airlines

With a 2.5:1 conversion rate from PayRewards, for every 112,500 PayRewards Points in your account, you could nab yourself a Singapore Airlines business class flight to Singapore. And you could earn that many points for every $56,250 in bill payments processed through the platform.

You’d pay a total of $1012.50 (+ GST) in PayRewards processing fees to earn those points. And, when you book that flight through Aeroplan, the co-payment amount on your flight is minimal. For instance, from Brisbane to Singapore, the co-pay is $138.50 CAD (around $154 AUD).

Keeping track? From start to finish, a seat in Singapore Airlines business class could cost your business just $1167! That includes the fees paid to earn those points, and the taxes and fees incurred when you redeem them.

We know what you’re wondering. Is it worth it? Well, let’s see what that flight would have cost if you’d purchased a ticket in the usual way.

Why pay nearly $3111 for a seat in business class, when you can pay barely a third of that, and sit in the same seat? Welcome to the magic of PayRewards, the loyalty program of pay.com.au. It’s your way to earn points when you pay bills by bank transfer or credit card. 

Unlock even more value with pay.com.au

You’ve heard all about our PayRewards program. But let’s look at another valuable way to generate points through pay.com.au. That is, by funding your payments using a points-earning credit card. 

Through pay.com.au, you can use American Express, Mastercard and Visa to fund most transactions. If your card earns points, it’ll earn points when you transact via pay.com.au at your card issuer’s usual rate. You can even double dip, by earning credit card points, and PayRewards Points, on a single payment. 

Suddenly, you don’t have to be spending $50,000+ to reach a free flight. In fact, that’s the beauty of pay.com.au. Even if your suppliers don’t accept credit cards, you can still use your credit card to pay. 

Let’s say you have the American Express Platinum Business Card. For every dollar spent on eligible purchases, you could earn 2.25 American Express Membership Rewards points. For every $10,000 charged to the card, that’d be 22,500 Membership Rewards points – on top of any PayRewards Points you might choose to earn. 

As you can probably tell, points can add up… fast. The more you transact, the more points you can earn. You could even use pay.com.au to pay government entities, including the ATO. All while earning the full rewards from your credit card, rather than any reduced ‘government’ rate. That’s because the transaction is processed by pay.com.au directly, not by a government body. 

We know what you’re thinking. Yes, you can do this to make your quarterly BAS payments. Those boring, routine payments to the tax man suddenly got a whole lot more rewarding! And, yes, you can double dip by paying those with a points-earning card, and stacking up PayRewards Points as well. 

Get started with pay.com.au 

Ready to start being rewarded for your business payments? Sign up to pay.com.au today! 

Written by Chris Chamberlin

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About the author

Chris enjoys making the most of frequent flyer points, which have taken him around the world – usually, at the front of the plane. He’s travelled over 1.5 million miles sampling the best in Business Class and First Class. That’s further than three return trips to the moon! Chris is based at Point Hacks' Melbourne office as News Editor, and shares his experiences via @chris_chamberlin on Instagram. When he’s not travelling, he enjoys tennis, keeping fit, and discovering new gins.