The Reserve Bank of Australia’s ban on card surcharges takes effect on 1 October 2026, stripping out a funding mechanism that has long propped up traditional loyalty economics, and Flight Centre’s World360 Rewards program says the shake-up is a chance for challenger schemes to prove their worth.
Under the RBA’s new rules, merchants will no longer be able to add surcharges for payments made with eftpos, Mastercard, Visa or American Express cards, closing off a cost-recovery tool that has often helped fund the rewards sitting behind bank and airline credit cards. World360 Rewards executive general manager Clinton Hearne said the change should prompt Australians to look harder at what their existing points programs actually deliver.
A different funding model
Hearne said World360 Rewards, the loyalty arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, was built without relying on card surcharges or interchange fees in the first place. Instead, members earn points on travel spend across Flight Centre, Cruiseabout and Travel Associates, along with a network of more than 300 everyday retail, financial, health and lifestyle partners. That structure, he said, leaves the program unaffected by the October changes and better placed to compete as banks and card issuers adjust their own reward settings.
Hearne positioned the program as a complement to airline schemes such as Qantas Frequent Flyer or Velocity rather than a replacement, describing a “triple dipping” approach in which a member booking through Flight Centre can earn World360 points while still collecting eligible frequent flyer points and rewards credit card points on the same transaction.
Redemption without the fine print
The pitch centres on flexibility. World360 Rewards points can be redeemed across more than 500 airlines, 900,000 hotels, 40 cruise lines and 900,000 tours and experiences worldwide, as well as applied to promotional sales run across Flight Centre’s brands, including the Big Red Sale, Travel Associates’ Luxury Sale and Cruiseabout’s cruise sales. The program’s online store also lists lounge passes and tickets to concerts and sporting events as redemption options. Hearne argued traditional programs often leave members holding points they cannot easily use because of limited redemption inventory or availability restrictions.
“Consumers need to assess the real value they’re getting from traditional points programs,” Hearne said.
Looking ahead, Hearne said World360 Rewards wants more members funding trips fully or partly with points within the next 12 months, and plans to keep expanding its partner network so Australians can accumulate points through everyday spending as well as travel bookings.
The RBA’s surcharge ban applies broadly across card payment types but carves out exceptions for weekend and public holiday surcharges, booking and service fees, and payment processor charges such as terminal rental.
