Your Loyalty Points Are Money. Here's Why Most of It Never Moves
Points pass three of the four tests of money and fail the one that matters. Here's the plain-English version of our founder's thesis, and what it means for the points in your accounts.
Most of us think of loyalty points as a perk. A bonus. Something that turns up on a statement and, if we remember, becomes a flight or a few dollars off the shop. Our founder Dean Harris has just published a research paper arguing something different: points are a currency. A private one, issued by the program, with a price, an inflation rate and a pile of it that never gets spent.
This is the short version. The full argument, with every source, is on Dean's site and linked at the end.
The numbers behind the argument
- 242bnQantas Points earned by members in the year to June 2026. 202bn were redeemed
- A$3.6bnUnredeemed frequent flyer revenue on Qantas's books at 30 June 2026
- ~50%Share of Australians who actively use the loyalty programs they belong to
Source: Qantas FY26 investor and supplementary presentations (27 Aug 2026); The Point of Loyalty, For Love or Money 2026.
The four tests of money
Economists have used the same three tests for 150 years: a unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. Modern payments add a fourth: portability, the ability to move value from where it is to where you want it.
Points have a price (about a cent each, depending on how you use them). They buy things. They hold value, badly, because they expire after 12 to 24 months without activity and the program can change the price whenever it likes. Three passes.
Then the fourth test. There is no sanctioned way to move Qantas Points to a non-Qantas use, Flybuys to a non-Coles use, or your bank's points anywhere except its own catalogue and a short list of airline transfers. Program terms don't allow points to be sold, for good reasons like fraud protection. So your points can't move. That's the fail, and it's nobody's fault: each program was built for its own members.
How points score against money
| Test | Cash | Gift card | Loyalty points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit of account (has a price) | Yes | Yes, in dollars | Yes, in cents per point |
| Medium of exchange (buys things) | Anywhere | At one retailer | Inside one program |
| Store of value (keeps its worth) | Yes | At least 3 years by law | Expires; can be devalued |
| Portability (can move) | Yes | Partly | No |
Where the money sits
If points are money, you can measure the money supply. Qantas members earned 242 billion points in FY26 and redeemed 202 billion. The gap isn't all waste, a lot of it is people saving for a trip, but it's value that didn't move, and it's why the unredeemed balance on Qantas's books has risen at every half-year result since December 2023, to A$3.6 billion. In the US, Delta, United and American carry about US$27.6 billion of the same thing.
On the member side: 93 per cent of Australians are in at least one program, the average person is in about ten when shown a list, and only half of us actively use the ones we hold. CommBank's research found 89 per cent of Australians earn rewards every month but only 47 per cent redeem every month. More than a third have lost points to expiry. Across the industry, programs report redeeming fewer than half of the points they issue. The industry's word for the value you forget is breakage.
What a rail looks like
Every other store of value eventually got rails: SWIFT for bank money, card networks, Australia's real-time NPP, open banking. Loyalty is the last big pool without them. The first practical rail is the digital gift card.
- See every balance — Connect your programs and see what each one is worth in dollars, in one place.
- Pick a gift card — Grocery, fuel, dining, retail: hundreds of Australian brands, issued digitally.
- The program confirms — Nothing is issued until your program confirms the points debit. Your points stay under its control.
- Spend it — The card arrives in seconds. Gift cards in Australia must last at least three years by law.
Why gift cards, and not something cleverer
Gift cards are denominated in dollars, regulated (three-year minimum expiry, no post-purchase fees since 2019) and already traded at scale between retailers, distributors and the programs' own catalogues, so the plumbing exists. Australians bought about US$8 billion of them in 2025. Every big program already sells gift cards inside its own catalogue, which tells you people ask for them. What no program offers is a way to get there from someone else's points.
A rail isn't a points marketplace. It moves your own points, with your program's say-so, to a redemption the program has approved. No new currency, no selling points to strangers, nothing that breaks a program's terms. It's built to work with programs: they win and keep members, retailers gain customers, and you get real value from what you've earned.
What it means for your points today
- Know your expiry dates. Qantas 18 months of inactivity, Velocity 24, Everyday Rewards 18, Flybuys 12. One earn or redeem usually resets the clock.
- Spend small balances before they rot. A balance below a program's minimum redemption is the one most likely to expire. Supermarket $10-off options and gift cards are the fastest way out.
- Treat a devaluation like a price rise. If a program announces changes with a date, the points are worth more before the date than after.
- Watch the AI agents. Visa and Mastercard now let AI agents pay on your behalf. Value an agent can't see won't get spent. Programs that make points movable will be the ones agents use.
See what your points are worth
Mavitra is built to show every connected balance in dollars and turn the points you'll never use into gift cards. Early access is open.
Register your interest →Read the full thesis
The long version, *Loyalty Is a Currency*, is a 25-page research monograph in thesis format with fifty references, six diagrams and a two-minute summary up top. It's written in plain English for anyone who holds points, and for the people who issue them. Read it on deanharris.com.au or download the PDF there. Dean is collecting feedback in one place, on LinkedIn.
Frequently asked questions
Are loyalty points really a currency?
They behave like one. Points have a price (programs set a rate into goods, usually around a cent each), they buy things, and they hold value over time. Accounting standards already treat unredeemed points as a liability the program owes you, and the UN's statisticians recommended in 2024 that points be counted as financial assets. The one test they fail is portability: they can't leave the program that issued them.
How many loyalty points go unused?
Across the industry, roughly half. Antavo's survey of program operators found an average redemption rate of 48.6 per cent. In Australia, Qantas members earned 242 billion points and redeemed 202 billion in the year to June 2026, and the unredeemed balance on Qantas's books is A$3.6 billion.
Why do programs devalue points?
A program carrying a large points liability can reduce it by making each point buy less. In 2025 Qantas raised Classic Reward prices by 15 to 20 per cent, Velocity raised award prices and cut earn rates, and Amex Australia cut most airline transfer rates. From October 2026, after the Reserve Bank cut credit card interchange, CommBank, Westpac and NAB all reduced their airline transfer rates.
Can I sell or transfer my points to another program?
Only through the sanctioned pipes: supermarket points to an airline (2,000 Everyday Rewards to 1,000 Qantas Points; 1,000 Flybuys to 500 Velocity) and bank points to airlines at the bank's rate. Selling points breaches program terms and can get your account closed.
Why gift cards instead of cash?
Gift cards are dollar-denominated, must last at least three years by Australian law, carry no post-purchase fees, and are already supplied at scale by the brands people shop with. That makes them the cleanest first destination for points that would otherwise expire.
Does Mavitra create a new points currency?
No. Mavitra moves your own points, with your program's confirmation, into gift cards for brands you already shop with. It does not pool, trade or sell points and never holds your funds.
Turn points you'd never use into gift cards
Mavitra lets Australians convert loyalty points into gift cards for everyday brands — a practical way to get value from points sitting idle. Points in, gift cards out.
Join the waitlist →