Air New Zealand has about 4.6 million Airpoints members in this country. Qantas Frequent Flyer also deeply penetrates into Australia and has about 16 million members.
Qantas Loyalty chief executive Andrew Glance said about 100,000 Kiwis had joined his airline’s programme within the last 12 months. The programme had been overhauled earlier this year to create more opportunities to redeem loyalty points on flights.
There had been a steep increase in flights across the Tasman and by Jetstar.
This summer Qantas capacity across the Tasman is up 12% on last year and next winter there will be 16% more seats.
‘‘From our perspective, we’re seeing again very strong demand for Qantas and Jetstar in and out of New Zealand. It makes a lot of sense to essentially provide the opportunity for members of other programmes the ability to try Qantas,’' he told the Herald.
The New Zealand market was “extremely important” and the group had or will expand operations to Wellington and Christchurch and will start some Dunedin and Hamilton transtasman flights next year to sunspots across the Tasman. Flights into the big Australian cities are designed to feed into its long-haul network.
‘’From our perspective, we’re seeing an enormous amount of demand both into and out of New Zealand. More importantly, we’ve done a lot of work within the network to ensure that we can provide great connection out of Australia to destinations in Europe, Asia and other destinations,’' said Glance.
To take advantage of the Gold tier Qantas offer, eligible members need to earn 100 status credits by booking a return trip from Auckland to New York on the Australian airline, two return trips from Christchurch to Sydney with Qantas, or five return trips from Dunedin to Auckland with Jetstar on its domestic network.
Registrations for the fast track to Gold close on January 14 next year.
Qantas made a similar offer to Air NZ Gold members in 2020 which Glance said had been successful.
‘‘It’s not every day that frequent flyers have the opportunity to fast track their status to Qantas Gold, so this is a great opportunity for travellers.
“Many made the switch back in 2020 and we know there are more Kiwis travelling with Qantas and Jetstar who want to unlock great benefits like priority check-in and boarding, extra baggage allowance and of course access to hundreds of lounges across the Qantas and Oneworld network.”
Qantas is also targeting a wider range of New Zealanders to ensure they take advantage of points they already have.
Qantas Frequent Flyer will remove the $60 join fee on its website later this month.
‘‘The move is designed to make the programme more accessible for Kiwis, with booking data revealing that billions of Qantas Points – the equivalent value of tens of thousands of transtasman reward seats – are unclaimed each year by travellers who are not registered or adding their Qantas Frequent Flyer number on bookings.’'
Earlier this week Qantas and Air NZ announced they were both partnering with Woolworths and other retailers using the Everyday Rewards programme.
Glance said the expansion would transform how Kiwis can participate and be rewarded as a Qantas Frequent Flyer.
“With New Zealand home to the most members outside of Australia, it’s important that we continue to grow the programme and expand the ways that members can earn points and redeem them on great travel experiences.
“The new partnership with Everyday Rewards will deliver more benefits outside of flying. Now, an everyday activity like grocery shopping or filling up the car will help Kiwis get closer to their dream holiday.”
To earn points, Qantas Frequent Flyers must be members of the Everyday Rewards programme and select Qantas Points as their rewards choice on the Everyday Rewards app or website.
From December 2, Kiwis will be able to convert their everyday rewards points to Air New Zealand airpoints dollars or Qantas points.
When members reach 2000 everyday rewards points they can choose to convert these to 15 airpoints dollars or 1500 Qantas points.
A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed that customers earn one point for every dollar spent meaning shoppers may need to spend up to $2000 to get 2000 everyday rewards points.
Air New Zealand’s airpoints dollars are equivalent to one airpoint per one New Zealand dollar.
One Qantas point is worth between 0.4 cents and 12 cents, depending on how you spend it.
Everyday Rewards points can be earned on purchases made at hundreds of Woolworths supermarkets, BP petrol stations, Petstock stores and other retailers across New Zealand.
Kiwis will also earn 50% more Qantas Points than their transtasman neighbours when converting with Everyday Rewards, the airline said.
The expansion builds on the successful 16-year partnership between Qantas Frequent Flyer and Everyday Rewards in Australia, which has seen billions of points earned and over two million seats booked by members in the last 12 months
Gold membership benefits include:
Qantas
- An “eco-friendly’' gift
- 500 Status Credits gain a loyalty bonus of 8000 Qantas points or 50 Status Credits.
- Lounge access when travelling on a Qantas, Jetstar, Emirates, China Eastern and other airlines
- Over 600 Oneworld lounges including business lounges
- Able to bring one guest and up to two children aged 4 to 17 years.
- Priority baggage
- Additional baggage allowance
- Priority check-in
- Priority boarding, priority security lines
- Waitlist and standby priority
- Higher priority than Silver and Bronze Frequent Flyers on international Classic Upgrade Reward requests.
- Complimentary seat selection.
Air New Zealand
- Any Air NZ, Star Alliance and partner airline lounge prior to departure
- One additional guest (travelling on the same service and subject to space)
- Two recognition upgrades each time they retain or become a Gold member (with conditions).
- Complimentary frequent flyer seating
- One extra bag (up to 23kg) on domestic and international flights
- Priority boarding
- First to collect your baggage
- A complimentary hotel upgrade at participating hotels in New Zealand and Australia
- Rental car voucher
- Discounted Business class award fares
- Status hold.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
