Flights call for extra points on Fly Buys

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Fly Buys card holders will have to cash in more points for domestic air travel from March 1.

Loyalty New Zealand, which runs the hugely successful Fly Buys scheme, has been forced to increase the number of points it costs for flights because of rising Air New Zealand fares.

Loyalty New Zealand general manager Alastair Hutchens said yesterday that the increase in points needed averaged 5 per cent.

However, the increases for flights on some busy routes could be as high as 13 per cent.

Now 865 points gets a person an Auckland-Wellington flight, but the cost will rise from March 1 to 975 points, a 12.7 per cent increase.

Auckland-Napier flights will rise from 750 to 795 points, a rise of 6 per cent.

Mr Hutchens said Air New Zealand had to pass on airfare increases, which were the result of rising aviation fuel costs.

"The impact for us is we are no longer able to absorb those increases. All we can do is pass that on in the currency we use."

Most of the 29 participating firms in the Fly Buys scheme give cardholders one point for every $20 they spend.

Mr Hutchens said anyone booking a flight between now and March 1 for use by the end of August would be charged the present points value.

More than 1.6 million Kiwis have a Fly Buys card, and since the scheme started in 1996, 87,000 have taken flights using points they have accumulated.

Loyalty New Zealand has four shareholders - Shell, Foodstuffs, State Insurance and the Bank of New Zealand.

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