Loyalty scheme gets thumbs-up

Air New Zealand's new loyalty programme has received a general thumbs-up from the travel industry.

John Willson, general manager of United Travel, praises the system for making it much easier for people to get seats on the flights they want, saying it is "a very sensible system and I believe other airlines will follow suit".

Greg Hamilton, sales and marketing manager for the Flight Centre's corporate division, says the system will be extremely beneficial for business travellers. They often need to travel on certain dates, which means they are not able to get cheap fares.

By rewarding travellers according to their spend, and making it much easier to redeem points, it "makes it more likely business travellers will get something out of it".

The downside, he says, is that for some destinations and classes of fares, the value has decreased "but the pluses of being able to redeem points more easily may outweigh that".

Brent Thomas, director of retail for House of Travel, says people wanting to use the new airpoint dollars for short-haul journeys, such as domestic flights or trips to Australia and the Islands, will certainly be better off.

But those wanting to use their points for long-haul trips or upgrades on Air New Zealand or Star Alliance flights could be worse off.