Frequent Flyer bonanza for Virgin Australia flyers
By Geoffrey Thomas Tue Oct 18, 2016
Two of Australia’s largest and most popular loyalty programs, Coles’s flybuys and Velocity Frequent Flyer, have announced a new partnership that will be sure to spark a war between the country's dominant food outlets and airlines.
From Thursday October 20, members of flybuys and Virgin Australia’s loyalty program Velocity Frequent Flyer can link memberships enabling them to, transfer their flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer points and importantly earn Status Credits with Velocity when shopping at Coles, Coles Online, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor by presenting their flybuys card.
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Coles is the first Australian retailer to allow its loyalty members to earn airline Status Credits with an Australian frequent flyer program when making grocery and liquor purchases and Velocity FF becomes the first Australian program to allow members to earn Status Credits with a supermarket partner.
This gives Velocity members who link their membership to flybuys an opportunity to move through the Velocity status tiers faster to receive eligible benefits like lounge access, priority boarding and extra baggage.
General Manager of flybuys Adam Story said in a statement: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Velocity Frequent Flyer to help our flybuys members fly faster by simply transferring their flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points to redeem for a flight. flybuys has more partners than any other Australian supermarket loyalty program.
"That means we give flybuys members more opportunity to collect points faster, not just by shopping for groceries at Coles, but also by paying for everyday expenses such as fuel, clothing, homewares, energy bills, car, home and health insurance and gym memberships with one of our partners, and on all spending on a Coles or NAB flybuys credit card.”
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Linked households may transfer a minimum of 2,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 870 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) per redemption and a maximum of 138,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 60,030 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) for Velocity Frequent Flyer Points per household, per calendar year. flybuys points can only be transferred in increments of 2,000.
Linked households may earn 1 Status Credit for every $100 spent (including GST) in total across Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Liquorland and First Choice Liquor each calendar month, up to a maximum of 10 Status Credits per calendar month. Spend excludes tobacco and tobacco related products, charity donations and gift card purchases.
Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Karl Schuster said: “We are delighted to partner with flybuys to offer the most compelling proposition between an Australian frequent flyer program and a supermarket group. Millions of Australians do their grocery shopping every day at Coles and this new partnership will make it easier for them to attain their dream holiday with Virgin Australia. Velocity and flybuys have created an unrivalled proposition in the Australian market by providing the opportunity for members to earn Status Credits when they do their grocery or liquor shopping and present their flybuys card, which we know is extremely valuable to our members."
"This is the only way a Velocity member can earn Status Credits outside of flying,'' Mr Schuster added. “Velocity has unrivalled reward seat availability in our region, which is important because when flybuys members transfer their points into Velocity, they’ll be able to redeem those points for a flight when it suits them.”
To find out more, and for full terms and conditions, visit www.flybuys.com.au/velocity
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