Author: Mark

Coles and Flybuys are once again targeting shoppers with larger baskets of groceries. Between Thursday October 4 and Tuesday October 9 you can pocket 4,000 Flybuys points when spending $200 in a single transaction. The offer is available nationwide and applies both in-store and online. The normal restrictions apply, and the offer is available once per account. Offer Value If you convert the 4,000 points to shopping vouchers, you would receive a credit of $20. As a result, the 4,000 FlyBuys points represents a return of 10%, if you spend exactly $200. For those more interested in Velocity Points,  the…

The Leaders Club is not a program that I write about much. While they typically represent individual hotels, they don’t have anything in the way of properties in Australia. However, they do market some rather interesting hotels around the world, and offer a program with some interesting features. Last week, Leading Hotels of the World unveiled its latest version of the Leaders Club program. While there were a number of changes, the biggest is a move towards earning and redeeming points. This is a significant changes from earning a free night after spending four or five nights in an LHW…

Earlier this year, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia announced the end of their partnership. Since then, Virgin have been rolling out a number of changes and promotions to entice passengers to their product. They have announced an upgraded on-board offering, and have even run happy hour fares focussed solely on New Zealand. To further entice you to book with Virgin Australia to New Zealand, they are now running a points bonus promotion. Under the promotion, you can earn 3,000 bonus points for a one-way Economy flight (or 6,000 for a return trip) 6,000 bonus points for a one-way Business…

If you’ve been thinking about a Qantas Reward flight, then a new Reward Sale from Qantas may be of interest. Qantas is offering a 25% discount on the number of points needed for an Economy Reward seat with a Qantas, Jetstar or Emirates flight number. The deal is available for booking made between now and Friday September 28, and applies across the domestic and international networks. Get 25% off in four easy steps Login to Your account. Select ‘Use points – Classic Flight Rewards’ to search for your flights. Book an Economy Classic Flight Reward between 10am (AEST) 24 September and…

Most frequent flyers are probably familiar with ‘Fuel Surcharges’. These days, for cash fares, they are generally included in the ticket price so they tend to be a bit invisible. For redemptions it’s a bit different. If you redeem on an airline such as Qantas you may find you are up for a fuel surcharge (although these days, it often goes under the more neutral name of Carrier Imposed Surcharge, without even a reason for the surcharge) The problem with these surcharges is that your “free” ticket ends up having hundreds of dollars in taxes, fees, and surcharges added on…

Well this has come as a bit of a surprise. Qantas and Cathay Pacific have announced a codeshare deal, and will place their flight numbers on a small number of the services of each other. Qantas will begin codesharing on selected Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon flights from October. In return Cathay Pacific will place its code on 13 routes on the Qantas Domestic network. Qantas Codeshares The deal will see Qantas place its code on 2 routes between Hong Kong and Australia, together with 10 routes within Asia from Hong Kong. Under the codeshare, Qantas will begin codesharing on…

Velocity has announced that it will be changing its earning structure on South African Airways flights. The changes come into effect on January 1, 2019, and will align earning with the fare brands used by South African Airways. At present, earn rates are based on Business, Economy or Discount Economy. Under the new earnings structure, this will split into 7 different categories. The following table shows the new earn categories, compared to the current earn rates. FARE TYPE SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SA) FARE CLASS POINTS EARN RATE PER MILE FROM Jan 1 POINTS EARN RATE PER MILE FROM Until Dec…

Marriott Rewards have launched their first global promotion following the merger with SPG. Sticking with the MegaBonus name, it will be for stays between September 26, 2018 and January 31, 2019. The promotion is two pronged. Firstly, there are bonus points on each stay of two or more nights. On top of that, Marriott are promoting their range of brands, and there are extra points for each different brand you stay at. There is also a game coming to promote their 29 brands of the merged operations. Megabonus Details The promotion is valid at all 29 brands of the merged Marriott Rewards, SPG…

Westpac has announced that it will be reducing the points transfer rates from their Altitude Rewards program to most partner airlines. As of Friday, November 9, 2018, you will need more Altitude Points when transferring to  Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Malaysia Airlines Enrich. For Velocity transfers, people making one off transfers will require 50% more points. They will also need to transfer at least 6 Altitude Points (up from 2!). On the other hand, auto redemptions will remain the same. Transfers to Airpoints are unaffected by the changes. In addition, these changes do not affect those that have set up their…

Velocity and Le Club AccorHotels have launched a new promotion offering double points on stays at Sofitel Hotels worldwide. The offer is valid at when you book and stay between August 31 and November 15, 2018. The promotion is very similar to the Triple Velocity points promotion currently underway with Novotel. It is not clear why they have released these as two separate promotions. They are very similar promotions – with a different multiplier depending on the brand. Whatever the reason, there are two promotions. As a result, it seems you will need to register for both if you stay…