Virgin Australia frequent flyers will be able to earn points when they shop at Coles under a new rewards deal that emulates the popular agreement between their industry rivals Qantas and Woolworths.
From Thursday, members of Coles' flybuys loyalty scheme can swap points earned at supermarkets, service stations and with other partners for Velocity Frequent Flyer points that can be redeemed as flights or upgrades.
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,” Mr Schuster said.
“This is the only way a Velocity member can earn status credits outside of flying.”
He said the ultimate aim was to have more Australians fly with Virgin, and he was confident the partnership with Coles would deliver that outcome.
General Manager of flybuys, Adam Story, said the process to link flybuys and Velocity was very straightforward.
“You just need to link your memberships on our website and transfer points,” Mr Story said.
“If you’re not already a member, it’s free to join both flybuys and Velocity.”
Australian Business Traveller website editor David Flynn said it would appear the Velocity-flybuys partnership offered a better deal than Qantas’ agreement with Woolworths’ Everday rewards.
“The exchange rate between flybuys and Velocity points is the same as that of the Woolworths-Qantas partnership but Virgin Australia has the edge because there are many more places you can earn flybuys and you need fewer Velocity points than Qantas points to trade on a free flight,” said Mr Flynn.
“The ability to earn status credits is a very compelling part of the new Velocity-Flybuys hook-up. “It’ll be easier to close the gap between one status level and another, such as Silver to Gold or Gold to Platinum, through your normal weekly shopping instead of flying.”
What is the conversion rate?