Air New Zealand’s loyalty boss on Qantas Gold membership raid: ‘We’re all in’

Kate O’Brien, general manger of loyalty at Air New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

Air New Zealand’s loyalty boss says the airline can fight the raid on its upper-tier Airpoints members by Qantas.

New figures show Air NZ’s Airpoints has been growing at around 11% a year and now has 4.7 million members.

While the airline doesn’t break out the revenue contribution of Airpoints, it said during an investor day it would generate $40 million to $60m in incremental earnings by 2028.

The airline’s loyalty general manager Kate O’Brien said members spend the equivalent of almost 3.5% of the country’s GDP with Airpoints eligible cards.

Spending with cash and Airpoints dollars at the dedicated Airpoints store had grown 30% year-on-year since 2019 and revenue now tops $50m.

“We’ve grown the programme quite significantly.”

Air New Zealand’s Airpoints members are now collectively earning more than one million Airpoints Dollars a day. Of those spent, about 80% were on airline tickets.

Work has been underway for years on revamping its top tiers of benefits, now the target of a bid by Qantas to lure them over and keep their status.

The Australian airline has announced new plans to expand its loyalty programme in this country beyond one million members.

As part of an aggressive push into New Zealand, Qantas will fast-track Gold members of other airline loyalty programmes into its scheme.

O‘Brien said the airline would compete head-on.

“There’s nothing new there, classic A move and we always love healthy competition. We’re all in. I think the focus for us really is just to keep working on giving our members more ways to earn and spend, growing our partnership network and improving our frequent flyer offering.”

A new tier beyond Elite is under development.

A long-term project ended in August, developing digital capability to deliver the revamped programme, and this meant the new super-Elite tier to reward the most frequent fliers was “on the flight path for the future”.

The Air NZ dollar-for-dollar Airpoints programme was easier to understand than others, she said.

“We believe our currency and our redemption structure is a real strength for our programme - compared to the Qantas offering.”

Asked if she was concerned at losing Gold members she said: “I don’t think so. We’re comfortable that we are continuing to work on improvements and deliver what our members are telling us what they want.”

O’Brien said since launching an Airpoints revamp in August, the airline has been on a path to improve the offering.

“Over the past few months, we’ve rolled out updates to bring even more perks to our members. With new partnerships like Everyday Rewards, enhanced earning potential in the Airpoints Store, and platform upgrades.”

From today until Monday, the Airpoints Store will have its biggest-ever sale for Black Friday, with more than 6000 products on sale, the majority at 10-40% off. O’Brien said there was free delivery on purchases.

A new campaign highlighting the unique feature Shairpoints has been launched; it now allows members to pool their Airpoints Dollars with up to 10 friends and whānau, making it easier to achieve those dream travel goals together.

Starting from Monday, members of Air New Zealand’s Airpoints programme can convert their Everyday Rewards to Airpoints dollars.