AA Smartfuel to end

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Yetti92

55 posts

Master Geek

#307026 13-Sep-2023 12:03

I received an email this morning stating AA Smartfuel will completely come to an end on January 31st 2024. No word of a replacement on their website. Countdown leaving might of been the straw that broke the camel's back for the program maybe??

ockel

1949 posts

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#3127032 13-Sep-2023 12:54

Countdown are teaming up with BP (also an email today) from 1 Feb 2024.

Spend $2000 and get $15 to spend at Countdown or BP. Less than 1% discount effectively. Worse at BP - buy 2000L of fuel and get $15 - at $3/L thats 0.25% discount.

Laughable.

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jonb

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#3127041 13-Sep-2023 13:22

BP consistently the most expensive fuel in my town so even less of a value proposition - RDP or NPD 283 per litre 91, BP 293 (after 6c discount). That's a $5 difference with 50 litres, $200 discount difference over 2000 litres..

Geektastic

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#3127048 13-Sep-2023 13:29

Looked at their FAQs. Under “Why is the scheme closing?”:

“Following a review of the AA Smartfuel programme a decision has been made that it will end on 31 January 2024. Until then, AA Smartfuel continues, and cardholders can keep earning AA Smartfuel discounts at all participating retailers including bp, GAS and Countdown. Over the past 12 years AA Smartfuel has issued $1 billion worth of fuel discounts to its cardholders.”

Am I the only person who thinks that entirely fails to answer why?!

Yetti92

55 posts

Master Geek

#3127052 13-Sep-2023 13:33

Geektastic: Looked at their FAQs. Under “Why is the scheme closing?”:

“Following a review of the AA Smartfuel programme, a decision has been made that it will end on 31 January 2024. Until then, AA Smartfuel continues, and cardholders can keep earning AA Smartfuel discounts at all participating retailers including bp, GAS and Countdown. Over the past 12 years AA Smartfuel has issued $1 billion worth of fuel discounts to its cardholders.”

Am I the only person who thinks that entirely fails to answer why?!

I thought the same thing, a bit vague.

But hey Supermarkets and Fuel Companies teaming up again to provide better "value"....what could possibly be wrong with that....haha

rugrat

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#3127102 13-Sep-2023 13:48

I do the $15, 2000 points at countdown. It’s better then getting no rewards, if paying same prices.

I’d never use $15 off at BP as find most times their prices are the highest of all stations in Christchurch.

NPD has a self serve near me now, and when they have a special have had it be up to 30 cents a litre cheaper then other local ones, way better then chasing rewards.

I question the money people have saved on AA petrol discounts, if the petrol is a higher price before discount then the discount is not fully money saved compared to buying else where.

The advantage of the countdown card is sometimes offer discounts off price only if member of program, and sometimes have point boosts. Have had boosts over 500 points, so not always a $2000 spend.

I’m lucky at moment as have around 100 litres on Z share. Brought it couple years ago so saving at todays prices. Unless good special at NPD or others will work through that over next three months.

My one card is on my AA card so wonder if will have to get new card for countdown.

Edit: I haven’t received countdown email so not sure what in there.

Yetti92

55 posts

Master Geek

#3127134 13-Sep-2023 14:32

rugrat:

I do the $15, 2000 points at countdown. It’s better then getting no rewards, if paying same prices.

I’d never use $15 off at BP as find most times their prices are the highest of all stations in Christchurch.

NPD has a self serve near me now, and when they have a special have had it be up to 30 cents a litre cheaper then other local ones, way better then chasing rewards.

I question the money people have saved on AA petrol discounts, if the petrol is a higher price before discount then the discount is not fully money saved compared to buying else where.

The advantage of the countdown card is sometimes offer discounts off price only if member of program, and sometimes have point boosts. Have had boosts over 500 points, so not always a $2000 spend.

I’m lucky at moment as have around 100 litres on Z share. Brought it couple years ago so saving at todays prices. Unless good special at NPD or others will work through that over next three months.

My one card is on my AA card so wonder if will have to get new card for countdown.

Edit: I haven’t received countdown email so not sure what in there.

If you're buying fuel through BP then I would agree as they are also the most expensive everywhere I've been recently in the Upper North Island, along with Z even with their respective discount schemes. But my local servo is a GAS, they always keep the prices low, even lower than the nearby unmanned Gull by a cent or 2. They would often offer 15c off per litre randomly via email every few weekends with Smartfuel at GAS, which made it a better deal.

MikeB4

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#3127138 13-Sep-2023 14:39

Gaspy gets the best discounts.

TinyTim

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#3127217 13-Sep-2023 16:20

Geektastic: Looked at their FAQs. Under “Why is the scheme closing?”:

“Following a review of the AA Smartfuel programme a decision has been made that it will end on 31 January 2024. Until then, AA Smartfuel continues, and cardholders can keep earning AA Smartfuel discounts at all participating retailers including bp, GAS and Countdown. Over the past 12 years AA Smartfuel has issued $1 billion worth of fuel discounts to its cardholders.”

Am I the only person who thinks that entirely fails to answer why?!

Cut out the non-answer and you're left with "[...] a decision has been made [...]" .

So, why is it closing? Because we decided to.

rscole86

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#3127227 13-Sep-2023 16:36

Where's @sbiddle when you need him?

Slightly cynical but AA could hardly complain about the price of petrol when they were party to a scheme that made pricing misleading. If they don't end up doing something similar in the new year I expect them to become more vocal about petrol vouchers.

gzt

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#3127365 13-Sep-2023 18:47

I was not aware I could use AA card at countdown and some of the other things mentioned other than the basics. It will come as no surprise then - I see most of these things as hideous money-go-rounds obscuring the price discovery and transparency required for effective and functioning markets.

PolicyGuy

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#3127377 13-Sep-2023 19:37

I've been an AA member since the 1980s, and used to organise my petrol purchases from BP around the "10 cents off Wednesdays" and the "11 cents off Fridays & Saturdays".

Nowadays I find that the price at BP, including the 10c or 11c off is more expensive than PAK'nSAVE or Countdown fuel, even before I take off the 6c discount I get if I spend even $5 in the supermarket.

I haven't used my AA / BP discount for many months

RogerMellie

278 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3127554 14-Sep-2023 09:57

I find there are a few other ways to accumulate the discounts without having to spend $ at BP for fuel, or $ at Countdown (6c discount per $200, pffft)

Rushmere

312 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3127600 14-Sep-2023 10:12

PolicyGuy:

I've been an AA member since the 1980s, and used to organise my petrol purchases from BP around the "10 cents off Wednesdays" and the "11 cents off Fridays & Saturdays".

Nowadays I find that the price at BP, including the 10c or 11c off is more expensive than PAK'nSAVE or Countdown fuel, even before I take off the 6c discount I get if I spend even $5 in the supermarket.

I haven't used my AA / BP discount for many months

Same here. The only AA benefit I routinely use now is the free eye test at Specsavers.

I'm not getting a great deal of value from the AA now, and I've been thinking about not renewing next time. The cheaper (and albeit far more basic) roadside rescue from my insurer (State) might now be enough.

TinyTim

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#3127962 14-Sep-2023 22:27

We use the discount movie tickets a lot (but you can probably get those from other sources too)

BlakJak

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#3128142 15-Sep-2023 13:48

Happy enough to stick with AA, they've given me fairly good service over the years even though I rarely need them.

I never found that Smartfuel did more than normalise BP's prices, where I am they're frequently amongst the more expensive local service stations, the biggest thing that had me regularly using BP was being able to pay by app.

More recently Waitomo has been better for that and almost always has better prices..

As someone else said - it's a money-go-round at the end of the day and unless you're doing crazy high volumes you're unlikely to realise significant benefits, so i'm ambivalent about this.

I understand Countdown and BP have a future direct partnership without the AA involvement so *shrug*

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