FlyBuys loyalty programme ending

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Lizard1977

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#314931 30-May-2024 11:29

Just got an email announcing the end of the FlyBuys loyalty programme at the end of the year. I know there will be people who don't see the value of loyalty programmes like this but it worked very well for me for many years so I'm pretty gutted to see the end of this. Between my BNZ Visa (where I transferred a lot of daily spending) earning points, and shopping at New World, I earned enough points to more or less pay for my fuel using the fuel rewards part of the programme. With it coming to an end I guess I'll have to re-evaluate.

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#3242668 30-May-2024 11:39

With BNZ when I worked it out cash rewards worked better then fly buys. Better reward rate and buy what you want, and once converted to cash doesn’t expire if don’t use cash before certain date.

The main places I got fly buys from was Z and Noel Lemmings, so wasn’t earning that many.

I haven’t received email yet. Have a couple hundred points guess they all get lost if not used before it ends?

elpenguino

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#3242672 30-May-2024 11:51

I am one of those people skeptical of the value of these programs and cynical of their purposes.

If you had shopped somewhere other than new world, would that have paid for your fuel?

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

richms

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#3242676 30-May-2024 12:01

I cant think of any place I shop that rewards with them now, I got some whiskey over the years from the points back when I used petrol, but that was usually only because they emailed that they were starting to expire and its all that I could get with the small balance I had.

Richard rich.ms

trig42

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#3242677 30-May-2024 12:03

Just trying to login to see if I have any points to use.

Bad gateway....

Lizard1977

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#3242680 30-May-2024 12:05

rugrat:

With BNZ when I worked it out cash rewards worked better then fly buys. Better reward rate and buy what you want, and once converted to cash doesn’t expire if don’t use cash before certain date.

The main places I got fly buys from was Z and Noel Lemmings, so wasn’t earning that many.

I haven’t received email yet. Have a couple hundred points guess they all get lost if not used before it ends?

I guess it will work out different for different people. For me, I spent about $35k on my credit card in the past 12 months, mostly on my platinum CC so at $20/point it gave me 1745 points. For every 4 points it converts to a 3c discount, so over the course of the year it amounts to $13.09 in fuel discounts. Using it for the maximum 50L fill up it saved me around $650 a year (especially as I was putting in 50L every 3 weeks) on my fuel bill. I looked at the Cash Rewards option, but using the conversion rate of $1 = 1.67 points, and 200 points = $1.34, the same spend would have netted me just $390.

sir1963

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#3242682 30-May-2024 12:06

elpenguino:

I am one of those people skeptical of the value of these programs and cynical of their purposes.

If you had shopped somewhere other than new world, would that have paid for your fuel?

We NEVER shopped for rewards, if they had them, we took them.

Lizard1977

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#3242683 30-May-2024 12:10

elpenguino:

I am one of those people skeptical of the value of these programs and cynical of their purposes.

If you had shopped somewhere other than new world, would that have paid for your fuel?

Every now and then I would shop at Pak N Save or Countdown/Woolworths, but the price savings for my typical weekly shop are pretty small. But it wasn't the shop at New World that netted me the most points, it was the BNZ CC. And there was no substantial cost difference to using the BNZ Visa as opposed to any other credit card. BNZ's Lite Visa has a smaller annual fee ($10 vs $90), but the savings I made in fuel discounts more than made up the difference. Even if I used NPD or Waitomo for fuel as opposed to Z/Caltex, the baseline fuel price difference still wouldn't make up for the savings I was making using the FlyBuys rewards scheme.

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elpenguino

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#3242684 30-May-2024 12:13

I'm glad you got something out of the system, but I dunno, smart people were paid to plan out the whole system with spreadsheets and computers and stuff.

The house always wins.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

richms

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#3242685 30-May-2024 12:15

elpenguino:

I'm glad you got something out of the system, but I dunno, smart people were paid to plan out the whole system with spreadsheets and computers and stuff.

The house always wins.

Yes but they plan it around normal behavior, which you can deviate from and make the plans work for you, till that becomes normal behavior and they change it.

Richard rich.ms

Lizard1977

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#3242686 30-May-2024 12:16

elpenguino:

I'm glad you got something out of the system, but I dunno, smart people were paid to plan out the whole system with spreadsheets and computers and stuff.

The house always wins.

You're right, the house always wins - at a global level. But some people do get some money out of the system, particularly if you know how to count cards (and don't get spotted by the Pit Boss).

sir1963

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#3242687 30-May-2024 12:19

elpenguino:

I'm glad you got something out of the system, but I dunno, smart people were paid to plan out the whole system with spreadsheets and computers and stuff.

The house always wins.

Well all you need is card from any fuel outlet and you get 6c off for petrol. They can do this by charging 10c more, 6c for the discount, 4c for the admin.
We have been buying 99% of our petrol from NW (who have their own pumps), they are cheaper even without the 6c than others are with it.

Lizard1977

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#3242694 30-May-2024 12:43

Now that the website has recovered, I went back into my activity history to check how much I've saved in fuel costs over the past 12 months thanks to the FlyBuys rewards scheme. It was $1072 in fuel savings (against a total spend of around $2400/year), so a pretty decent saving. It was always funny when I used to go in to pay at the counter and sometimes the cashier would scan my card and it came up as "nothing to pay" because the discount was greater than the fuel price - they were pretty surprised when that happened. With my PHEV car now I was looking forward to close to zero fuel bill based on my fuel discounts, so it's a shame to see it go.

elpenguino

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#3242696 30-May-2024 12:50

sir1963:

Well all you need is card from any fuel outlet and you get 6c off for petrol. They can do this by charging 10c more, 6c for the discount, 4c for the admin.
We have been buying 99% of our petrol from NW (who have their own pumps), they are cheaper even without the 6c than others are with it.

Yes, I do the same. The big companies make it sound attractive by issuing the occasional voucher for $5 off or something.

To me, loyalty schemes and the like are part of a push by business to obfuscate the value of their products and services. How can I figure out where to get the best value for a commodity such as fuel if the actual cost is hidden behind 'free' coffee, vouchers, discounts and so on?

And where does that 'free' fuel come from? Who's paying for that?

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

richms

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#3242698 30-May-2024 13:01

elpenguino:

Yes, I do the same. The big companies make it sound attractive by issuing the occasional voucher for $5 off or something.

To me, loyalty schemes and the like are part of a push by business to obfuscate the value of their products and services. How can I figure out where to get the best value for a commodity such as fuel if the actual cost is hidden behind 'free' coffee, vouchers, discounts and so on?

And where does that 'free' fuel come from? Who's paying for that?

I just take the tesla to costco and fill a few 20l red jerrycans and get funny looks in the process when I need to replenish the fuel store at home. Most ends up in the old cars as I want to turn over the stored fuel for the generators to the point that as I drive the old cars so seldom now they have full tanks and I have nowhere to put the stuff in the jerrycans to refresh it.

Not worth going elsewhere because even with the savings its not as cheap as costco fuel unless I play stupid games with putting a little in and then stacking the discount and then a little more and stack and then use it all on the max which is only 50l.

Richard rich.ms

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#3242699 30-May-2024 13:01

We use FlyBuys mainly to top up the drinks cupboard occasionally and fuel discounts..... will miss it a little, but something else will come along.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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