Tag Archives: Flybuys

How To Maximize Australian Supermarket Loyalty Programs

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In Australia we have two main supermarket loyalty programs – Flybuys (Coles & partners) and Woolworths Rewards.  Both of these can earn you valuable points that can either be redeemed for shopping vouchers in $10 increments or transferred to airline programs.

WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON

  1.  Both earn a base value of 1 point per $ spent in the supermarket.
  2. Both allow you to redeem 2000 points for one $10 shopping voucher which is stored on the card for use when you shop.
  3. Both have airline partners where you can redeem 2000 points for 870 airline miles.  Woolworths has Qantas and Coles has Virgin Australia plus Etihad where you redeem 10,000 Flybuys for 4000 Etihad.

On the surface, it would appear that it takes forever to get enough points to transfer to the airline to get an actual flight.  $2000 spent in the store gets 870 miles.  If a round trip to Fiji costs 36,000 miles, then you would have to spend $84,000 in the store to get 42 lots of 870 miles which could be exchanged for 36.540 miles.  Pretty daunting, huh?

PLAY THE PROMOS STRATEGICALLY

All is not lost!  Both supermarkets have gotten very competitive with shopping promos lately.  You can find these promos on shopping dockets, in your junk mail and sent to you by email or sometimes by snail mail.  Here is what they look like.

coles-dockets coles-dockets2 flybuys-dec2 woolies-offer woolies-offer2 woolies-offer3

Be sure to activate the email promos and bring the docket ones to be scanned!  If a Woolworths offer is for $10, this comes in the form of 2000 points which you can choose to transfer to Qantas.  Spending $100 on groceries is pretty easy and much better than spending $2000!  You can always stock up on non-perishable items like cleaning supplies, packaged goods and soft drinks, especially when they do the half price deals.

Do they work?  Well have a look at my earnings just for the last few months!

woolies-qf flybuys-dec

 

HOW TO SHOP LIKE A PRO AND GET REWARDS QUICKER

  1.  Swap your shopping each week according to which supermarket has the best promos.
  2.   Don’t exceed the target by more than a couple dollars otherwise your next target will go up substantially.  I mentally add up the prices as I put things in the trolley and usually come within $1 of the target.
  3.  If the targets start getting too high, then stop shopping at that supermarket for awhile and shop at the other one.  They will make you better offers to lure you back.
  4.  If you have a partner or spouse, have them join Flybuys & Woolworths Rewards.  When your targets are too high, then start using their card for a while.  You can always use the family pooling feature of Velocity & Qantas to get the points in your account or just redeem from their account.
  5.  Pay with an Amex Platinum Edge to get 3 Membership Rewards per $.  If you don’t have one, I would appreciate if you use my referral link which is on my review of the card.
  6.  Buy gift cards for other things you need at supermarkets (Bunnings, JB-Hifi, clothing stores, etc) but DON’T scan your rewards card or your next promo target will go up substantially!  I learned this the hard way when we renovated the bathroom last year and I bought heaps of Bunnings cards at Coles which made my monthly average go way up and my next goal was something ridiculous like “Spend $300 for 1000 bonus points.  Most people’s targets will be between $50 – $150 a week.  However you do want to buy the gift cards and pay with an Amex Platinum Edge, just don’t scan the Flybuys card!  You’ll still get 3x on your home renovations rather than the 1x per $ you normally get at Bunnings.

 

Flybuys Warning

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Now that Flybuys has teamed up with Etihad, many Aussies are trying to get as many Flybuys points as possible.  One of the best ways is to use a credit card that has a category bonus on supermarkets such as the American Express Platinum Edge.  You can sometimes extend this category bonus by buying gift cards for non-bonused categories in a supermarket.  Another way to maximize your points earn is to use the various promotions that are emailed or sent out as quarterly coupons and usually have a fixed target.  In the past I have had 500 bonus Flybuys for a $110 spend and used it to good advantage.

This is what I was trying to do when I bought Bunnings gift cards at Coles Supermarkets to maximize miles earned on our bathroom renovation.  I was right in used the bonused credit card but the one mistake I made was swiping my Flybuys card to pay for the Bunnings gift cards.  Purchases of gift cards don’t count for bonus Flybuys promos but they do count when Coles is assessing your average spend to determine your thresholds for future bonuses.

This is an example of offers Coles emails to Flybuys members.  On rare occasions they offer bonus points for gift cards but this is not the norm.

Flybuys offers

EXAMPLE:

I spend $100 on regular groceries and $200 on Bunnings gift cards.  I have a triple points email offer and the weekly coupon from the sheet mailed each quarter for 500 bonus points if I spend $110 at Coles.  Here is what I earn based on paying with an Amex Platinum Edge.

$300 x 3x supermarket category bonus = 900 Amex Membership rewards.

$300 at 1 point per dollar = 300 base Flybuys points.

$100 of regular grocery spend x 3x triple points from email (gift card doesn’t count) = 300 bonus Flybuys points.

I failed to get the 500 bonus Flybuys because even though I spent $300, $200 of that was on gift cards and I needed $110 of regular grocery spend to hit that target.

BUT……………………

Coles sees me spending $300 in a week and doesn’t consider that $200 of that was on gift cards that wouldn’t be part of my normal grocery budget.  They substantially raised the target on this quarter’s coupon mail out and I now have to spend $260 to get 1000 bonus Flybuys points……………….and gift cards don’t count!  This is basically impossible so I waste this whole quarter (mid Jan – mid April) of not being able to hit bonus targets.

WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE

Do 2 separate transactions.  One for the normal groceries in which I swipe my Flybuys card and pay with the Amex.  And another transaction for the gift cards in which I do NOT swipe the Flybuys card so Coles doesn’t think I am all of a sudden someone who can easily consume $300 of groceries a week!  I will still get the Amex points as Amex doesn’t know or care what I spent the money on at Coles, it all counts as supermarket spend.

Convert Your Points To Etihad & Get 25% Bonus Guest Miles

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From now until the end of December, Etihad is offering a 25% bonus when you convert points from partners such as credit cards, hotels and shopping programs to Etihad Guest Miles.

That’s 25% more towards that upgrade, free flight or a special something from their Reward Shop. To convert your points, call your bank, hotel or loyalty program’s customer service centre or visit their website. Click here to see the full list of programmes and more details on how to convert your points.

Aussies will be especially pleased that Flybuys is listed under the Retail tab so for this next month you will get 5000 Etihad for every block of 10,000 Flybuys.

Complete T&C’s

I recently did a complete review of the Etihad Guest Program but I do want to remind you that Etihad has a hard expiration date 2 years after miles are earned.  You CANNOT extend the expiration by any means so don’t transfer your partner points unless you are sure you will be using them before Dec 2017.  This means that I can’t participate this time as I don’t have a use for them within these 2 years but it’s a great deal otherwise so I hope they offer this deal at least once a year!

Etihad Guest For The Aussie Eco-tourist

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Etihad Guest is a program that wasn’t really on my radar as I have been concentrating on other programs.  (I really need to update my old Top 8 Programs list.)  Now that it will become easy for Aussies to get Etihad miles via Flybuys by simply doing their grocery shopping at Coles, it’s time for a closer look at Etihad Guest.

HOW TO GET ETIHAD GUEST MILES

This is geared for non-frequent fliers as there are other blogs who cater for frequent fliers as well as business travelers and airlines status seekers.  I am concentrating on the non-frequent flier who is into birding and eco-tourism and wants to get free miles for a free airline ticket to somewhere they can watch birds.

  1.  Newest partner Flybuys as detailed in my other post.
  2.  Amex Membership Rewards (Australian) transfer at 1000:1000 with occasional bonuses where you get 10-25% extra if you are ready at the right time.
  3. Etihad partners with E-Rewards so you can get miles doing surveys.  Be sure to join using the Etihad invitation or one from a hotel chain.  If you join with another airline’s invitation, you won’t get options for other airlines.

Be careful as Etihad Guest miles expire 2 years from date of activity so don’t transfer your points until you are close to booking an award.  There is no way to reset expiration by performing any activity.

BEST USES OF ETIHAD GUEST MILES FOR ECO-TOURISTS

This is where it really helps to have a bucket list, dream travel list or whatever you want to call it.  Then you can start analyzing a program and where it can help you go.  With Etihad you can obviously redeem on Etihad and on their partners as well.

FLYING ON ETIHAD

Awards on Etihad are based on distance so amounts vary depending on the exact distance.  You need to do an individual quote so I will show you an example.  Since I like birding in Africa, I would possibly redeem between BNE and EBB since Uganda is on my bucket list.  Business class is roughly double economy and more tax & fees but on such a long flight it would be nice if I could get that many points!

EY BNE1 EY BNE2FLYING ON PARTNERS

You can also use Etihad Guest miles to fly on partner airlines.

EY PartnersBearing in mind my travel bucket list, I can see that partners that could be useful in the next few years are Air New Zealand, Garuda, Gol, South African and Virgin Australia.  Lets have a closer look at their award charts to see what is the best value.

Air New Zealand

I don’t like the looks of this chart for anything over 1750 and NZ is notoriously stingy about giving space to partners so this is probably not going to be my choice.  Possible short haul between AKL and Pacific Islands but then again these flights can often be bought cheaply on “happy hour” type sales.

EY4Garuda Indonesia

Again I can see good value in the shorter hops under 1000 miles.  If I hadn’t already ear-marked Flying Blue miles for my 2017 trip to Indonesia, I’d be seriously considering this option.  Using Great Circle Mapper one of my potential routes is Palu-Ujung Padang-Denpasar whic is 679 miles so 10k Etihad is great value here.  Business class is also really good value.

EY1GOL

Brazil is one of my favourite countries to go birding in so I would be very interested in this option.  Since we would usually be landing in Sao Paulo I checked a few random cities around Brazil, most are well under 1500 miles so 9000 Etihad miles would be excellent value here!

EY2South African Airways

As I mentioned before, I am planning a future trip to see birds in certain parts of Africa we didn’t get to before.  Namiba, Zambia & Uganda are all part of this plan.  WDH-JNB-LVI is coming in at 1317 miles so would cost 15,556 Etihad.  It’s another option if I don’t go with BA Avios on this route.  It will all depend on which miles are easier to obtain at the time.

EY3Virgin Australia

For Virgin Australia, Etihad doesn’t have a nice, neat little chart.  It’s all on one big pdf categorized by distance/mileage required so please look here.  Find your home town and take note of where you can go and for how many miles.  Just looking at my home town of  Brisbane I can see a few interesting options.

6900 miles each way gets me to Tasmania, Vanuatu, basically anywhere Virgin flies in eastern Australia.

10,900 miles gets me to Papua New Guinea, Solomon  Islands, New Zealand & Fiji.

16,900 miles gets me to Darwin, Perth, Samoa & Bali.

60,000 miles gets me to LAX.

Considering all the options, I am happy to see that my everyday grocery shopping at Coles will get me some valuable miles which can be used in some pretty amazing places!

 

 

 

Introduction To Flybuys

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I have to admit this is almost as much an introduction for me as it is for you.  I’ve been in Flybuys for many years since it was once the only shopping rewards program in Australia although it didn’t get interesting until it revamped a few years ago and started sending out targeted email promos.  They’ve also added a lot of new partners I wasn’t aware of since I wasn’t really paying attention to the program as I was chasing Qantas points with Woolies.

Using these promos and the quarterly coupon books they mail out is the secret to acquiring large amounts of Flybuys points in a short time.  You usually get triple points or a target of (for example) spend $120 for bonus 1000 points.  These offers can also appear on the bottom of your shopping docket so you have to save the docket to scan the offer next time.

Flybuys offers

Last year, I redeemed about 50k Flybuys on 4 Photobooks using a double value rewards and a weeks worth of free groceries so I started out with zero this year and now have just over 20k without even trying by shopping at the Flybuys partners, espcially Coles.

Flybuys partners

I wasn’t trying because I had been focusing on Woolies Everyday Rewards program to get Qantas points which I deemed more valuable.  Now that that option is coming to an end, it’s time to take a 2nd look at Flybuys and especially their latest partner – Etihad.  You can redeem in increments of 10,000 Flybuys points for 4000 Etihad miles.  Flybuys also has some introductory offers to earn triple tier miles on Etihad which you can read about here.  This is mostly of interest to those who are cashing status as you would need some flights to get you to a silver tier even with these bonus points.

EY FlybuysTomorrow, we take a closer look at Etihad and ways to maximize it as it deserves its own post!