The art of Airpoints™: Travel loyalty programmes for work

In today’s world of corporate travel, frequent-flyer and hotel loyalty programmes make good business sense – especially if you travel often. It does pay, however, to have your finger on the pulse, so you can be confident you’re getting the best return on investment.

For travel brands, it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to look after the ones they already have. Customer loyalty programmes are an important weapon in their marketing arsenal – so how can you as a travel manager leverage them for your business?

This guide will give you a detailed breakdown of how you can best use airline and hotel loyalty rewards programmes – like Airpoints™ – in your business, how they can save you money, and why seeking help from a travel expert will give you access to even better rewards.

In summary, we’ll cover:

• How airline loyalty programmes work
• Which programmes you can use
• Understanding the Air New Zealand Airpoints programme
• Air New Zealand status points, and status points rollover
• How hotel loyalty programmes work
• Buying loyalty miles points in bulk
• How travel experts can maximise deals

Which airline loyalty programmes can you join?

Whether your business travel is frequent or sporadic, domestic or international, there is value in joining a loyalty-rewards programme.

If you organise business travel regularly, first consider whether you’re already loyal to an airline for its service. If not, your best bet is to join the loyalty programme for the dominant airline in your region of travel. For example, if you do a lot of business in Singapore, and you always fly with Singapore Airlines, you’d want to consider their frequent-flyer programme.

If your business travels less frequently, the best thing to do is to shop around for the programme that gives you the best bang for your buck. Consider programmes that allow you to earn miles or points on non-travel activities.

Star Alliance

In 1997, Star Alliance was the first global alliance between five major airlines – United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS Group and Thai Airways Company. The aim – to provide ‘smooth connections across a vast global network’, which would improve your travel experience. Today, the Star Alliance has 27 member airlines across the world, including Air New Zealand, dedicated to delivering the same exceptional service.

For New Zealand business travellers, the Star Alliance network has many advantages. With a combined fleet of over 5,000 airplanes travelling to just under 1,300 destinations in 195 countries, there are very few places in the world where you wouldn’t be able to get on a Star Alliance flight.

With the Star Alliance badge comes:

• Convenient schedules and optimised connections
• Seamless check-ins, joint ticketing, check-in and baggage facilities
• Co-location and connection teams at key airports
• Easy booking for multi-destination tickets
• Tailored products for business travellers

The best part is, when you join a frequent-flyer programme for one of the Star Alliance members, you can collect and redeem points for rewards, discounts and upgrades across the whole Star Alliance network.

Frequent-flyer programmes – domestic and international travel

When travelling internationally, it doesn’t matter where you call home – only where you’re headed. This means international travellers can join any airline’s loyalty programme.

For domestic travel within New Zealand, the main airline carrier is Air New Zealand. Their loyalty programme Airpoints offers tiered rewards for both personal and business travel.

Status Points

While you’re earning Airpoints Dollars, you’ll also earn Status Points towards Silver, Gold or Elite status. Each tier offers more benefits than the last, such as priority service, lounge access, seat upgrades and extra baggage allowance – which you can use when travelling on certain eligible flights.

To move up a tier, you’ll need to meet minimum points requirements within a 12-month period. The benefits are then valid for 12 months from the date you reach that tier.

Silver status holders will enjoy lounge access eVouchers, upgrades and discounted long-haul business-class fares.

Gold tier benefits include priority travel benefits, extra baggage allowance, Star Alliance lounge access, upgrades, complimentary frequent-flyer seating, hotel and rental car vouchers and gifts – and your Airpoints Dollars won’t expire while you hold gold-tier status.

Elite is the ultimate in seamless travel – you’ll have access to more lounge privileges, better upgrades, Elite Partner benefits, and priority travel benefits and baggage allowances. In addition, you’ll also receive complimentary valet parking, Elite threshold gifts, hotel and rental car vouchers, and extra Elite benefits like rollover status points.

Airpoints™ for Business

This part of the loyalty programme rewards small-to-medium businesses with additional Airpoints Dollars – just by travelling with Air NZ for work. Essentially, you earn twice: you or your employee earn Airpoints Dollars and Status Points, and your business earns an additional 20% of bonus Airpoints Dollars.

You can use those points on several rewards, including flights and upgrades, or you can transfer those additional Airpoints Dollars to top up your personal account, or an employee’s.

Airpoints for Business™ Partners offers the added opportunity of earning Airpoints Dollars on everyday business expenses – everything from business credit-card purchases to fuel, wholesale food and beverages, and office supplies.

Spending Airpoints Dollars

Paying for flights

Airpoints Dollars can pay for any Air New Zealand flight, as well as some partner flights, and a range of Star Alliance reward flight tickets. Any booking fees or associated airport or government costs will need to be covered by the business.

A travel expert can help you redeem your Airpoints on partner and Star Alliance flights.

Onboard purchases

On international flights with Air New Zealand, you can use your Airpoints Dollars to make onboard purchases for food, drinks, and movie upgrades.

Cabin class upgrades

There are several ways you can request an upgrade, depending on your Airpoints Dollars and Status Points

With OneUp upgrades, you make the decision on how much an upgrade or Economy Skycouch is going to cost. You send your best offer, along with your payment details – which could be Airpoints – and if accepted, you’ll be upgraded for the agreed amount. Offers need to be made three days prior to departure, and qualifying Status Airpoints members will have their offers increased depending on their tier level.

A recognition upgrade is where you request a cabin class upgrade for one part of your journey e.g. Economy to Premium Economy – usually on long-haul flights with connections. Two recognition upgrades can be used together to move up two cabin classes.

Elite status members receive one short-haul recognition upgrade each membership year. They can also exclusively request one cabin-class upgrade using their Airpoints Dollars at a fixed rate on available Air New Zealand operated and ticketed flights.

Lastly, you can use your Airpoints Dollars to purchase a Star Alliance upgrade in conjunction with a ticket in an eligible booking class – an upgrade a travel expert can easily help you navigate.

Rental cars

Because Air New Zealand has partnerships with car-rental providers Avis and Budget Rent A Car, you can pay for rental car hire in New Zealand or overseas using your Airpoints Dollars.

Koru membership

Use your Airpoints Dollars to pay for a Koru membership – get access to Air New Zealand or partner airline lounges to relax in pre-flight, enjoy priority check-in and boarding, complimentary frequent-flyer seating, baggage privileges, Fast Bag on regional flights and more.

Initially, the hotel industry simply partnered with frequent-flyer programmes. Today, it’s not unusual for hotels to have their own loyalty programmes, as well as partnering with major airlines.

If you stay in hotels often, you have the best chance of achieving top-tier status within a hotel loyalty programme.

These programmes can be a little harder to navigate, purely because of the sheer breadth of accommodation options worldwide. Add to this other discounts, sales and bonus points, it can be hard to know how to book to get a good deal and earn decent rewards points.

Here’s what to look for:

Earning discounts or points

It’s all about getting the most value – look for cash-based rewards or discounts, rewards points earned, future discounts and ‘best-price guarantees’. You should also factor in rewards points you could earn by paying with your credit card.

Earning perks during your stay

Be on the lookout for value-adds that will make your stay even more pleasant – room upgrades, welcome amenities, discounts on food and drinks at the hotel’s restaurant, or complimentary early or late check-ins. These benefits are often reserved for loyalty-programme members.

Buying loyalty miles or points in bulk

Some frequent-flyer and hotel loyalty programmes – generally long-haul and overseas – will sell their miles or points in bulk, often included as an incentive bonus to sweeten the deal. The benefit of buying points or miles rather than just paying for the flight is that you’ll also have access to significant discounts on upgrades, and business and first-class tickets.

Here are a few things to be mindful of when buying points or miles in bulk:

• Sign up before a promotion – keep track of frequent-flyer programmes, and make sure you have an active account well before any promotion starts. You might miss out on the opportunity to buy points otherwise.
• Wait for a bonus – it’s only ever worth buying miles or points when the frequent-flyer programme has a promotion
• Use multiple accounts where necessary – frequent-flyer programmes will often cap the number of points you’re allowed to buy in a single calendar year, so having multiple accounts is a good way to get around this.
• Buy and then redeem – only buy as many points or miles as you know you can use, and then make the flight booking as soon as possible. This is so you don’t run the risk of your points losing value, which some frequent-flyer programmes are known to do at short notice.
• Research flight availability before you buy – make sure there is plenty of space on the flight you need to book before buying your points or miles.
• Compare the cost of buying points in bulk versus buying the flight outright. Be sure to factor in any additional fees, and be aware you’ll not be able to earn points or status credits when using bought airline miles.
• Minimise currency exchange fees by using the right credit card – if buying points or miles in foreign currency for an international frequent flyer programme, use a credit card that has minimal exchange fees, or offers you bonus points for your spend.
• Be prepared and do your research – buying points and miles in bulk to redeem for cheaper flights takes time. Learn about buying in bulk, so you’re getting the best value for money – or enlist the help of a travel expert.

When buying points for hotel loyalty programmes, compare the price of the room versus the cost of buying the points. This can really help when staying in a city where the hotels are expensive, or during high season, special events or in resorts with well-defined peak seasons.