Air New Zealand and Fly Buys announce new partnership

Fly Buys members will soon be able to redeem their Fly Buys Points for any available seat on any Air New Zealand flight. While Air New Zealand Airpoints Programme members will be able to earn Airpoints Dollars™ by shopping at any of the 3,000 retail outlets across the country that are part of the Fly Buys programme.

One in five Kiwis currently benefit from the Air New Zealand Airpoints programme, which rewards customers with benefits and allows them to accrue Airpoints Dollars. While Fly Buys, which is managed by Loyalty New Zealand, has one of the highest active household penetrations in the world of any loyalty programme and is New Zealand’s largest, with 2.3 million active members.

Air New Zealand CFO Rob McDonald says that Air New Zealand Airpoints members living in New Zealand will be issued with a new co-branded card, with which they will be able to collect Fly Buys Points that automatically convert into Airpoints Dollars when they make a purchase at a Fly Buys retailer.

"Working with the country's largest and best retail loyalty programme means our Airpoints members will now have even more everyday opportunities to earn Airpoints Dollars with access to the large range of Fly Buys retail outlets.

"Combined with our recently expanded range of credit card partners, Airpoints members will now be able to earn the Airpoints Dollars for a flight even faster," says Mr McDonald.

Loyalty New Zealand CEO Lance Walker says loyalty marketing is critical in today's retail environment.

"Kiwis love to be rewarded and will choose where they shop on this basis. Now the reasons to choose a Fly Buys retailer are even stronger," says Mr Walker.

"It's going to be even easier to collect Fly Buys Points and Fly Buys members will be able to redeem their Fly Buys Points to book any available seat on any Air New Zealand flight. We're thrilled about working more closely with Air New Zealand, our award winning national airline."

Currently more than half a million Fly Buys members already have enough points to redeem a one-way flight between Auckland and Wellington with Air New Zealand.

The exciting new changes are planned to come into effect in mid-November, and the specific details of the partnership will be released closer to the time.

Ends

Issued by Air New Zealand Public Affairs (+64 21 847 250) and Loyalty NZ Public Relations (+64 4 803 5476).

About Airpoints and Air New Zealand:

Air New Zealand is proud to be a member of Star Alliance. For more information about Air New Zealand visit www.airnewzealand.com and for more information about Star Alliance visit www.staralliance.com.

Air New Zealand's Airpoints is a world leading frequent flyer programme and has a reputation in the global frequent flyer industry of introducing innovative features that enhance the member experience. This started with Airpoints being the first programme to introduce "any seat" redemptions and the introduction of the transparent and easy to understand Airpoints Dollars frequent flyer currency. The unique currency Airpoints Dollars delivers to the most important aspects of a frequent flyer programme from member's perspective: ease of redemption, access to flight rewards and quick to earn.

Being driven by member interaction has recently won Air New Zealand the award for the Airline industry's most innovative frequent flyer programme.

About Fly Buys and Loyalty New Zealand:

Fly Buys is managed by Loyalty New Zealand Ltd. It is New Zealand's largest coalition loyalty programme with more than 1.3 million active households (representing 71% of all NZ households) and 2.3 million card holders. On average, each day, the Fly Buys card is swiped more than 300,000 times and 2,000 rewards are sent to Members. Each year Fly Buys purchases more than 800,000 rewards for Members, worth an estimated $70 million. Visit www.flybuys.co.nz for more information and a full list of participants.

Loyalty New Zealand Ltd was established in 1996 by four industry-leading companies to create a powerful coalition loyalty programme that would recognise and reward customers and provide businesses with vital and unparalleled information about their customers. The company is jointly owned by Bank of New Zealand, Foodstuffs Ventures (NZ) Ltd, IAG New Zealand Ltd and Shell New Zealand Ltd. Through the Fly Buys programme, Loyalty New Zealand Ltd has partnerships with more than 40 industry-leading businesses. See www.loyalty.co.nz.