Air New Zealand Air Points - Budget Car Rental Redemption Changes

That's another Airpoints benefit gone. The Airpoints rental car redemption rates with Bugdet used to be less than the retail rates. Now they are exactly the same and are available to both AVIS and Budget. It's no surprise given you can now buy Airpoints without limit.

The programme has really been damaged beyond recognition.

Really?
I always thought they were more expensive than what I could get for booking directly with the car rental company, but I still used the Airpoints as I was burning them up as part of my exit strategy.

I noticed that too..... But it's expected anyway! My APD is now basically equivalent to ASB TrueReward, and I prefer TrueReward, which allows you to buy much more stuff than APD...