jackal

Colo(u)r me a confused Yank.

I did get an AA Smartfuel card but found out from a random Caltex cashier that I'd been using it wrong. She told me to fill up in $40 increments and even to do two separate, consecutive $40 lots before going inside to pay to maximize the rewards.

I did that at a BP today, and the cashier acted surprised when I said I wanted to spend rather than accumulate rewards. He then said, "All right, I'll combine them into one big transaction, then," and I proceeded to get just a normal 4 cents off per litre.

Where am I going wrong here? What should I do to maximize benefits? When should I spend vs. accumulate discounts, and should I divide up transactions like that?

Hoping a knowledgeable Kiwi can help this befuddled American out...our fuel rewards programs in the U.S. are much simpler, though also apparently much less of a good value--like 3 cents per gallon, max.

Kiwi Flyer

I don't know about smartfuel but supermarket chains generally have a deal with one of the petrol station chains. Good for at least 4c / litre discount, with promos sometimes 20c / litre.

pbl22

There's no need to split up fuel purchases into $40 lots. Just purchase your fuel ($40 is the minimum, I think) and you will get 6c/L (or more on special promos) off the whole purchase. They always ask whether you want to take the discount immediately or save it up - I always take my discount immediately.

jackal

That's what I'd been doing (and using Caltex vs. BP once someone pointed out that Caltex takes 6 cents off where BP only takes 4), but the Caltex cashier (Te Anau, I think) told me I was throwing money away by doing that.

Although we're getting close to the end of our trip, any amount of money we can save on fuel would be appreciated--in the last three weeks, I think we've spent over $1K just on petrol.

SpannerSpinner

As many stops as you can buying the minimum $40 and accumulating the discount, then use the discount to fill the car up from as close to dead empty as you are comfortable to let it get is the best saving.

The saving is in cents/litre, so the less litres you buy to get the discount, and the more the litres you buy when redeeming the discount the better off you are.

All assuming you resist the temptation of overpriced candy bars and sodas etc. when you do all those $40 purchases,otherwise the evil empire wins.

jackal

Aha, so there's the key.

So, I'll probably just fuel in $40 batches between now (I'm in WLG) and AKL and then redeem on one big massive from-dead-empty fill up before returning the rental car. Would that work to maximize it?

And yes, I've been guilty of buying things...I'm now addicted to ginger beer (which we don't really have Stateside)...

SpannerSpinner

I just remembered, the discount only applies to the first 50L, so no need to try to run it bone dry.

rayonline

For us ..

To accumulate:
Wait for the 8c off specials or the 10c recently.
$40 petrol each time and accumulate 8 or 10c each time.
If I put in $80 I would only get 8c off, not 2x 8c.
You can do $40 put the hose back up and back down and do another $40. Then pay 2x separate $40 if not you would only get one discount.

Then just before the end of the next month for us, our car is just a VW Bora so it has a 60L tank only. We use all the points for that one trip.

You can obviously shop at partner stores and get more points there and give a linked AA card to family / friends so you can pool the credit together.

jackal

Cool. So I do have to physically swipe my card two separate times and make two completely separate payment transactions to double up?

Also, the 8/10c specials are for accumulating, not redeeming, right? I should accumulate on special days and then redeem on any other day?

It's starting to make sense, now, but we'll see when I do my final fill-up before returning the car in AKL.

rayonline

The service station will swipe your AA card 2x. They swipe once and you pay. Then they swipe the 2nd time and you pay the 2nd time. You might want to tell him/her to pay 2x separately and accumulate each. Saves you do a $40 run inside and pay, run out again and do $40 again and pay again.

Yes you accumulate it every single time until the end of the 2nd month when you redemn it at one go.

8c - before
8c - before
8c - before
8c - before
Let's say now you want to use it up. That is a total of 32c in the past. But today there is a 10c discount. You therefore get 42c in total.

FWIW. We don't use the car often, going to the CBD easier and cheaper to bus. When you do a full tank redemn. It takes us just over 1 month to use it up. So eg -

End of September we did a full tank.
That last to the first week of October.
October we do a $40 and we accumulate this.
The next 2nd month is November. So we use (redemn) all the points by the end of November. So you don't have to do it every 2 months. You can do it from the first time you accumulate - by the end of the next month your points expire.

But hey - waiting for specials is always good but there are times when you just fuelled up and the promotion happens - so you miss out. But hey that's life. But yeah with the standard 4c off, you can accumulate that up and use it up in one go... What we do is put just $40 in with normal price so when a special comes out we have half a tank empty for that. If our tank is pretty low and there is a promotion we may do 2x $40.

jackal

OK, that makes more sense.

A little hard to game it with the promo days since a month of driving around the two islands means we're filling up every couple of days and don't have the luxury of waiting for a promo day, but it's good to know when to take advantage of accumulating vs. spending.

Time's coming to an end, though...one month, 8,000km, and probably $1,000 in petrol later, we fly out on Saturday. It's been a spectacular holiday!