I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I get the sense that because many Air NZ customers (myself included) form a 'captive market' as there aren't necessarily other options for the routes we fly, that the FF program really is about throwing out a few bones rather than actually trying to engender greater loyalty. It's just enough to feel like you're getting something, in effect, without actually offering great value/benefit to the customer (I will caveat that by saying because I get a lot of APD through a work credit card, the Elite APD upgrade system is quite decent).