Originally Posted by roundtheworld
I know but I have an old Air NZ membership so I am grandfathered ..
I think you misunderstand. Each membership year, if you do not fly at least once on NZ then you get charged (20 airbucks IIRC) - deducted automatically from your account. If your account becomes negative they will close it.
This is separate to any joining fee (yes airpoints has one of those too!).