NZ_Traveller

Given the 12 month time-span indicated, most of that 20% growth of the GE base could have occurred before these measures were put in place.

As for those loyalty membership comments, being a member of a loyalty scheme does not equal being a loyal customer. Case in point; I have several department store cards in my wallet that I hardly ever use - I'm a member of their loyalty programme but that doesn't in of itself make me a loyal customer.

Kocama

We are a small business with the three directors *GE, Yip ANZ has completely lost the plot, they sent a sales rep from AKL down to see us due to our complaint she left admitting that things were not going well for their loyal customers and could not offer us any solution but to take an offer we received from Emirates.
Emirates have given us immediate Gold status plus a 5% discount on advertised fares to trial them for a 12 month period all we have to do is spend a minimum 50k PA we currently spend over 300K with AirNZ. I flew them Business up to London as a trial all good, and their TT Economy is way better than ANZ. Oh and did I mention the lounge Moet flows freely and the food is fantastic.

As a proud NZ exporter it does hurt not to fly our national airline but enough is enough.

brenrox

FF envy....

Good to know there are still airlines happy to go out of their way to retain regular customers, given how important it is in these economic times. Seeing some of the $ figures regarding individual/businesses travel requirements, it's a wee bit more than loose change that they stand to loose.

Kocama

I have been flying ANZ for the last 5 years I have gone around the status clock at least two times every qualifying year and since the introduction of banked years I already have 2. I have even still managed to scrape in this year despite having switched all long hauls to Emirates and SQ in the last 12 months.

I note Rob say's that there has been a 20% increase in the number of *GE in the last 12 months!
I say make it harder to obtain *GE and reward them with random free upgrades, and confirmed APD upgrades plus no financial penalties when you need to change a flight etc. I need to change a J class flight by one day and got stung over $1000 that's a great way to show your appreciation of a HVC!

Rebound

I don't think it's that easy to obtain, I fly domestic mainly with a bit of trans-tasman and i've managed to make GE for 2 years now.

serfty

GE is quite tough if you don't live in NZ and fly mainly economy on short haul.

I have posted earlier about my diverting of travel from QF in order to maintain GE ...

ajnz

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.524 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Add in CC status points and it is pretty easy to earn, IMO.

AgentK

Same here - I left them doing their S2S trans-tasman and went Qantas and LAN, easily made it to QF Gold last year. Now this whole Air NZ debacle is what breaks the camel's back - cyas...

Interestingly enough - I just booked WLG-SYD-LAX return in QF Premium Eco and got the trans-tasman leg in Business. Given that Air NZ even gives their full-fare paying AU-US pax "The Works" instead on their highest S2S product that was a quite nice surprise as a side-effect (Not sure what the booking class/cabin availabilities on QF TT have to be to get that vs. being put in Economy though).

highpeak1

What seems to have emerged these last few days from a change to their rules on Airpoints use has acted as a catalyst for an immense amount of frustration aimed at the whole Airpoints and loyalty scheme. It is clearly shifting away from a means of rewarding and tracking HVC's and loyalty, into a currency that they are less eager to let us spend through down-valuing earning. However, allowing unfettered purchase of miles and upgrade lotto shows that the scheme is unsustainable. For a supposedly simple scheme it seems to be covered in patches and remedies that make changes even more complex.

Between Seats to Suit and the airpoints scheme, attempts to move to simpler business models, has created perhaps the most complicted scheme of earning, redemption and management imaginable given the size of the airline. It really is disproportionate.

I feel that Air NZ needs to look at their scheme and decide if they can continue to live with this complex beast they have created. It is really not necessary - the really big airlines understand that a simple scheme (whether you like it or not) is easy to manage and people know how the rules work. And they use the scheme to activate loyalty on a tactical level(extra-earning opportunities when flying new routes, Gold status additional earning etc). Clearly Air NZ don't need to do this given the number of monopoly routes that they fly.

I wish I could head back to my days collecting at BMI and Diamond Club.

RandyNZ

That sums it up quite eloquently - it seems that NZ is trying so hard to come up with innovative ideas that are distinct from other carriers, that it has led to a sort of mish-mash of ideas, policies and marketing ploys that are often confusing, dizzying or downright annoying.

Yes, all (or most) airlines are operating in tougher times, and have subsequently either reduced earning or increased cost of miles/points/dollars, but NZ was stingy to begin with, then suddenly devalued their own currency with OneSmart even faster than the Fed can print USD. Now a formerly scarce resource has become a cheap commodity.

I've had some pretty amazing moments of wonderful customer service that no other carrier has ever been able to duplicate, and I go off to rebuild status with QF and perhaps VA with no delusions that they are some sort of magic answer, but I just don't want to stack all loyalty with one airline anymore. For me this is harder, as I'm not one of the business travelers on this site who can get top status in so many different FFPs simultaneously.

highpeak1

I just wanted to add that my admiration for the staff and the service I have received from Air NZ is perhaps the best in the business. I have about 2,500 sectors with a multitude of carriers and I know what makes a good and a not so good carrier. I always send a note to Air NZ complementing their staff (and sadly these are the ones facing uncertainty and redundancy), whereas the scheme is losing its relevence to frequent travellers.

Placebogirl

Not available to those of us living outside NZ, though, which was Serfty's point, I think.

Thai-Kiwi

And this really sums up the 'bitter-sweet' situation at present....

PS. Room for one more on the Kapiti Coast? The attraction of Feilding faded after I discovered there are no traffic lights here. None, nada, zip, nil, nicht....

Free parking though, for the next 28 millenia by all forecasts......

Robo 007

I have been very loyal to AirNZ attaining gold through mainly domestic travel. The staff are great, the web site functions well so I urge AirNZ management to not lose focus of those who actually attain status by flying. With the latest move it is easy to feel devalued. I would have thought G/E customers would have priority over others precisesly for the reason their business is worth tens of thousands of dollars pa as individuals. Perhaps they need to draw a distinction between those who earn through flying and those who earn through spending

soulighter

Hi all,

THis is my first post so here it goes...

I'm a long time lurker and I'm a GE and my partner is G. I'm an Air NZ shareholder and like a lot of other ANZ FF, I've also been willing to pay extra premium on fares to fly with ANZ to retain my status, until now...

I agree that being able to use APD towards standby and/or confirmed upgrades is one of the best perks about the ANZ program, esp as GE I can have the upgrade confirmed 355 days out. Now with this stupid OneUp system, my 4000+ APD is now essentially useless. I've accumulated so many APDs as most of my travels are work-related and therefore paid full fare PE or BP, and lots of TT in economy.

I'm flying to UK in a few weeks time from Sydney and will be based for 12 months. I've already booked BP for both my partner and myself, and they will bring my partner to GE and I will retain my GE. However, now with this new system which render it next to useless to be G or GE, I don't think it's worthwhile to pay the extra to fly with ANZ anymore.

I will be ringing Air NZ tomorrow to cancel my 14K worth of booking and they can if current OneUp system stay, they can kiss my future PE and business bookings goodbye as well.

Now, does anyone has any suggestion as to who to fly with from Auckland- London, Qantas, Emirates or Singapore Airline?