KORU Lounge only membership trial $399
 

Just got an email about this...

https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/loun...nt=title-image

Why would anybody bother?

If you don't have an Air Points credit card that waives the the joining fee and discounts the per year it is a lot cheaper. Particularly if just flying domestically and can live with the less leg room and don't need the +1 checked bag and use you phone to board (so check in not needed).

Maybe a trial to move Koru to a lounge only domestic product and free up the frequent flyer seats for status passengers? Maybe in future only grandfathered Koru members get the extra perks and international lounge?

I'll second this. It also doesn't include any international lounges, even the ones offered by NZ. At a glance, I can renew my full membership for $454 because of the credit card I have (Westpac Business).

I wonder if this is meant to target existing Koru members to go for something cheaper or to tempt in new people?

A bit worrying for two reasons:

(1) Significantly less value than full membership for not much less - especially if already a member or having joining fee waived and a discount due to Credit card. If becomes established as a price point would potentially justify major increase in cost of headline product.

(2) Some lounges e.g. AKL Regional are at times overflowing - if the lower cost brings in new members and perhaps is more justifiable to corporates then the space issue will be even worse.

It would perhaps be nice if full Koru membership gave one lounge access and a one tier upgrade in the program - i.e. Jade to Silver, Silver to Gold, Gold to Elite. That would perhaps encourage many to keep full Koru membership and AirNZ could then continue to get revenue from Gold members who would otherwise resign from Koru. A review of benefits could also occur to ensure this was structured correctly.

The way I see this is NZ is moving towards QF lounge access model, in a view to retire the full Koru product. It also aligns towards Maple Leaf.

Also I would struggle to think of "Paid" status being implemented widely. Very few airlines today actually offer that. If you travel regularly, trying to get the next status isn't usually a consideration.

Includes all regional cities where Jetstar fly. Maybe trying to take business from Jetstar as they have no lounges in the regionals?
Does not include Tauranga!

I disagree
(1) Plenty of people worldwide do status runs.
(2) You can travel 7 times a month return domestically in NZ and not get to Elite.
(3) TT SP earn is also poor.

Possibly but many of the Koru Benefits they would be retiring are soft benefits which cost them very little - premium boarding, access to Koru parking/insurance (both charged anyway), priority checkin (not a huge cost), extra checked bag (some cost potentially to Air NZ but probably low utilisation and minor cost), FF seating (no longer get free PE TT and once it's gone it's gone), Fastbag (little cost).
The ONE thing that does cost them significant money and causes problems due to overcrowding is lounge access so if I was the CEO I wouldn't be heading in the way you are suggesting as the most tangible benefit would be provided at lesser cost while I would be losing revenue earn by not selling soft benefits which don't cost all that much.

I don't think that sounds like a very good idea. Immediately devalues status tiers by a gigantic amount. And one could argue that current lounge overcrowding and whatnot is a consequence of the credit card promotions that gave away status like it was candy.

Status runs are by nature fall into "travel regularly". Also you can net over 400 SP with 7 domestic trips if you paid full Flexi and it is possible to get to Elite on domestic if that is the goal.

I've done this multiple times with purely domestic SP earning, it just needs a LOT of domestic fully flexible trips, especially before when the SP earn was adjusted to better reflect the $ spent.

And not just the $ spend but the aircraft type and route. Somebody in Whangarei who buys the same price tickets as somebody in Kerikeri basically earns 50% of the SP for them.

How this is fair is still beyond my comprehension of the world's most complex frequent flyer program (tm).

FWIW, the benefits Koru currently have are amazing as it is when you compare with other Airlines. Qantas Club renewal is priced at NZD570 and you don't get equivalent benefits. I'm just fascinated people are asking more (and for less cost).