sbiddle

But that earns Air NZ millions of dollars each year. Remove that and they'll need to find a new source of revenue!

sbiddle

You could let me fill that one in!

poopbunny

QF has better SP earn and their Platinum threshold is lower. The SYD & MEL flagship Plat lounges come with a la carte restaurant dining featuring seafood, premium wine and champagne.

Any harder, some might just ditch NZ altogether for the competition.

poopbunny

.....

WLG Base

Me too.

I just received a similar survey from EK. You get a chance to receive 50,000 Skyward Miles for completing.

kiwicyclo

Chessboxin

I haven't received one as a lowly Gold.

edmm

My wife just had her second invitation, but I haven't had one yet, as a many-years Elite with lots of banked years.

mmonster

as some of you have said, one have to be careful what you are asking for -

to me - I must admit I have benefited from the credit card earn to get my status, however, one must take note it is because of this that I am happier to fly more with NZ. It is the main reason I am happy to pay a bit more and it is definitely the main reason just because of me, lots of family trips are made with NZ. I would ask why would a business would kill these ties off when the issue is caused by crowded lounges? Yes, no one likes this, but I am very surprised if this is how one would solve the issue. It feels like you are willing to get a doctor to amputate a limb when the issue can be fixed locally.

I hope if people are more sensible and just focus on the problem and not really asking them to see how it can be solved. It is a business decision at the end of the day. I do not have much ideas how much measurable benefits NZ gets in the credit card space but I am assure that they are benefiting from things that are more hidden. Even Elite partner for this matter bring them business, all my partner's travel are now with NZ just because of this. So when there are a lot of FFs out there that needs to take a lot of trips, there are always a group (from a bigger volume) that takes flights with NZ because of that reason.

nzkarit

Numbers from QANTAS
Loyalty made $372m
While international made $399m

http://www.traveller.com.au/qantas-titanium-credit-card-new-frequent-flyer-points-card-aims-for-big-spenders-h1b5dj

kiwifrequentflyer

Status definitely keeps me flying with Air NZ. And while credit cards get you half way to gold, you still need to earn 900 SP to hit Elite. And so while yes, that extra 500 SP you get with cards is nice... To call 900 SP "easy" to me is ludicrous. Its still very, very hard and usually only achieved by those flying in premium long haul cabins. Its difficult for me to imagine that credit cards have exploded Elite numbers that much. Gold? Yes. Elite? No.

Rather than take aim at the FF program, the source of the crowded lounges is surely more likely things like the Koru program which has a *much* lower barrier to entry.

Although I am still almost never the victim of this crowded lounge issue. It seems to be mostly an Auckland issue. In my recent two months of flying around the country to many places but none of them being Auckland, I never had any crowded lounges. There were plenty of seats available.

mrawesomeness

Not sure if this is the best place to add my to cents worth so delete or move if deemed irrelevant
From a very lowly Koru Member here, I appreciate that I don't spend anywhere near as much money on flights (either domestically or international) when compared to a significant number of fine folk here. I get very little work paid for domestic flying (have to drive instead) and due to study commitment of the better half, don't do much international either.

But

When I do I'd like to have a selection of the comforts and benefits of those that have earned the right to have them, hence why I am prepared to pay for Koru. I can see why some would like to see these prices increased but why should our subscription/membership prices be an easy/first target.
In regards of the full lounges, unlike those that get lounge passes with credit card spend, I have at least given a significant dollar value to AirNZ.
Rather than pick on those that have paid to enjoy some benefits, how about doing away wth credit card sourced lounge passes. Or start enforcing a no guest if lounge is full option or no vouchers accepted if full etc.?
While I don't see any need to add to the list of available benefits to Koru Members, if some are taken away or the price increased substantially, they may end up driving away a number of customers and loose some potentially easy revenue

While I may draw some flak for the above, how is a customer that has paid for Koru/Economy any different from a customer who is Elite and paid for J and all the good things that go with that. At the end of the day they are both a customer who is prepared to pay for a level of service/experience that they individually feel right for them. By all means look after the Elites as they have earned their status/benefits/perks (I look at those Elite bag tags with supreme envy) but don't shaft those that aren't in that situation.

cavemanzk

kiwifrequentflyer

Definitely not criticizing your right to purchase Koru - you bought that right. I was just musing about the source of the sudden "crowded lounge" issue (which again... seems mostly an Auckland thing). Yes, CCs made getting Gold much easier... but it also made getting Koru far easier too since it's much, much cheaper making it a no-brainer for lots of local domestic travel, and so surely the increase in Korus far outweighs the increase in Golds. If that makes sense. Not saying you should lose any rights, just pointing out that's probably a much bigger "cause."

It's a tough one for Air NZ. No matter who they cut benefits for, those people will be unimpressed. Someone has to pay the price. Should it be Gold members? Elite members? Koru members? No one has more of a "right" to maintain their benefits than anyone else, so I would certainly not suggest Koru be the one to take the hit.

And while I can imagine some people crying "yes, but your Koru membership doesn't cost anything close to buy compared to what I pay per year to maintain status" (which is absolutely true) it's also true that getting status flying domestically is insanely, insanely difficult, and so Koru is the "domestic FF equivalent" for Air NZ - and probably results in a lot of people remaining loyal rather than choosing Jetstar.

And, again... this only seems to be an Auckland thing.

HA... good luck getting your 400 Qantas points though! Not only do you need to pay extra to get them, it's also extremely difficult to get them to even credit them. Hop on over to the Qantas forum and go to the Jetstar-crediting-Qantas-woes thread and you'll see what I mean. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get your 400 points.

cavemanzk

I've never had any issues with JQNZ domestic flights crediting within a couple of days of departure.