Two of Australia’s largest and most popular loyalty programs, flybuys and Velocity Frequent Flyer, today announced an Australian-first partnership that will open up brand new travel opportunities for shoppers.

From today, members of flybuys and Virgin Australia’s loyalty program Velocity Frequent Flyer can link their memberships enabling them to:

• Transfer their flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points¹; and
• Earn Status Credits with Velocity Frequent Flyer when shopping at Coles, Coles Online, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor by presenting their flybuys card².

Coles is the first and only Australian retailer to allow its loyalty members to earn airline Status Credits with an Australian frequent flyer program when making grocery and liquor purchases.

Velocity Frequent Flyer becomes the first Australian frequent flyer program to allow members to earn Status Credits with a supermarket partner. This gives Velocity members who link their membership to flybuys an opportunity to move through the Velocity status tiers faster to receive eligible benefits like lounge access, priority boarding and extra baggage³.

The partnership means Velocity members who link their membership to flybuys will be able to boost their Points balances to redeem flights with Virgin Australia and Velocity’s 12 other world-class partner airlines, simply by shopping at Coles or any of flybuys’ 27 partners and presenting their flybuys card.

General Manager of flybuys Adam Story said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Velocity Frequent Flyer to help our flybuys members fly faster by simply transferring their flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points to redeem for a flight.

“flybuys has more partners than any other Australian supermarket loyalty program. That means we give flybuys members more opportunity to collect points faster, not just by shopping for groceries at Coles, but also by paying for everyday expenses such as fuel, clothing, homewares, energy bills, car, home and health insurance and gym memberships with one of our partners, and on all spending on a Coles or NAB flybuys credit card.

“flybuys members are regularly earning generous bonus points offers to accelerate their rewards - for example, flybuys is currently offering rewards of up to 20,000 bonus points for shopping at Coles. Right now, flybuys members have enough points to transfer to Velocity Frequent Flyer and redeem millions of flights with Virgin Australia. We’ve made the process very simple – link your memberships on our website and transfer points. If you’re not already a member, it’s free to join both flybuys and Velocity,” Mr Story said.
Coles Digital and Financial Services Director Roger Sniezek said: “Customers at Coles supermarkets, Liquorland, and First Choice Liquor can now earn Velocity Status Credits on their everyday shopping which will be invaluable to frequent flyers who are looking at additional ways to increase their Status Credits balance.

“By partnering with an award-winning program like Velocity Frequent Flyer, we know our flybuys members will have great opportunities to redeem Velocity Points for flights. Virgin Australia and Coles are two great brands that have much in common – we pride ourselves on offering great value and providing exceptional service.”

Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Karl Schuster said: “We are delighted to partner with flybuys to offer the most compelling proposition between an Australian frequent flyer program and a supermarket group.

“Millions of Australians do their grocery shopping every day at Coles and this new partnership will make it easier for them to attain their dream holiday with Virgin Australia. Velocity and flybuys have created an unrivalled proposition in the Australian market by providing the opportunity for members to earn Status Credits when they do their grocery or liquor shopping and present their flybuys card, which we know is extremely valuable to our members. This is the only way a Velocity member can earn Status Credits outside of flying.

“Velocity has unrivalled reward seat availability in our region, which is important because when flybuys members transfer their points into Velocity, they’ll be able to redeem those points for a flight when it suits them.

“This partnership with flybuys means that millions of Australians can get closer to their next holiday by transferring their points to Velocity,” Mr Schuster said.

To celebrate the launch flybuys members can receive 15 per cent bonus Velocity Points when transferring flybuys points into Velocity Frequent Flyer Points⁴.

To find out more, and for full terms and conditions, visit www.flybuys.com.au/velocity

More than 60 per cent of Australian households are active members of flybuys, which is free to join. For more information visit www.flybuys.com.au

Velocity Frequent Flyer has more than 6.4 million members and is free to join. Visit www.velocityfrequentflyer.com for more information.

¹Linked households may transfer a minimum of 2,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 870 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) per redemption and a maximum of 138,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 60,030 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) for Velocity Frequent Flyer Points per household, per calendar year. flybuys points can only be transferred in increments of 2,000.

 ²Linked households may earn 1 Status Credit for every $100 spent (including GST) in total across Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Liquorland and First Choice Liquor each calendar month, up to a maximum of 10 Status Credits per calendar month. Spend excludes tobacco and tobacco related products, charity donations and gift card purchases.
 ³Velocity members also need to fly on Virgin Australia marketed flights to earn Eligible Sectors in addition to Status Credits to upgrade or maintain a new level of membership.

⁴15% Bonus Points Transfer offer applicable from 20 October 2016 to 30 November 2016. Linked households may transfer a minimum of 2,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 870 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) per redemption and receive 15% bonus Velocity Frequent Flyer Points. A maximum of 138,000 flybuys points (equivalent to 60,030 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points) may be transferred for Velocity Frequent Flyer Points per household, per calendar year. flybuys points can only be transferred in increments of 2,000.