In many ways, Coles’ Flybuys program and the Woolworths Everyday Rewards program are very similar. Both are coalition loyalty programs, and the rates at which points are earned and redeemed are virtually identical. The main difference is that Flybuys partners with Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer, while Everyday Rewards partners with Qantas Frequent Flyer.
Yet, Flybuys now appears to be a much more compelling loyalty program because its targeted bonus points offers are just so much better than those from Everyday Rewards.
In October 2019, after Everyday Rewards (then called Woolworths Rewards) increased the conversion rate of points from Woolworths Rewards to Qantas Frequent Flyer, we assessed that the Woolworths Rewards value proposition in comparison to Flybuys had improved. Then, in June 2020, Australian Frequent Flyer noticed that Woolworths Rewards had dramatically improved the quality of the targeted offers sent to members.
But the tables have now turned again in the other direction. After removing the annual limit on the number of Flybuys points that could be transferred to Velocity Frequent Flyer in November 2020, Flybuys also increased the conversion rate of Flybuys to Velocity points in January 2021. Now, instead of 2,000 Flybuys points converting to 870 Velocity points, 1,000 Flybuys points are worth 500 Velocity points. This brings Flybuys in line with the 2:1 conversion rate of Everyday Rewards points to Qantas Frequent Flyer points.
So, with redemption rates now virtually identical, the main difference in the value of Flybuys vs Everyday Rewards is the way points are earned.
With both Flybuys and Everyday Rewards, you’ll earn 1 point per $1 spent at the supermarket. But with a great bonus point offer, this can increase to as much as 50 points per dollar – or even more if you’re able to combine multiple offers.
And this is when the main difference now lies. Flybuys has continued to send excellent bonus point offers to many of its members, with AFF members recently reporting receiving Flybuys offers such as:
- Spend $20 at Liquorland to earn 1,000 flybuys points
- Spend $50 at Coles to earn 2,000 flybuys points
- Spend $80 at Coles to earn 3,200 flybuys points
- Spend $30 per week at Coles for 3 weeks to earn 10,000 flybuys points
- Spend $200 at Coles to earn 10,000 flybuys points
Meanwhile, AFF members have recently reported receiving Everyday Rewards offers such as:
- Buy at least $3 of grapes to earn 100 Everyday Rewards points
- Spend at least $90 on wine at BWS to earn 1,200 Everyday Rewards points
- Spend at least $20 on meat at Woolworths and earn 5x points on your whole shop
- Spend $200 at Woolworths per week for 3 weeks to earn 12,000 Everyday Rewards points
Not all of the Everyday Rewards offers have been poor. For example, an AFF member received an offer of “spend $100 at Woolworths to earn 5,400 points” last month. That’s great value – but unfortunately much more rare than similar offers from Flybuys.
With Everyday Rewards and Flybuys points worth more or less the same, the higher offers from Flybuys make all the difference. The frequency of the Flybuys offers is much higher too; anecdotally, Flybuys sends far more offers to its members and these can often be “stacked” as the offers overlap.
Rather than large, generous offers of bonus points for meeting a certain spend target, Woolworths is also now sending more frequent offers of small amounts of bonus points when buying a few specific products each week. Here’s an example of an email I received last week from Everyday Rewards:
Meanwhile, Flybuys has been regularly offering free products. The same meal kit that would earn me 150 points (worth 75 cents or 75 Qantas points) at Woolworths is available for free at Coles.
Of course, the personalised offers received by members of each loyalty program will vary. Some Everyday Rewards members may receive better offers, and vice versa. But if you compare the content and the frequency of posts in AFF’s Flybuys Targeted Bonus Promotions and Everyday Rewards Targeted offers threads, the overall trend is clear.
Don’t forget that with the Everyday Rewards booster offers you can use them up to 5 times during the booster validity period (including in the same shop) so the 100 points for the $3 of grapes in the above example is also 500 points for $15 of grapes. Using a number of boosters 5 times in a single shop can easily get you the 2000 Woolworths points needed for the 1000 Qantas points.
The other very big difference is that Qantas has a very large international network in its own right whereas Virgin has a very limited international network. That is when we are allowed overseas. The Flybuys/Virgin program was much more attractive when you could transfer the points from Virgin to Singapore Airlines.
That is also a very valid point. Perhaps Woolworths feels that it doesn’t need to offer large amounts of bonus points to attract customers?
The Woolworths offers are much better for me as they are on items I already buy and can easily buy it 2,3 or 4 times in the week, whereas the Coles one’s are normally items I do not want and if I do buy it, it only counts once. I average 2000 Woolworths points a week.
Absolutely agree. Flybuys have much better and more frequent offers the Everyday Rewaards