With Flybuys now partnering with Virgin Australia and Etihad Airways, there are more ways than ever to redeem points! Your weekly shop at Coles can be converted to a wide range of rewards including free flights, upgrades, gift vouchers, merchandise and money off your shop. But which rewards offer the greatest value?
One of the unique features of the Flybuys program is that your points are worth exactly the same amount if you redeem through Flybuys, regardless of how they are spent. But you can get more “bang for your buck” by transferring your Flybuys points to the Etihad Guest or Velocity Frequent Flyer programs – especially if you’re planning to use your points to fly.
If you choose to redeem your points within the Flybuys program, there are a number of different redemption options. These include gift vouchers for a range of retailers, products from the Flybuys Rewards store, supermarket savings and travel bookings through the Flybuys Travel portal. All of these redemptions give your points a value of 0.5 cents per point. In other words, 2,000 points are worth exactly $10.
One exception is the “double value” rewards, where you can redeem points for selected merchandise at half price.
The flybuys shop sometimes has a double reward section where the points are worth around 1 cent per point but there aren’t many general purpose redemptions in this section. Check out the current redemption rate for Mix Clothing vouchers for Coles and Music redemptions(I can’t remember the provider).
If you wish to use your points for flights, you can often obtain significantly better value by transferring your points to Virgin Australia Velocity or Etihad Guest. 2,000 Flybuys points are worth 870 Velocity points or 800 Etihad Guest miles. By converting and redeeming for a high-value flight reward, you can get well over 2 cents per point in value!
I’ve got the most value by converting my Flybuys points to Etihad Guest miles. I recently flew Sydney-Cairns on Virgin in business class, which cost 13,800 Etihad miles or 34,500 Flybuys points. The retail price for this flight was around $900, so I would have got around 2.6 cents per point worth of value. Not bad considering that redemptions for gift cards & merchandise get you a flat 0.5 cents per point!
One sweet spot appears to be Etihad Guest redemptions for short-haul Virgin flights…
With Etihad miles, redeeming for any Virgin flight under 1,250 miles in length is the same price. So longer flights in this range are excellent value. Routes include SYD-CNS, as well as Sydney-Queenstown, Brisbane-Port Vila & Melbourne-Hamilton Island. Booking a MEL-PER flight in “the business” is also great value.
Virgin’s Velocity program can also provide good value, but it depends on how you plan to spend your points. If you’re after a free flight or an upgrade to Business class, then transferring to a frequent flyer program makes a lot of sense. But if you prefer to cash in your Flybuys points for gift vouchers or products, redeeming directly through Flybuys is a better option.
How do you spend your Flybuys points? Join the discussion HERE.
