Last year, BP announced that it would end its partnership with Velocity Frequent Flyer and launch its own loyalty program in partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer. The BP Rewards program eventually launched in March 2020, allowing members to earn either BP Rewards points or Qantas Frequent Flyer points for fuel and in-store purchases at BP.
Members of either program earn 1 point per litre of fuel (or 2 points per litre of BP Ultimate Unleaded petrol), and 1 point per $1 spent in-store. If you opt-in to BP Rewards points, you’ll get $5 off for every 500 points earned – so BP points are effectively worth 1 cent each. The value of Qantas points varies from around 0.5-7 cents each, depending on how they are redeemed.
That’s better than nothing. But without bonus points, those base points hardly make it worthwhile to fill up at BP over a competitor. The average car in Australia uses 26 litres of petrol per week, or 1,366 litres per year. At an earn rate of 1 point per litre, the average person would earn just 1,366 BP Rewards or Qantas points annually if they bought 100% of their petrol at BP. Those points are worth a measly $10 BP voucher or just 17% of the Qantas points needed towards an Economy class flight from Sydney to Brisbane (excluding taxes, fees & carrier charges, of course)!
Most other Australian petrol stations offer their own loyalty points as well. For example, you can earn Flybuys points at Shell and Woolworths Rewards points (which can also be converted to Qantas points) at Woolworths Petrol outlets. Many of BP’s competitors sell consistently cheaper petrol too. So, for BP’s loyalty program to give it an edge, it needs to send regular, generous and well-targeted bonus point offers to members.
When the BP Rewards program was first announced, this is exactly what was promised.
“Highly-valued, personalised loyalty offers are a key pillar in our retail strategy and they are bolstered by the strength of our strategic partnerships. Our aim is to delight our customers every day through quality experiences, relevant offers and valued rewards, and our new partnership with Qantas will help us deliver on this promise,” BP Australia Vice President of Sales and Marketing Brooke Miller said in September 2019.
So, have they delivered?
A closer look at BP Rewards offers
The BP Rewards loyalty program launched with a bang. Following a fairly generous launch offer from BP Plus & Qantas Business Rewards in February, new BP Rewards members were offered 100 Qantas points and 10 status credits just for signing up in late March.
Then, BP Rewards offered new members 400 more bonus points for filling up at BP twice within two weeks of joining.
New members could also earn up to 40 Qantas status credits for every 1,000 points earned at BP from late March until June 2020. This offer wasn’t bad, although the average car owner would only buy around 26 litres of petrol each week during normal times. That’s 338 litres (or 338 points earned) across the entire promotional period. So, very few members would have actually earned any extra status credits between March and June, especially as many regular commuters were working from home during that time.
Since then, most of the other BP Rewards offers have been decidedly underwhelming. For a while, they alternated between “earn 50 bonus Qantas points” or “double points” for spending at BP.
50 paltry Qantas points are worth about 25 cents worth of gift cards or 1/160 of the points needed to book a one-way Economy flight from Melbourne to Adelaide (excluding taxes). Yay? 🤔
Thankfully, the offers have started to get a little bit more generous in recent weeks. For example, BP is now offering “100 bonus points” or “triple points” – although, you would need to purchase both petrol and in-store products to get the triple points.
Systems still a work in progress
While the offers have a little room yet for improvement, BP’s website and automatic processes still have a long way to go. Mistakes have been as basic as sending an offer requiring activation, but not providing an activation link.
Even when members do activate offers, the bonus points don’t always credit correctly. In fact, I just checked my BP Rewards account and none of my bonus points have ever automatically credited correctly since I joined! (You may wish to keep an eye on this and contact BP Rewards if you have been short-changed.)
It is also problematic that only 69% of BP service stations in Australia participate in the BP Rewards loyalty program. 459 of the 1,470 BP outlets in Australia do not award BP Rewards or Qantas points. That includes a large number of outlets in Western Australia and South Australia, as well as On the Run (OTR) BP outlets. (You can see which stores participate in BP Rewards using the Store Finder on the BP website.)
What’s your experience with the new BP Rewards program? Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas New Partner – BP
