Fly Buys Promo

[DJ 1D]

OK so a huge multi national like Amex is going to sign a deal with an airline to launch a co-branded credit card knowing full well that
some months down the track that airline partner is going to rename the program associated with the card necessitating a completly
new designed card,changes to stationery,website,possibly even call centre ivr announcements etc?
Some may believe that,personally I don't,and if they did Virgin would be proving to me that they still don't get it,that's not the way to
run a professional airline in my view,I hear on the grapevine that there will be an announcement about the relaunch of Velocity in either
late August or early September but I do not at this stage believe it will involve a name change,time will tell whether I am correct,if I am
wrong I will be the first to own up,but I for one won't be holding my breath-relaunch of the program-Yes,rename-very,very doubtful (IMO)
Cheers
N'oz

Mate, it's just a couple of AMEX cards they have to reprint. Duh!

 

[serfty]

[MOD HAT]

OK, I have moderated some posts and deleted quite a few.

The Topic is "Fly Buys Promo", please remember that.​

[/MOD HAT]

 

[drron]

We already know about the Flybuys partnership, and it says September 1, so that must meen the relaunch must be before then. Plus, the velocity program will be relaunched with a new name and all.

Jack,thewinchester did not attack you personally but your statements particularly your defence of this statement above was in error.It is certainly believed that Flybuys and VA will team up but as it has not been announced officially it is still only a belief.JB has not said there is a partnership with flybuys.
The promo you have seized upon has already been posted on AFF as I linked to in the previous post.It is targeted not a general promo you would expect if it were to be part of a major relaunch of Flybuys.
Now maybe there will be an announcement in the next few days of a partnership between VA and Flybuys.But it wont be because of the reasons you have stated.Sorry.

 

[Noob]

I think the problem is people take opinions and sheer speculation too seriously! It is very hard to tell how a person was trying to convey something in 'chat' style writing on a website.

Just take a chill pill, why stress, get angry, or waste our time over posts on a forum? To me that's just a bit sad...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Has Flybuys actually been definitely linked to Velocity? I thought that was all still speculation.

Also is anyone of the same opinion as me, that Flybuys is a cough scheme?

 

[nlagalle]

"And of course in a few months, we will roll out a completely NEW, and i mean a COMPLETELY NEW frequent flyer prgram"

What they are doing is rolling out PART's of the new FFP. The major announcement/s will have the full details, but many of use are convinced and in-fact there is a thread on it, of a name change.

Plus sign's are easily changed they are just paper.

Also, the logo is just temporarily to blend with the new colours and the font change.

Plus if they weren't changing the name why would they be major announcements coming up for it, and not just saying that velocity will stay. I am confused there.

Jack, I don't see NEW frequent flyer program = change name.

Re-branding can cost millions of dollars in concepts, designs and finally rolling the product out. Why would they do it again just after the logo was recently changed? It doesn't make commerical sense. Why would they launch a new credit card with amex only to have to change all the cards a few months later? or FF cards for members? It's also a massicve logistics exercise to perform. Look how long it has taken QF to send out new cards for Next Gen.

And I haven't read anywhere the name Velocity will be dumped. only the program will be re-vamped. To me that is two separate things..

 

[Ansettaddict123]

Also is anyone of the same opinion as me, that Flybuys is a cough scheme?

I think most people are TBH.
That said its why Coles is overhauling the scheme, with the new one to be announced later this year. Coincidentally it will be around the same time as the velocity relaunch

On the subject, I don't think the woolies one is much better however, particularly because of the $30 points earn threshold.

 

[Saab34]

Since the whole re-launch of Virgin I have really become quite connected to the whole new deal, and its good to have this sub-forum were we can talk about the new product and the like.

But to have this constant cough being posted, its just wasting my time and you lose interest in the forum.

As posted on Jack Melon's AFF homepage, ''and literally know everything about them! I like to clear things up, and help people with answers''. There is a difference between a young and very enthusiastic 15yr old with his love for this carrier, and someone a little more mature that can provide comment, which is why we appreciate the input from the likes of Crazydave and now the Virgin Australia rep.

Who know's Velocity?

Its 2+ million member base perhaps?

 

[Jack Melon]

Since the whole re-launch of Virgin I have really become quite connected to the whole new deal, and its good to have this sub-forum were we can talk about the new product and the like.

But to have this constant cough being posted, its just wasting my time and you lose interest in the forum.

As posted on Jack Melon's AFF homepage, ''and literally know everything about them! I like to clear things up, and help people with answers''. There is a difference between a young and very enthusiastic 15yr old with his love for this carrier, and someone a little more mature that can provide comment, which is why we appreciate the input from the likes of Crazydave and now the Virgin Australia rep.


Its 2+ million member base perhaps?

But it is not an ideal FFP name, wouldn't Virgin Australia Frequent Flyer Program be more like Qantas Frequent Flyer Program?

Velocity doesn't even sound like an FFP. John Borghetti even said so in the press conference provided and articles on good sources.

I'm sure it has been brought up here several times as well...

 

[oz_mark]

Has Flybuys actually been definitely linked to Velocity? I thought that was all still speculation.

Also is anyone of the same opinion as me, that Flybuys is a cough scheme?

Fly Buys was quite a god scheme in its time. It has, however, not really evolved much since it's last revamp, and that was quite a few years ago.

There seems to have been a bit of fiddling with the scheme in the last year or two, but I hope they do improve it substantially soon.

(They were going to replace it at one point in time, but that strategy seems to have gone...)

But it is not an ideal FFP name, wouldn't Virgin Australia Frequent Flyer Program be more like Qantas Frequent Flyer Program?

Velocity doesn't even sound like an FFP. John Borghetti even said so in the press conference provided and articles on good sources.

I'm sure it has been brought up here several times as well...

Actually, I think Qantas Frequent Flyer is a bit of a dull name.

 

[2353]

I am confused there.

Jack

Says it all really.

For better or worse Velocity is the name that was chosen some time ago, they have taken the effort to include the FF scheme in the "new" branding and launched a partnership with a 3rd party in the past few months. Rebranding exercises cost a lot - if VA was going to do it, they wouldn't have done either of the two actions above first, economically it just doesn't make sense.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Says it all really.

Hey, everyone here on AFF speculates on their own opinion for time to time, why is it that Jack is getting hammered for his opinion?

Perhaps Jack, with future posts you may wish to use IMHO rather than the more factual approach, which should keep everyone happy and if you turn out to be right with your view on the subject, we can all say Jack was right .

For my part, I doubt that VA will re-brand Velocity any time soon. As others have said, a re-branding exercise is mega bucks, especially at Virgin scale! I've been looking at re-branding my own business for some time now and the sheer costs are staggering (even for my "little end of town" business), but hey, I'm happy to be proven wrong .

 

[markis10]

Jack, I don't see NEW frequent flyer program = change name.

And I haven't read anywhere the name Velocity will be dumped. only the program will be re-vamped. To me that is two separate things..

jack, do you really think that Virgin would rebrand their website, launch a new Amex partnership and take the time and effort to design, produce and send out new gold/silver membership cards & bag tags all within weeks of them changing the name?

Where do you get this stuff from ?!

They're not changing the name, mate, they're relaunching the product.

DJ has announced that they will be changing the Velocity name during the media conference on the day they launched the re-branded airline although it seems to have been lost in the other excitement:

Virgin Australia is Officially Launched Qantas Watch Out - Business Travel News

Velocity Loyalty/Frequent Flyer Program to be revamped by the end of the year with a new name

Now I was not there to hear it and I suspect most if not all of the contributors on this thread were absent as well (and I use the term contributors loosely), so I am prepared to give the above publisher and anyone else (including Jack) the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such matters. Whether Fly Bys is part of that is as pointed out speculation, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but no one is entitled to attack another person over such matters/thoughts.

It should also be noted that Velocity has not been named at all, with only a reference to "frequent flyer program" in all company official publications ( including the investor presentation to Macquarie two days after the relaunch of Virgin Australia) on the game change plans and their status:

Marketing 101 - mention the brand as much as possible unless that brand is changing when it comes to brand value.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

DJ has announced that they will be changing the Velocity name during the media conference on the day they launched the re-branded airline although it seems to have been lost in the other excitement:

Now isn't that interesting. Let's hope if the Velocity name is changed (I still doubt it), that our new cards get the nice embossing back again .

 

[DJ 1D]

I will be the first to apologise to Jack if the name does indeed change, but logic tells us it is highly improbable.

DJ has announced that they will be changing the Velocity name during the media conference on the day they launched the re-branded airline although it seems to have been lost in the other excitement:

Virgin Australia is Officially Launched Qantas Watch Out - Business Travel News



Now I was not there to hear it and I suspect most if not all of the contributors on this thread were absent as well (and I use the term contributors loosely), so I am prepared to give the above publisher and anyone else (including Jack) the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such matters. Whether Fly Bys is part of that is as pointed out speculation, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but no one is entitled to attack another person over such matters/thoughts.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Well ok it appears that they will rename,and therefore I offer an apology to Jack,however I must say that I think it's short sighted,to me it gives the impression Virgin still don't know what they want to be and what image they want to portray,I'm afraid that (and this is just my opnion) I see an airline that goes to all the trouble of changing a logo and announcing a co branded credit card in May only to throw it all out and start again some months later as rather 'Dithering on the doorstep' as my late mother used to say to me whenever I couldn't make up my mind what to have for dinner.
The money spent in renaming the scheme could have been better spent on simply running a marketing campaign reinforcing that 'Velocity Rewards is the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia',and let's face it VA can hardly afford to waste money,if they wanted to rebrand it they should have done it in May.
Virgin Australia-one day we will make our minds up about what we want to be.
However I promised to own up if I was wrong-so I'm saying I was wrong.
Cheers
N'oz

 

[oz_mark]

The AFF5 did directly ask a question about the name, and at that point in time the answer was that they had not made a decision to change name or not.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The AFF5

I still smile when I hear that name......sounds like characters from an Enid Blyton book!

Perhaps they should just be called TLS's........."Those Lucky Sods"

 

[medhead]

But it is not an ideal FFP name, wouldn't Virgin Australia Frequent Flyer Program be more like Qantas Frequent Flyer Program?

Velocity doesn't even sound like an FFP. John Borghetti even said so in the press conference provided and articles on good sources.

I guess we can say the same about "Advantage, enrich, asia miles", etc.

 

[pauly7]

Now isn't that interesting. Let's hope if the Velocity name is changed (I still doubt it), that our new cards get the nice embossing back again .

Slim to zero chance. Waste of money!