Woolworths reviewing partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer.

[Jurahn]

Woolies have people at the stores in PER today to promote the new system. I had a good chat to one of them - works for a promotions company, not WOW.

Poor guy is going to cop it.

Yes, I was at two different Woolies stores in PER yesterday morning and they were just setting up the stands in each store - I bet the women manning those will be glad when this week's over!

 

[Archphoto]

Wonder if people jumping ship after this will affect their results any further?

Woolworths forecasts 35% slide in first-half profits - BBC News

 

[Heidi71]

The only real reason for shopping at Woolworths, is the ability to earn points for your children's QFF account. Otherwise their points would expire if there was not activity after eighteen months, especially if there is no flight activity.

 

[Muriel]

According to Woolworth's…this is what customers want. Well, I was never consulted and as a loyal Woolies shopper, I am very disappointed. I have already done my shopping for this week - at COLES.

 

[Heidi71]

Exactly correct

 

[Muriel]

We have loads of Q points transferred from our Amex gold card so our points are always active.

 

[JohnK]

The only real reason for shopping at Woolworths, is the ability to earn points for your children's QFF account. Otherwise their points would expire if there was not activity after eighteen months, especially if there is no flight activity.

If you don't need the points in their account then once a year transfer 5,000 points to child 1 then transfer all the points from child 1 to child 2 then transfer all the points from child 2 to child 3 then transfer all the points from child 3 back to you.

 

[exceladdict]

Just completed my first shop at coles. $96.89, after $15.51 in specials.

1000 bonus points for $60 voucher + Bonus points for particular item vouchers + regular fly buys points earn + fuel voucher earned. Bummed I discarded my "week 2 triple points" voucher.

I did notice that a number of items I normally only bought at WOW when they were on special (due to regular specials and/or high regular WOW price) were "everyday low prices" at Coles, similar to the WOW special price.

A couple of items were noticeably more expensive, mainly fresh fruit/veg, although it did look quite fresh. Also, some name brand manufactured foods were also more expensive, eg. taco seasoning.

Will be interesting to see how the story continues.

 

[ozflier]

I just can't believe WOW paid so much money to QFF for such little return for its customers.
Maybe, if Woolies had surveyed its customers earlier about the hassles of using ( or not being able to use) QFF points, it would have decided earlier to confront Qantas over the exorbitant price QFF was charging for the points or insisted more value for its EDR members.
Even today, I had a 45 minute wait for QFF CS and the usual unhelpful agent!
I wonder if Qantas is in the queue somewhere behind WOW with its death wish?

 

[thedrivesman]

If you don't need the points in their account then once a year transfer 5,000 points to child 1 then transfer all the points from child 1 to child 2 then transfer all the points from child 2 to child 3 then transfer all the points from child 3 back to you.

one doesn't read the words on their activity statement!! QUOTE:Note: Points will not expire provided you earn or use points (excluding family transfers) at least once every 18 months.

 

[greenfish]

one doesn't read the words on their activity statement!! QUOTE:Note: Points will not expire provided you earn or use points (excluding family transfers) at least once every 18 months.

As the points end up back in a regularly used account, they don't expire and this statement doesn't apply. If the transfer only went into the account where the points are expiring, this would be relevant.

 

[andye]

one doesn't read the words on their activity statement!! QUOTE:Note: Points will not expire provided you earn or use points (excluding family transfers) at least once every 18 months.

Common misunderstanding. Transferring points into an active account will not keep points from expiring . However once they get into an active account, they are safe. Hence you need to do the circle of transfers as described in the post

 

[NM]

As the points end up back in a regularly used account, they don't expire and this statement doesn't apply. If the transfer only went into the account where the points are expiring, this would be relevant.

That is why the process is used to clean out the inactive accounts and launder the points to an active account where they won't expire. Who cares is an empty account is then inactive. As soon as another point is earned in that account the 18 month countdown is restarted.

 

[samh004]

Yes, I was at two different Woolies stores in PER yesterday morning and they were just setting up the stands in each store - I bet the women manning those will be glad when this week's over!

I was going to buy some things at Aldi, then approach them and spruik how much I'd saved thanks to WOW pushing me away... but then couldn't find what I was looking for at Aldi anyway

 

[kevrosmith]

the women manning

If they are women, wouldn't that mean that they are possibly "womening" the station...? Perhaps you mean "staffing"...?

 

[WWTFC]

We live between 2 Coles supermarkets. One about 1km away the other about 1.5km away. We have by-passed them to go to Woolies. Nearest Woolies 4.5 km away (north) other is 6 km west. Not hard to work out where we shop in future as we now dont need show loyalty get FF points. BWS 500 metres from front door. Liquorland 1km away. Guess where we buy our supplies now? Dont want cash discount on a $700 buy of marked items - wanted and used points. Cutting me out completely as why go out of my way to support Woolies??

 

[coco50]

I have been reading this thread and the information provided by Woolworths and Qantas and decided to draw my own conclusion based on my own personal circumstances and experiences. I have evaluated all the reasons that I have been a loyal Woolworths shopper for the last few years and how they are affected by the changes from Everyday Rewards to Woolworths Rewards.

This is my summary:

1. I can purchase Wish Gift Cards at 5% discount saving me money on groceries, home wares, clothes, petrol, booze, electronics etc. when buying from Woolworths, Big W, Caltex, Dan Murphys, BWS, CellarMasters, Dick Smith etc. Similar discounts for Coles etc are not as easily available to me. This does not change as a result of these changes.
2. I can earn 3 Amex Membership Rewards points per $ spent purchasing the Wish Gift Cards via RACQ. These convert into AAdvantage Miles at an effective rate of 1.875 AA Miles per $ spent. This also applies if I shop at Coles but not at CostCo. This does not change as a result of these changes.
3. I earn an additional 4c/litre discount on petrol when I spend $30 at Woolworths and buy petrol from Caltex. I understand that many Caltex stations have a higher base price than some other stations, but my local Caltex price-matches Costco and is always the cheapest in the area, so this is generally worth around $5-$8 a week across the three cars that use my discount "vouchers". This does not change as a result of these changes.
4. I have been earning 1 QFF point per $ spent over $30 with Woolworths shopping. Bonus points offers from time to time add to the QFF balance. This has resulted in 10K QFF points in the last 12 months. This opportunity ends as a result of these changes.
5. New program of Woolworths Rewards appears to be dropping the effective purchase price from Regular Price to what is generally offered as a Discount Price when they are on special. It appears at this stage that orange stickers are only going to be offered on full-priced items which really is no different to offering the item at a sale price. I expect that 80% or more of the items I purchase are "on sale" either at a discounted price or on a multi-buy deal, neither of which I expect to offer earning in the new Woolworths Rewards program. I see the only benefit with this program is to slightly broaden the range of items available at a sale price. So I see this is no real benefit as a result of these changes.

So my loss is the ability to earn around 10K QFF points per year. This is disappointing as nobody likes a reduction in benefits. So now I consider my options:

1. Stop shopping at Woolworths and shop elsewhere. I lose the 5% discount from using Wish Cards for groceries (can still use for DSE, DM, BWS etc). Can get 4c/litre discount via Coles/Shell, but the local Shell is generally at least 4c/litre more than the local Caltex (with Costco price matching) so probably still better to buy petrol from local Caltex with 5% discounted Wish Cards. Could also do small $30 shops at Woolworths for the extra 4c/litre discounts. I have no desire to earn EY points from Coles as I will never earn enough to be of any benefit, just as QFF earning from WW on its own was useless and just really a top-up for my existing account.
2. Continue shopping at Woolworths, using 5% discounted Wish Cards and earning 4c/litre petrol discounts to use at local Caltex.
3. Shop at both Woolworths and Coles as I find convenient at the time.

• All options still provide AAdvantage Miles from Amex Membership Rewards so no difference there.
• All options earn 4c/litre fule discounts, but my local Caltex is always cheaper than local Shell.
• Neither option earns me any QFF points.

So for me, as much as I am annoyed and disappointed with the removal of QFF as a partner and the low value to me of the new Woolworths Rewards program, ultimately there is little reason to stop using Woolworths and I expect I will end up shifting my grocery spend from 90% Woolworths (10% shared between Coles, Aldi, IGA and Costco) to more like 50% Woolworths (using discounted Wish Cards), 40% Coles and the remainder split between Aldi, IGA and Costco. My grocery shopping is more likely to be based on convenience or location and advertised specials than any form of "loyalty".

So really, all this change has done is broken my loyalty to any one chain and ultimately there will be two losers - Woolworths loses 50% of my shopping business and I lose 10K QFF points per year.

Don't forget with Coles and Flybuys you can convert your points to Coles dollars. All purchases qualify. When we shop at Coles (or anywhere else) we only buy what we need - what is on the list. We now have 20 000 Flybuy points or $100 to spend or deduct from our next supermarket bill. And we pay using a rewards card which earns QF points

 

[cove]

Excellent summary NM and I wish we had a Costco near us in Perth.
Slight differences are I have 5% off at both Woolies group and Coles supermarkets.
I loved the points offers from Woolworths and many folks must have thought Woolies got them from Qantas for almost zero.
The thrill of the QF points will be gone soon.

 

[get me outta here]

From this morn's SMH:

"And in view of the number of announcements – ranging from surprising to the bizarre – that Woolworths has made in the past year, its ability to wrong-foot the market is impressive."

Read more: Woolworths plunge shocks investors

 

[kcoulson]

Since Tasmania has never had access to Everyday Awards, and therefore I have never earned 1 single Qantas FF point on any Woolworths purchase. (so the same situation that the rest of Australia finds themselves)

Therefore I shop according to the best deals. Last year (according to the computer generated email from Flybuys) we received $1050 worth of free flybuys (that is- over 200,000 flybuys points). I think I got $20 or $40 back from Woolworths in their Tasmanian scheme 'The Frequent Shopper Club'. I shop mostly at Coles, and a little at Woolworths. They are both close to where I live. Flybuys deals are great - coupons and emails... and I use them.

We aren't big spenders - just a normal family sized grocery spend.