Woolworths reviewing partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer.

[Warks]

For the past couple of years Woolworths seems to be on a downward trend. It's been noticed by the share market and the price has adjusted accordingly. With all the money poured into Masters and the prospect of that ending in tears (and a huge loss) the gurus at Woolworths must have thought: how can we get more customers and retain existing ones? Someone at the meeting said: "I know! Why not get rid of the Qantas Frequent Flyer points?" Everyone quickly agreed that with their arch-rival, Coles, offering a similar scheme, getting rid of it made a lot of sense to differentiate Woolworths in the market. "Woolworths - the no points people".

Result...

 

[greenfish]

The problem many cousins will have is that their accounts have less than the 5K minimum needed to transfer.

A lot of breakage going to occur I think.

That's easily fixed - transfer 5000 points to the first cousin, then that cousin transfers their account balance (inc the 5000) to the next cousin and so on until they transfer all the points back to you . A routine mopup I do with the kids every year to avoid accidentally losing points...

 

[andye]

I'm sure there will be some very unhappy Mr&Mrs Battlers who saw their (now stranded) small QFF balance as a slow holiday saving fund. Probably the same ones who would have been very unhappy when they found out the taxes were so high when they came to actually make a Y redemption

 

[Dawg]

Thinking about the auto $10 discount it appears there will be little customer control when it will be applied.

That's very true. Going to suck if they bang on the $10 discounts that time you shop with the company cc!

 

[Mattg]

So people who are using the EDR to keep Qantas points alive, the very infrequent flyers, what can they do?

Install the Qantas Frequent Flyer toolbar and do 1 search per year?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Install the Qantas Frequent Flyer toolbar and do 1 search per year?

Do searches that return no results still count?

Like 'Qantas premium award space to USA'?

I'll have to try and get my head around Etihad. But I'm not sure $50 a week spend at the supermarket is going to get me anywhere.

 

[Mattg]

I just got off the phone with Woolworths. The rep tried to explain to me how the new program would work, but could not provide any concrete examples of earn rates under the new scheme. Time will tell if this is a worthwhile program, but as far as I can tell, this will be a massive devaluation.

Apparently how it will work is that selected items marked with orange labels will earn a certain amount of "Woolworths Dollars". These dollars can then be put towards savings at the checkout in blocks of $10, and you can store up to $50 worth of Woolworths Dollars on your account at any one time. The example the rep gave is that a $10 product might earn $1.30 in "Woolworths Dollars", but apparently that is merely an example - not an actual earn rate.

If they really wanted to offer savings, why not just make the hypothetical $10 item $8.70 in the first place and ditch the whole scheme?

This pretty much confirms that I'll be shopping at Coles and Aldi from next year.

 

[Mattg]

Do searches that return no results still count?

Like 'Qantas premium award space to USA'?

I'll have to try and get my head around Etihad. But I'm not sure $50 a week spend at the supermarket is going to get me anywhere.

It's basically the same as doing a Bing search. The example you gave would return results and earn one point (although probably not any actual flights).

 

[coles525]

It's basically the same as doing a Bing search. The example you gave would return results and earn one point (although probably not any actual flights).

I gave up on the QFF tool bar over a year ago.

All it ever did was provide an invalid search response.

 

[drross]

just received Qantas email that states they are continuing discussions with woolies about the partnership into 2016!! may not be the end of the world yet

 

[Mattg]

just received Qantas email that states they are continuing discussions with woolies about the partnership into 2016!! may not be the end of the world yet

The saga continues! That could be good news, I suppose. Perhaps they'll reinstate Qantas points, but only give 1 point per $2 spent?

 

[grussellt]

I can hardly wait to see which products are "Participating Products":

To earn Woolworths Dollars:

1. You must scan your Card, or have your card linked in your Woolworths online account, before the transaction is completed at the checkout.
   
2. You can earn Woolworths Dollars on Participating Products in Participating Woolworths Group businesses including Woolworths supermarkets (excluding Tasmania), in store and online and BWS (excluding Tasmania).
   
3. Participating Products and the amount of Woolworths Dollars that you can earn on Participating Products will be as advertised from time to time.

 

[Warks]

Now the Qantas email:

We would like to let you know that whilst Woolworths are changing their rewards program, Qantas Points can still be earned with Everyday Rewards as per today until 31 December 2015. We are working with Woolworths on a new partnership from 2016, and will keep you posted.

Treat yourself to something special

The huge advantage of Qantas Frequent Flyer is our range of exciting rewards, and with thousands of ways to earn Qantas Points every day, you'll be able to reach your next reward in no time at all. So you can treat yourself to something special; whether it's using points for a fabulous getaway with flights, hotel stays or car hire, or for one of 3,000 products at the Qantas Store with tech, toys, fashion, homewares and so much more.

Need to know more?

Your Qantas Points balance will be unaffected by the change, and all Qantas Points you've earned, or will earn, with Woolworths up to 31 December 2015 will be credited as usual to your Qantas account to turn into great rewards. However, if you do have any questions, please check our FAQs.

Yeah well.

 

[farstar]

Woolworth's make QANTAS look like amateurs in the art of "simpler fairer".

Woolworth's FAQ says "life's busy enough, we designed it so that everything happens automatically"

Actually let me decide if I am too busy thank you very much.

 

[JOC469]

Everyday Rewards is becoming Woolworths Rewards

On Wednesday Everyday Rewards will become Woolworths Rewards, the loyalty program that simply gives you money off your shopping! This means your existing member rewards are changing. You can continue to earn Qantas Points through Woolworths Rewards, but only until 31 December 2015 – for more information, check out our FAQs.

So it has begun...

 

[Himeno]

Exactly my thought when I read this FAQ - who the heck did they ask??? It certainly wasn't me.

I asked them just that when I got the email.
Not that I expect a reply.

 

[Captain Halliday]

With all this talk of ditching WoW (for greener pastures) and assuming most here purchase 5% off wish gift cards via cash rewards or motor clubs (expert level tight-coughs), can a similar 5% discount also be found for Coles and Myer gift cards?

If not the weekly shop just got a whole lot more expensive...

Generally, no. However, flybuys recently hand an offer of 3 points per dollar spent on gift cards. That works out to be 1.5% off and it was only valid for a week or so.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Unless the discounts at WW are massive with the new program, I won't be going out of way for Woolies.

I already have been reducing my spend at Big W, Cellarmasters and BWS. I will now be redirecting more of my spend to Coles, Liquorland/First Choice/Dan Murphy’s and Kmart.

In hindsight with QF offering free QFF membership via other means then EDR and WW experimenting with discounts this change has been coming for at least a year.

If you're changing your spending as a protest, just remember Dan Murphys is part of the WOW group.

 

[Himeno]

I can hardly wait to see which products are "Participating Products":

To earn Woolworths Dollars:

1. You must scan your Card, or have your card linked in your Woolworths online account, before the transaction is completed at the checkout.
2. You can earn Woolworths Dollars on Participating Products in Participating Woolworths Group businesses including Woolworths supermarkets (excluding Tasmania), in store and online and BWS (excluding Tasmania).
3. Participating Products and the amount of Woolworths Dollars that you can earn on Participating Products will be as advertised from time to time.

From the documents I've seen, the products that will earn "Woolworths Dollars" are much the same as the orange ticket EDR only specials currently available. They'll change week to week and have orange tickets placed on them. Random weight items (such as most of the items in Deli, Meat and Produce) are excluded.

 

[anat0l]

I just got off the phone with Woolworths. The rep tried to explain to me how the new program would work, but could not provide any concrete examples of earn rates under the new scheme. Time will tell if this is a worthwhile program, but as far as I can tell, this will be a massive devaluation.

Apparently how it will work is that selected items marked with orange labels will earn a certain amount of "Woolworths Dollars". These dollars can then be put towards savings at the checkout in blocks of $10, and you can store up to $50 worth of Woolworths Dollars on your account at any one time. The example the rep gave is that a $10 product might earn $1.30 in "Woolworths Dollars", but apparently that is merely an example - not an actual earn rate.

If they really wanted to offer savings, why not just make the hypothetical $10 item $8.70 in the first place and ditch the whole scheme?

>10% rebate on products? I call unlikely on that one. Even if it was a hypothetical 10% rebate achievable, do you think people will be swayed towards that over, say, Flybuys? If you could get 70-100 points on a $100 or $10 back, which would you take? I can see infrequent travellers perhaps "benefitting"......

The way it is pitched seems to imply it is only a selection of products (perhaps changing from week to week) that will qualify for WW$. Not like a flat rate on the total spend, with perhaps some bonuses on selected products. So maybe some promotional products earn WW$, maybe new line products not normally on sale earn a bit more, but perhaps some basics like milk, bread, common fruit and veg might earn nothing.

Why wouldn't they just make everything less than the expected rebate? Well it makes no sense for them to increase prices across the board by the amount - anyone can see through that game. For example, if a loaf of bread costs $2 today, and let's say it earns 20c in WW$, they would be stupid to increase the price to $2.20 and people are going to fall for it that they can potentially get 20c of that back. Choice will be all over them like flies on manure. The idea would be that in order to get that 20c back, you need to commit to spending a minimum amount with them first. If they get really selective (i.e. some products have WW$, some don't) or variable (this product gives 10% of its value back as WW$, but this one only 1%), then they can also use this as a tool to spread unit losses across the business. Finally, some bubs might walk in, buy a product with an orange tag and out they go without scanning a rewards card. Woolworths gets the full profit (a la "breakage") if they don't reduce first and take a risk that that person will buy enough to recover it later, rather than give it straight away and risk that that person may not come back anyway.

Now the Qantas email

Trade in earned WW$ for a smaller amount of Qantas points? (Similar to trade in your fuel discount for Qantas points?)

Qantas co-brand cards earn more points for Woolworths Group spend?