ANZ Bank has extended the deadline for ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures cardholders to book their complimentary Virgin Australia flights until 7 December 2020.
Currently, ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures credit card holders can book a complimentary annual return Virgin Australia domestic flight. But ANZ announced in September that it would be withdrawing this benefit from 1 December 2020. This means the last day to book your free Virgin Australia flight would be Monday 30 November 2020.
Unfortunately, the only way to redeem the complimentary Virgin flight (and free lounge passes) is to call the ANZ Rewards call centre. The volume of callers to the ANZ Rewards call centre is currently so extreme that ANZ cardholders have reported waiting several hours on hold. Others were unable to get through at all or experienced call dropouts.
With an influx in ANZ customers leaving it to the last minute to redeem their flights, the call centre has been unable to cope with the demand. This has been a problem ever since last week.
Fortunately, ANZ has confirmed that it has extended the deadline for ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures customers to redeem their complimentary Virgin Australia flight until Monday, 7 December 2020. That’s an additional week to book your flights.
“We are aware that customers are experiencing problems contacting the ANZ Rewards Centre to book complimentary flights,” an ANZ spokeswoman told Australian Frequent Flyer.
“We understand this is frustrating and we have extended the booking expiry date until 7 December 2020 so eligible credit card customers will have extra time to book their flight.
“If customers are experiencing issues, we ask that you try again later. We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause our customers.”
So, if you’ve been struggling to reach the ANZ Rewards call centre, the good news is that there’s still time to redeem your complimentary Virgin flights and lounge passes. The ANZ Rewards call centre is open from 8am-8pm (AEST), Monday to Friday.
Once the Virgin Australia benefits have been withdrawn, ANZ will reduce the ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures annual fee from $225 to $120. But many AFF members say they’ll simply cancel their cards as the main benefits have been removed and it’s no longer worth keeping.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: ANZ Rewards Travel Adventure Card