Flybuys Considering Switch to Qantas Points?

Flybuys members currently have the option to transfer their points to Virgin Australia’s Velocity program at a 2:1 rate. Since the popular Flybuys-Velocity tie-up launched in 2016, it’s also possible to earn 1 Virgin Australia status credit for every $100 spent at Coles, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor, up to 10 status credits per month.

But Flybuys has recently been canvassing opinions from loyalty program members on potentially switching its existing Velocity partnership to Qantas Frequent Flyer.

In a detailed survey sent to selected members, a research company working on behalf of Flybuys posed a range of questions about the possibility of being able to transfer Flybuys points to Qantas points. The survey also floated the idea of earning Qantas status credits for shopping at Coles.

In recent days, Qantas has also surveyed selected customers with questions about Flybuys.

There’s no suggestion that Flybuys has active plans underway to switch allegiance from Virgin to Qantas in the near future. Australian Frequent Flyer understands that Flybuys routinely surveys its members to gauge their satisfaction with the program and look for opportunities or areas for improvement. By asking hypothetical questions about other possible partnerships, it allows the program to gather valuable insights while also getting a better understanding of how happy (or otherwise) members are with the current arrangements.

From 2015 until 2018, Flybuys also allowed members to convert points to Etihad Guest miles. For a while, members even had the choice to convert points to both the Etihad and Velocity loyalty programs.

Qantas Frequent Flyer currently partners with Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards program, allowing Everyday Rewards members to convert their points to Qantas points. While the details of this partnership are not public, these kinds of contracts often contain an “exclusivity clause” that might prevent Qantas Frequent Flyer from partnering with both Everyday Rewards and Flybuys at the same time.

But agreements can expire, and things can change – as we saw when BP switched its loyalty partner from Velocity to Qantas Frequent Flyer in 2020.

It’s worth noting that Qantas Frequent Flyer members cannot currently earn status credits at Woolworths, so it’s perhaps not that likely that Qantas would offer this to Flybuys members – even if the programs did decide to partner in the future.

If Rex gets around to launching its own long-awaited loyalty program, it will be interesting to see if the regional airline also seeks to partner with an Australian supermarket. IGA would be a logical choice and on-brand for Rex, but anything’s possible.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Flybuys Survey posing Qantas Points Option