Coles and Virgin have launched a new rewards partnership which sees frequent flyers able to earn points when making grocery and liquor purchases.
From today, members of Coles’ flybuys loyalty scheme and Virgin Australia’s loyalty program Velocity Frequent Flyer can link their memberships.
Members will be able to transfer flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points and also earn status credits when shopping at Coles, Coles Online, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor.
“By partnering with an award-winning program like Velocity Frequent Flyer, we know our flybuys members will have great opportunities to redeem Velocity Points for flights,” said Roger Sniezek, Coles digital and financial services director.
Coles said it’s the first and only Australian retailer to allow its loyalty members to earn airline status credits with an Australian frequent flyer program when making grocery and liquor purchases.
Both companies say the partnership will allow people to receive benefits including lounge access, priority boarding and extra baggage faster.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Velocity Frequent Flyer to help our flybuys members fly faster by simply transferring their flybuys points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points to redeem for a flight,” said GM of flybuys, Adam Story.
Flybuys is currently offering rewards of up to 20,000 bonus points for shopping at Coles.
“Velocity and flybuys have created an unrivalled proposition in the Australian market by providing the opportunity for members to earn status credits when they do their grocery or liquor shopping and present their flybuys card, which we know is extremely valuable to our members,” said Karl Schuster, CEO, Velocity Frequent Flyer.
Rival conglomerate, Woolworths reinstated Qantas points as part of its loyalty program late last year, after receiving backlash from consumers.
