Woolworths reinstates air miles rewards after consumer rage

Supermarket giant Woolworths will be coordinating once again with Qantas in creating flyer points for loyal customers. After experiencing a backlash from customers, Woolworths has come to a decision to reinstate loyalty promos with Qantas.

This loyalty reward allows supermarket shoppers to earn Qantas points by converting Woolworths dollars. According to Fairfax Media, every 10 Woolworths dollars can be converted to 870 Qantas points starting mid-2016. Emails offering consumers the chance to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points or Woolworths dollars will be sent early next year.

This rewards system will serve as a replacement for their previous promo, which started in 2009 and gave Woolworths' customers the opportunity to earn one Qantas point for every dollar spent over $30.

Woolworths surveyed consumers about the nature of their new loyalty program before they announced their current agreement. Consumers criticised Woolworths' previously attempted reward scheme, wherein customers were able to get discounts if they accumulated $10 worth of Woolworths dollars. According to surveyed consumers, they would rather have cheaper purchases from Aldi instead of going through the hassle of Woolworth’s rewards system.

Australian Business Traveller editor David Flynn told The Daily Telegraph that “to its credit, the new scheme is fairly straightforward — shoppers will be able to trade 10 Woolworths dollars earned when buying selected items marked with an orange promotional tag, for 870 Qantas Points.”

"Woolworths’ about-face shows how badly the company underestimated Australians’ passion for their frequent flyer points," he added.

The survey showed that 68 percent of customers preferred dollars off of their shopping and only eight percent preferred flyer points. Although majority of the Woolworths customers preferred discounts over air miles, a group of higher-income customers became very vocal about Woolworths' choice of rewards scheme. This led to a tremendous backlash, and finally, the revert of air mile points.

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