Westpac joins the Air New Zealand Airpoints programme

Media release

19 March 2015

Westpac joins the Air New Zealand Airpoints™ programme

Air New Zealand has announced Westpac New Zealand will join the airline’s Airpoints™programme as its newest financial services partner providing members with a suite of new Airpoints earning products.

The new agreement with Westpac takes effect from 1 May 2015.

After a long and mutually beneficial arrangement that provided Airpoints earning on BNZ GlobalPlus products, Air New Zealand and BNZ have decided not to renew the agreement between them.

The current agreement will cease at midnight on 30 April 2015, from which point BNZ’s GlobalPlus products will no longer earn Air New Zealand related benefits, including Airpoints Dollars™ and Status Points.

Westpac joins Kiwibank, ANZ and American Express who already have Airpoints earning credit cards available.

Air New Zealand General Manager Loyalty Hamish Rumbold says the addition of Westpac to the airline’s loyalty programme is a significant change in the New Zealand credit card market.

“More than 20 percent of all credit card spend in New Zealand is on Airpoints earning credit cards. As we continue to grow the Airpoints programme we are excited to be able to work with Westpac to offer a wide range of Airpoints earning products and deliver better earn rates on Airpoints members’ spend.

“Our existing partners Kiwibank, ANZ and American Express together with Westpac will provide a great proposition for our customers,” says Mr Rumbold.

Westpac’s new products will initially include Westpac Airpoints MasterCard®, Westpac Airpoints Platinum MasterCard®, Westpac Airpoints World MasterCard® and Westpac Airpoints Business MasterCard®. The bank is also offering an Airpoints earning mortgage with further products to be announced during the year.

BNZ GlobalPlus credit card holders will continue to earn Airpoints on their current card up until midnight 30 April but will need to choose a new Airpoints earning credit card if they wish to continue to earn Airpoints on their credit card spend from 1 May. All tier status benefits, Airpoints Dollars and Status Points already earned by a GlobalPlus credit card holder remain in the member’s Airpoints account.

Airpoints members will be receiving full details of the changes via email today.

“We recognise that changing credit cards can be an inconvenience for people, however Westpac, American Express, ANZ and Kiwibank all have specialist teams in place to make the change an easy one,” says Mr Rumbold.

Today’s announcement continues a strong period of expansion for the Airpoints programme which has grown by more than a quarter of a million members over the past 12 months to 1.8 million.

“We also recently announced significant partnerships with New Zealand's largest farmer owner co-operative Farmlands as well as vehicle manufacturer Audi, offering new ways for our members to earn and redeem Airpoints Dollars. We expect to announce further Airpoints partners and products in the coming months,” says Mr Rumbold.

Further details are available at www.airpoints.co.nz, with a comparison table of the full range of Airpoints earning credit cards available at www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airpoints-direct-earn-credit-card-comparison-table.

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