1996: Fly Buys
December 30, 2024
By AHNZ
Fly Buys, est. 1996, was once huge but ended at the stroke of midnight on 1 January, 2025.
“The Flybuys catalogue became legendary, filled with an endless array of items that could be “purchased” with points. At its peak, Flybuys had over 20 contributing partners, close to 3 million members, and featured in 80% of New Zealand households.” – Southland Times (14/12/24)
Fly Buys capitalised the brand loyalty of Boomers and GenX. But today’s consumers, Millennials and Zoomers, are mercenary buyers. Loyalty and delayed gratification (storing points) isn’t how they roll.
The other nail in the coffin was taking the ‘fly’ out of Fly Buys. Air New Zealand (re)launched its own airpoints program. This appears to have been 2013 based on the earliest version of their site archived. The airline appears to have changed banks from BNZ to Westpac in 2015 to accommodate this.
Like Bonus Bonds, Fly Buys is a goner.
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Image ref. Original Fly Buys card, c.1997. AHNZ Archives
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