Why business travellers may look to Qantas after Air NZ’s loyalty shake-up

Monday, 24 November 2025

Grant Bradley is a business and aviation journalist.

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OPINION: Air New Zealand is relying on the pitch ‘’but wait there’s more’’ to its loyalty revamp, in the face of a mixed response to the big reveal.

It’s also telling those on the bottom rung to be patient. The new Koru Bronze category means those who fly infrequently and earn a small number of points through shopping get a new airline loyalty status, but nothing else - yet. The airline advises those on the bottom tier to ‘’watch this space’’ for more shopping partners and more beneficial ways to redeem points on flights.

While Air NZ says reaction has been positive to its new Koru loyalty programme, one frequent flyer described it as underwhelming while an analysis by a leading executive travel site says those on the second to top tier may be better off crossing to Qantas’ upper bracket, rather than spending more on flights to hit the new, elite Koru Black.

Air NZ general manager loyalty Alex Larsen says the programme will continue to evolve.

“There's this nice sort of symbolism in the Koru itself, which is continuously unfurling, and the programme’s no different.”

He says feedback since the launch last week would likely lead to new benefits to reward length of time in a tier, rather than just the amount of recent flying.

“Today, we reward high frequency of recent travel. It's not about stopping that, but expanding it to think about tenure as well,” he says.

The airline has spent years polling increasingly impatient frequent fliers and building technology to power the new scheme. While Koru Black members can enjoy a few goodies before Christmas, valet parking and some accelerated progress through Auckland domestic security screening, the real changes don’t happen until next April.

The new top tier has significantly improved benefits for members’ family and friends, but to qualify for Koru Black, members must earn over 3200 status points, including 1920 from qualifying flights in a year.

Earning rates haven’t changed, which Larsen says shows the airline isn’t giving with one hand and taking with the other.

But an economy flight to Los Angeles earns only up to 125 status points at the moment and in business premier, up to 439 status points. The exact number of points also depends on the fare type and whether it was a sale fare. So that means a lot of flying is needed to get to the top of the pile. High spending on American Express Airpoints Platinum cards also earns points.

A cornerstone of the new programme, a flagship lounge at Auckland International Airport, for Koru Black, platinum and business premier passengers, won’t be completed until 2027.

Meanwhile, Qantas - which has lured upper tier Air NZ customers during sorties here previously - will open its expanded and improved lounge next month. The Australian airline doesn’t have a loyalty lure in the market just now, but it is flexing its muscles in Aotearoa with more routes and more premium cabins - those parts of the plane which appeal to the customers Air New Zealand desperately needs to keep.

On an indexed scale, the Air New Zealand's base member revenue premium is 1.1% while it was 1.6% among its existing top tier of flyers, and slides from an investor day last year show it expects that to increase from Koru Black.

In the last decade the programme, formerly known as Airpoints, has been growing at around 11% a year and now has close to five million members. It doesn’t disclose how many are in each tier.

While the financial rationale to reward big spenders is clear, the sales job is harder in a cost of living crisis. Half owned by the Government on behalf of taxpayers and with tens of thousands of small private Kiwi investors, the airline is often under fire for high domestic fares, flight disruption and is now in an industrial stoush with cabin crew who many travellers agree are poorly paid.

A Koru Black scheme for the super elite, on the face of it, may be a hard sell. That’s why new benefits for ‘bronzies’ will be useful for those in that category.

Larsen is confident the new programme stands up to competition.

“It's a ‘never say, never’ answer, but as of today we're really confident that what we've announced and what we know is coming through the pipeline puts us in very good stead competitively.”

David Flynn, editor-in-chief at ExecutiveTraveller.com, says the foundations are there for a good programme but there’s many potential improvements.

“For what was talked up as ‘a new era’ for the airline’s loyalty programme, it’s all a bit underwhelming,” says Sydney-based Flynn.

Koru Black benefits are slim compared to Koru Platinum – the new name for Airpoints Elite – which takes just half as much flying. He says options for Koru Black could include a chauffeur drive service, guaranteed upgrades instead of the current ‘lottery’ and access to Star Alliance partner first class lounges.

“For many Kiwis who often travel between Australia and New Zealand, they’ll probably be better off drawing a line at Koru Platinum and then shifting their spend to lock in the equivalent status with Qantas.”

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