Woolies link a boon for Qantas

The chief executive of Qantas's loyalty program, Simon Hickey, said Woolworths shoppers had flown 200,000 "sectors" - legs of a journey - after taking an Everyday Rewards card and linking it to the frequent flyer scheme.

Since the tie-up went live in June, Mr Hickey said, 1.7 million of the 4.2 million Woolies cards in circulation have been linked to the frequent flyer program.

The boost to Qantas's numbers has led Mr Hickey to revise his forecast to exceed 7 million members by the middle of next year, slowly closing the gap on the rival FlyBuys program, which has 8.5 million Australian members (though the scheme's promoter does not disclose how many of those are active).

Shoppers who are new to the program were changing their buying habits to ensure they build up points, either by using the Woolies loyalty card in the group's different participating stores, by using a credit card that directly earns points or by opting to book a Qantas flight, which in turn generates more points.

"Where previously they might have been flying with Virgin, they are now flying with Qantas," he said. After flights, Woolworths gift cards were the most commonly redeemed items from Qantas's catalogue of 1200 options.

Qantas is now looking at other ways to broaden the program's reach. It is testing a widget to sit on iGoogle so that the 1.5 million users of Google's personalised homepage can check their balance. Qantas says the widget will be up and running early next year.

However, there are no immediate plans to link the Woolworths credit card to the frequent flyer program - it was omitted because it was launched before the joint venture went live in June.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said: "It's not as simple as replacing one set of points with another. We are progressively rolling out the Qantas program across our trading brands and each requires separate consideration. The existing credit card reward structure is still an excellent proposition for customers in its own right."