PeteY

Buy one get one free over there in sunny aus yet?

When i was over there 2 years ago bi-low and coles were starting to bring this in.....just like good old sainsburys over here, but they only had a couple of offers. It finally caught on yet?

jayr

No. I think the only one I've come across in eight months was for a brand of coffee. Also no 3 for 2 or anything else. You can get Fly Buy points (1 for $5 I think) as extras, say 100 when you buy something but these aren't worth much. I think you need 20,000 points ($100,000 worth of expenditure) to get a $100 Myer (department store) voucher. It's also funny to see things like rollback prices for say 18 Toilet rolls, 5c off now only $8.94.

Sandra

BOGOF

the concept is not in the supermarkets as such - more like buy two and get a little bit of money off, but lots and lots of ads here in Sydney for BOGOF sales - lights, and building warehouse sort of places.

jayr

Just had a look at Fly Buys - you only need 13,000 points to get a $100 Myer Voucher - equivalent to spending $65,000. My points total in eight months is 2200 (representing $11000 of spending), at this rate I should be able to get the voucher within four years.

Kiwipaul

Flybuys is a marketing con, it persuades you to buy stuff form the retailer giving the most points rather than the best price. The only time this is worth it is for buisness expenses that can be claimed back and then it dosn't matter what the price is cos somebody else is paying the bill.

Why do you think gov employees and MP's fly Quantas instead of Virgin, because Virgin dosn't give Air miles and these people don't care what the cost of the flight is so long as they get their air miles.

renth

There is an advert on the TV at the moment, buy 5 litres of engine oil and get one litre free. That's about as good as the offers get over here I'm afraid.

Vicky88

With a bit of smart shopping you should be able to get a Fly Buys reward way before spending $65,000. I have had a Fly Buys card since 1994 and in that time I have had

(1) Mystery flight
(2) voucher for dinner for 2
(3) cordless telephone
(4) $100 coles voucher

I have managed to achieve this even though I don't reside in Australia and only use my card a couple of times a year.

jah4reds

No - you get 'specials' which are usually up to 3-5% off. Wow!

Still if you keep looking out for the 'specials', over 50 years you might be able to save $100.

More puzzling is the fact that some things are effectively more expensive the bigger they are ($ per Kg). Toliet paper is one that seems to be more expensive if you get a 2 x '6 packs' instead 3 x '4 packs' (i.e. 12 rolls). Sorry, I don't have shopping bill example to give you.

AndyH.

dotty

Best way we found to get freebies is to pay everything by VISA card. One point for every dollar spent. Pay off bill end of months so you dont get any interest tho. We do get lots of free flights, 20,000 points is a flight to Sydney for eg. Spending for food and petrol for us is easily $18,000 a year so there is one ticket. We also pay health, phone, doctor, car reparirs, ins, just about every bill you can think of.

Dont try this with American Express tho, most retailers look at you like you are from Mars if you produce AMEX. Reason for this is higher fees for retailer and most here dont accept it.

Free airfares, study up on airline programmes, about every four trips to the UK we end up with free tickets.

It does work next year we have to use up 400,000 points just from bills and travel.

Free dosh lovely

Kiwipaul

yes I've seen that loads of times
Tetley 100 teabags $2.40
Tetley 200 teabags $5.20 right next to each other.

They also do specials on Kellogs Cornflakes where the 825g box is cheaper than the 525g box.

Rarely is it cheaper to buy 4 packs of say baked beans instead of 4 individual tins.

They must assume the punters cannot do basic arithmetic, or else the stores cannot.

Kiwipaul

If you fly Quantas just DON'T use your credit card to pay for the ticket as they have a surcharge for credit card payments (I think it's 1% but not sure).

jayr

I get to use my AMEX for business and personal and with occasional domestic flights this really does add up quite quick. Free return flight to UK costs 110,000 points, I am expecting to achieve this about once a year. you are also right that about four return UK trips adds up to one free one. For the uninitiated, these are all for Frequent Flyers (QANTAS scheme), which are considerably more generous then the Fly Buys scheme operated by Coles Myer. For those coming over from UK to Oz by Qantas, you can get a Frequent Flyer card in advance for no charge and will earn about 15,000 points for one way, almost enough for a free return trip between Brisbane and Sydney.

dotty

Singapore airlines have same type of scheme. Check alliances too, for example we can collect air canada points on Singapore flights, then use them on several airlines. Very useful if you dont just go UK and back. Air Canada have a nice little system of sending you Upgade to Business certificates once you get 30,000 points. It really pays to study these schemes and plan who you fly with to maximise it.

Ceri

Funny you say that...... about 6 years ago this was very common. My local supermarket in Newcastle used to have such offers, I haven't seen it up here in Brisbane though. It's either because they have fazed it out... or Brisbane has never done it.

Fly buys... I've had a card for around 4 or 5 years... I'm only on 10 thousand points after all that time.. I need about 11 thou to buy a toaster! They keep deducting points off me as well. After a certain time, if you don't use your points they expire. I'll never get a plane ticket out of here at this rate.... it's quicker to walk to the UK!


cheers

DianeOZ

Can you explain the Qantas thing a bit more plks dottus?

Which credit card can you get which is linked to it or is it just on travel only?

Can you apply on-line?

Di