Maximising your Points earning potential

When Melbourne business owner and marketing author Katrina McCarter joined Virgin Australia’s Business Flyer at the end of 2022, she had a clear goal. To earn enough Points on her business expenditure with its everyday business partners to pay for her personal holiday travel.

An international award-winning speaker on marketing strategy, Katrina created a blueprint that focused on leveraging Business Flyer partners including American Express and Pay.com.au to pay everyday business expenses, contractors and ATO bills.

Travelling for keynotes and events around Australia, she uses the Business Flyer portal to book Business class fares on Virgin Australia as “these are generally much cheaper than the major competitor, you earn more Points—and you get a meal!”

The result?

“This Christmas I’m flying my family to Perth on Virgin Australia using Points earned through business expenditure—fantastic reward,” says Katrina. “I also used Points last November to fly business class to New York with United Airlines, a Virgin Australia partner.”

Gautam Rastogi, head of SME Loyalty, says strategies like Katrina’s which involve businesses earning thanks to the breadth of the Business Flyer’s 40+ everyday partners are the ideal way to maximize membership.

“We have a mix of partners, so businesses earn Points and benefits in the air and on the ground through everyday business expenses,” says Gautam, who joined Virgin Australia in early 2022 after living and working in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

While Business Flyer is an airline loyalty program, “the key is you don’t have to be a flier to be part of it”, says Gautam. “If you’re not an SME who flies because you’re trying to work as much as you can, fine.

“You still have non-air partners in the program that can help you make your business payments, if you need cash, if you need capital. There is a whole ecosystem of long term partners to help your bottom line and reward you and the business with exclusive offers and business support.”

GAUTAM’S TOP TIPS

Double-dip on Points

“A business and its employees can earn Points through business expenditure,” says Gautam. “It incentivises both the business and employees to use partners we have in the program as well as fly with Virgin Australia.”

Earn Points on flights with partners

The SME head says earning in the air is easy and cost effective with our network of airline partners.

“Obviously Virgin Australia is the preferred airline for domestic travel, and the benefits don’t stop locally. When you go global, you and your employees can access discounts and earn Points through our international airline partners.

“Book with United through our Business Flyer portal, for example, and you can get up to a 10% discount¹. Qatar, for example, is 5%². Great for your bottom line, and they’re savings you can reinvest into your business and people.”

Earn Points or access discounts through our travel partners

Hotels: Members can unlock better value across their entire business trip using our hotel partner IHG Business Edge. Gautam says there are over 6000 hotel properties worldwide to explore. Book through the portal and get guaranteed discounts on rates. Spend one qualifying night at an IHG property and enjoy the perk of an upgrade to IHG One Rewards Gold Status³.

Car rental: Rent a car with Thrifty and get up to an 18% discount⁴ (yep, that’s not a typo.) The business and driver of the vehicle will both earn Points on the booking—another double dip.

Ride sharing: When travelling domestically, use DiDi as a ride-share platform and earn points on all your trips⁵.

“Every one of these business travel opportunities gets you some kind of offer on Points and discounts,” says Gautam, who breaks down four more ways to use Business Flyer’s everyday partners for business expenditure and move fast up the program’s three tiers.

Cash flow

“From a small business perspective, cash flow is vital and interest free credit is important,” he says.

“Users of the program’s Archa Business Card can pay their usual business expenses with it while earning Points at the same time.”⁶

Capital

“We know accessing capital is important for businesses,” says Gautam. “Our partner Money Tech has been in the program since inception and offers a diverse range of lending solutions⁷.

“Your business can get capital and Points. This fits with the whole idea that almost everything you are doing in business can earn you Points, and those Points are worth something.”

Paying business expenses

Like Katrina, Gautam recommends considering partners like Pay.com.au, Sniip and Yak Pay.

“Pay your ATO bills. Pay your rent, electricity bills, insurance, contractors, even superannuation. There’s a range of everyday expenses which earn Points.

“The best thing is you can do whatever you want with those Points. Keep them for your own use, give them to employees as a reward or transfer them to Velocity to redeem on Rewards seats if you’re booking further ahead, hotels or merchandise like gift cards.”

Effortless earning

Gautam recommends exploring all our partners to find ways to help your business earn Points through every step of your business journey.

Let’s say you own a cafe. Our partner Till Payments can provide merchant facilities and your business will earn Points with any transaction going through that facility, for example⁸. And partner with HungryHungry for technology that provides QR codes for scanning in hospitality venues. As the cafe owner, you’ll earn Points for each scanned transaction⁹.

A strong mix of additional partners will be brought on in the next 12 months as Business Flyer continues to expand and bring value, says Gautam.