Air New Zealand announces major freebie for frequent flyers

Air New Zealand is gifting tens of thousands of frequent flyers a massive freebie: a significant number of Status Points towards their Airpoints membership. Status Points are the most coveted reward for frequent flyers - if they reach a certain number of points each year they can progress to Silver, Gold or Gold Elite status. Some of the benefits of Gold and Elite include free lounge access, extra baggage and free upgrades. During the pandemic, Airpoints members didn’t do as much flying. Given status is reviewed annually, many were at risk of being downgraded. To combat that, Air NZ introduced three Tier Status Extensions so people could hold onto their status throughout the pandemic – essentially pausing the annual review system. Now that most of the extensions are running out, Air NZ is offering one final post-pandemic freebie; it’s giving away up to 270 status points as a one-off gift. A spokesperson for the airline said: “With the New Zealand borders reopen, it’s great to see that flying has gradually returned, however many members may not have yet had the opportunity to travel, and as a result may downgrade their tier status over the coming year.” There are two types of “support” packages to help Silver, Gold and Gold Elite members keep their status. The first is a “top-up”. If the member doesn’t have enough points to retain their current tier level at their next annual review, they’ll get a top-up of up to 20% of the total points needed to nudge them over the mark. If that still doesn’t get you there, unfortunately, you’re headed down a level.<br/>