From October 17, Loyalty New Zealand (the operator of Fly Buys) and Air NZ will be offering differing choices, although some will remain the same.
Z Energy and Foodstuffs own half of Fly Buys, with BNZ and State Insurance owning the other 50%.
But Z and Foodstuffs have also joined Air NZ’s Airpoints scheme — a dollar-each-way bet.
Loyalty NZ chief executive Stephen England-Hall told the Otago Daily Times Loyalty and Air NZ had undertaken a grown-up discussion about their respective futures and found they wanted different things.
"Air NZ is copying something that is a highly successful proposition in New Zealand. We are proud of the work we have done with them, helping them build their programme. But we want different things."
Nationally, Fly Buys was present in 74% of New Zealand households but in Otago and Southland that rose to 80%. In Auckland, it was 60%, albeit in a larger market, he said.
South Island New World Club Card members would not need to change their cards but from October 17 it would become a Fly Buys only loyalty card.
New World was likely to offer a new Airpoints card.
The Club Card would continue to gather Fly Buys points at the Z Pump promotions and other existing outlets.
Mr England-Hall said Fly Buys members would soon be able to access a much larger range of "travel propositions" and Air NZ would not be the only airline involved in the travel options.
Members would be able to choose which airline they wanted and pay by points or cash, or a combination of both, for travel.
Fly Buys was working with Hello World, its existing travel partner, on new options and was talking to two other "high street" travel operators.
The future looked bright for Fly Buys and Mr England-Hall understood that occasionally, "you have to break a few eggs" to get ahead.
Air NZ general manager loyalty Mark Street said in a statement Airpoints members had a choice of 55 businesses where they could earn Airpoints dollars.
The airline had added 29 new businesses to its coalition during the past two years.
"This is reflected in an additional 33 million Airports dollars earned by members over the past 12 months compared to the prior year, resulting in a staggering 860,000 flights taken by members using their Airpoints dollars — up more than 100,000 on the year before."
Both Messrs England-Hall and Street said more information would be sent to the respective loyalty scheme members soon.
At a glance
• Fly Buys and Air NZ will operate their own loyalty programmes from October 17
• Members may have to choose sides and get another card
• Fly Buys will offer more travel options for members
• Air NZ has yet to announce any new information
