At a glitzy Sydney gathering on Thursday night, Flight Centre Travel Group officially launched its long-awaited first leisure loyalty program, World360 Rewards.
Swapping the famous Flight Centre red for the blue hues of the World360 Rewards brand (complete with a BLUE carpet entrance), the event saw hundreds of guests transported to all corners of the globe via destination-themed entertainment and flavours – from geisha and Canadian hockey players to Bollywood and Brazilian samba dancing. At one point, there was even a fire dancer/eater (though I’m not sure where that represented).
With Flight Centre, Travel Associates and Cruiseabout, its initial participating brands, World360 Rewards was unveiled to the market in late November last year. But a launch party was inevitable (this is FCTG, after all). Among the guests were launch partners across travel – including airlines, cruise lines and tour operators – as well as non-travel affiliates like ANZ, BUPA and new partner Caltex.
With the program less than three months old, World360 Rewards executive general manager Clinton Hearne said membership had already risen to around 200,000.
“We delivered a program in about 10 months, which is crazy. And since then… we’re just under 200,000 members that have signed up,” he told guests at the event, including Karryon.
“We have massive aspirations to hit that million as soon as we can. We really want… to be the fastest-growing travel loyalty program in Australia ever. We’ve got some big goals and big ambitions.”
Leading a team of “about 53” (up from just two staff 12 months ago), Hearne also highlighted the program’s “unique proposition”, which he added can deliver on travel like no one else can.
“So you can earn and redeem on any travel – no one else offers that in-market. Those points come back to travel and come back to all of our travel partners. So it’s a win-win.”
Encouragingly for the group, more than half of World360’s members so far are new to FCTG, and the program is attracting interest across all ages.
“We’ve got about 52% new to Flight Centre Travel Group,” Hearne said.
“In the age demographics, 20 to 29, 50 to 59, 60 to 69 are all equal. So we definitely see [the youth market] coming in.”
Loyalty beyond leisure
The scheme is also aiming to leverage FCTG’s business travel divisions.
“We have a great partner pipeline coming in within the travel space, within the financial space, and excitingly, unlocking the other part of our group, which is our Corporate Traveller business,” Clinton added.
“We have Corporate Traveller and FCBT (Flight Centre Business Travel) that we’re looking [at]. That’s 4,500 SMEs that will be able to earn points and [redeem them] on leisure travel.”
Speaking at the event, FCTG Global Leisure CEO James Kavanagh said the loyalty program is central to the group’s push to keep travel at the heart of everything it does.
“The real story behind this is that our company is all about innovation. It’s about disruption. It’s about entrepreneurial spirit, and that’s [why] we’re here today… to change the game with loyalty,” he remarked.
“We believe our advantage is that we have great assets, and those are around choice, channel, convenience. We have the widest range of product opportunities to enable Aussies to travel more.”
KARRYON UNPACKS: 200,000 members in three months is no small feat. For travel advisors, World360 could deepen retention, attract new-to-brand clients and keep spend inside the Flight Centre ecosystem. Watch this closely.
All images by Wes Nel Photography (unless stated).
