Ask an expert

What is the rationale behind this new programme? What was wrong with the old AA rewards scheme?
I wish to express my disappointment with Smartfuel because
1) I am no longer able to get Rewards points that allow a reduction in my annual membership fee.
2) I cannot use the card to get fuel discounts when I purchase fuel
3) have to make othere purchases to get discounts
4) Ironically, I'm told I can get fuel discounts if I buy a pair of sunglasses in the BP store. Where is the logic???

I therefore will not purchase fuel at BP anymore - I can get better rewards with my Fly Buys. The marketing is less complicated. I don't see any benefit from chasing around hunting out fuel discounts - there are better things to do with my time.
Can I suggest that you keep it simple and surely you will get more customers!

We have introduced AA Smartfuel to bring meaningful monetary savings to AA Members. This programme has proven successful over the past 14 months in the Manawatu, with cardholders earning substantial discounts by shopping at participating retailers.

After the first month, AA Smartfuel cardholders have already redeemed over $1 million worth of AA Smartfuel discounts on fuel.

AA Members have earned over 3 times the value in AA Smartfuel discounts than they did in the corresponding period last year with AA Rewards.

BP and Caltex are both redeeming partners of the programme – so you can go to either partner to use your accumulated AA Smartfuel discount on your card. However when it comes to issuing rewards they have taken two different approaches:

•   BP promote varying shop offers that if you purchase, will qualify you to earn the cents per litre attributed to those products. These products change out on a regular basis – so one month there may be nothing that appeals to you personally but the next month there may well be something highly appealing –please remember you are not forced to purchase any of these items. BP have in the past run short term incentives to encourage you to redeem your AA Smartfuel accumulated discounts with them –last week they ran a 3 day promotion that stated if you fuelled-up with them and redeemed your AA Smartfuel card balance, they would give you another 8 cents per litre off.

•   On the other hand, Caltex have a fuel offer that runs until 7 May 2012, which provides 6 cents (AA Members) or 4 cents (AA Smartfuel cardholders) per litre off each time you spend $40 or over on fuel - their staff will ask you if you want to use that discount immediately or accumulate it for the next visit. If you choose to accumulate it and repeat the process on your next visit you will have 12 cents per litre to either redeem or accumulate again.

thank you very much for your reply. I have never been a caltex buyer, but theirs appears to be a scheme worthy of attention. I guess I need to figure out how to learn about these short term promotions of BP.

Bugger- so what happens after 7 May 2012 at Caltex? Do they revert back to the BP promo?

Hi. We are expecting news on what the next AA Smartfuel offer for Caltex will be to be announced soon. This will be on our web site and on our Facebook page. Thanks

I also have a problem with the new scheme, I normally buy $20 worth of petrol at a time and used to get reward points for this with the old scheme. They are now generally specifying that I need to buy $40 worth of gas to gain any points. I wouldn't mind doing this IF I could fit that much petrol in my car! But I own a dihatsu Mira which costs me $35 to fill! I don't think it's fair that I should miss out on discounts because of the size of my vehicle! I now don't bother staying loyal to BP or Caltex and go to Mobil instead as their petrol is usually cheaper. My smart fuel card has so far been absolutely useless to me, I much preferred getting money off my bill.

According to technical data available to us, the Daihatsu Mira was fitted with a 32 litre fuel tank. Therefore, with current fuel prices at around $2.20 per litre, the cost of filling your car from empty would be around $70. Even taking into account that you would not want to run your tank completely empty, there will still be plenty of scope to run it down to a level where it would take $40 worth of fuel.