Goodbye Flybuys

Yesterday I said a symbolic farewell to Flybuys (formerly “Fly Buys”), a customer loyalty programme in New Zealand that was launched in 1996. Nigel and I signed up right away, and mainly because the initial marketing promoted the possibility of earning flights (hence the name…), something that seemed like a good idea for us, a binational couple. Even though none of the early promises—as we understood them—actually amounted to anything, we nevertheless continued on and earned many rewards over the years. All that ends on December 31, and I needed to use up my points before then. I did that yesterday.

We got quite a few “rewards”, as they were called, over the years, and among them is a clock radio I still have and use. I can only list that one thing because it, and a six month subscription to a magazine, were the only things still listed when I checked yesterday. I probably have no hope of remembering anyt earlier rewards.

Technically, my account was an extension of Nigel’s, and he usually chose what we got as “rewards” (like that clock radio—because it can project the time onto the ceiling at night). The only thing I got since Nigel died was that magazine subscription (and a donation of points to a charity). Yesterday was my final chance.

My intention was to buy more than I had points for, which would mean using all my points and paying a bit, too. Basically, I didn’t want to leave any points un-redeemed, and that seemed like the best option. I could’ve bought store vouchers (like for a supermarket), which would be useful, of course, but I’d have had points leftover. So, I decided to buy a bit of tech instead.

When Nigel was in his last days, he told me I needed to get a MacBook Pro and a dock so that I could do my work anywhere, and also connect it to a real keyboard and mouse. I did that, and, at the time, I didn’t realise that neither the 2019 Macbook Pro I bought, nor the dock I also bought, had any way to connect to an older external monitor. While the display on my MacBook Pro is excellent quality, it’s also small.

So, yesterday I decided to complete Nigel’s instructions (his intent, if not specific direction) and buy an adapter to allow me to connect an HDMI monitor to my MacBook Pro. I have two HDMI monitors (my own and Nigel’s), but newer Macs have moved to a different standard. I intend to upgrade my Mac Mini in the next year or so, and that’ll mean getting a new HD monitor (something I also want), but thanks to that adapter, I’ll be able to use my old monitor(s) with my MacBook Pro until they stop working. I had to pay an extra roughly $14 to get the adapter, but if I saw that in a shop I wouldn’t have thought twice about spending that much (it’d have been more in a shop…), so, why not?

I spent far too much time scrolling through their website to pick what I wanted, but, in the end, I got something I can use, I used up all my points, and can see the demise of Flybuys while losing nothing. Well, nothing apart from the flights to the USA that Nigel and I originally hoped to get from the programme—they turned out to be nothing. Still we did get some stuff over the years, and that was good. And, at the end of the programme, I got something that Nigel actually had in mind for me in his final days, or that’s in line with those intentions, but also something that I somehow didn’t quite grasp at the time.

Maybe it’s actually true that all’s well that ends well.

Update – December 17, 2024: The adapter arrived today, two business days after I ordered it, complete with a cute little suede-like travel pouch: