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OK Kristo lets revisit your example, by my calculation at the rate of 75 airpoints per airpoint dollar, 30,000 points equates to 400 airpoint dollars, not 357 as you state (I suspect you may be using some exchange rate conversion factor though its not entirely clear from the ANZ press release how they intend to take into account disparity between the currencies). In any event the cheapest fare I have found on the ANZ website (excluding taxes which were always additional) is AU$358 which would seem to suggest in this case the status quo has at least been maintained so far as the cost of award travel is concerned.
In my opinion the real benefit of the new scheme lies in its flexibility being able to purchase any seat on any flight using airpoint dollars rather than being limited to a few seats on each flight. Haven't attempted the conversion for other routes but attach following from ANZ press release:
<Mr Norris says the conversion ensures that the vast majority of journeys that could have been taken by Airpoints members with their reward points can still be taken with their new Airpoints Dollars balance.
"As well as being able to purchase any seat, 61% of flight redemptions will require fewer equivalent points to purchase the lowest fares and 15% of redemptions will require the same number of equivalent points."
Overall, the number of Airpoints Dollars required at the lowest published fare to obtain the flight redemptions taken in the past 12 months will be an average 6% less than the equivalent number of Airpoints required under the old programme.>
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