Tigerair introduces 'Infrequent Flyer' scheme

Although points and status will not be acknowledged, you will be able to choose the colour of your own card, such as '70s brown' and 'triple emerald sapphire ivory'. Unless, of course, you only have a black and white printer in your office.

Tigerair – "it's how you fly when you've won the Lotto. Fourth division lotto," the ads mock. After all, who needs tiny bottles of wine or a Neil Perry meal on a plane?

The scheme is aimed at Australians who don't fly as often as they would like because it is too expensive and therefore the merits of a frequent flyer program become meaningless.

"The Infrequent Flyer Club is a fun promotional campaign to engage with our Australian consumers and allow them to receive exclusive surprises, offers and special deals direct from Tigerair Australia," said Vanessa Regan, Tigerair Australia's Head of Communications.

Tigerair said the club is essentially a customer relationship management platform and will run alongside Stripes, a membership programme that is run by the Tigerair Group from Singapore.

Stripes offers exclusive access to promotional fares, member-only fares and special partner promotions before they are made available to non-members, but costs $S29.94 ($A24.77) annually.

While you can sign up to Jetmail, Jetstar's free mailing list, the Jetstar Club similarly offers exclusive access to promotional fares for $39 per year. This includes member-only events, including $1 sale fares, as well as discounts and special offers from a range of their partners.

Qantas now charges $89.95 to join their Frequent Flyers scheme. Recent changes to the scheme means that those purchasing sale fares will receive less points those purchasing full-priced fares. An e-mail will keep you abreast of Qantas sale fares available to everyone.

Meanwhile you can still sign up to Virgin's Velocity frequent flyer scheme free of charge. The number of points Virgin awards for each flight depends on the flight class, rather than price.