How this Coles shopper scored 1 MILLION Flybuys points
When a single mum of three decided to play a chance game on her Flybuys app, she had no idea how much it would change her life.
Haylee Mackenzie from Wamberal in Victoria scored the major prize in the Flybuys Shake’n’Shop Footy Legends game last year and scored herself 1 million Flybuys points, the equivalent of $5,000.
Since then, she says she’s done things she never thought she would have been able to do for herself and her three boys aged two, seven and 11.
But at first, she had no idea she’d won so much money.
“I was just playing the game where you catch what falls down and then all of a sudden this gold trolley fell down,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
“I was like woah what’s this? I never win anything. I’ve never won anything in my whole life and it just said that I’d done it. I’d won all those points.”
Haylee said she had no clue that she’d taken out the major prize when she caught the golden trolley.
“I had to get my calculator out to try to work out how much money it was,” she joked.
“I showed all my family and they couldn’t believe it, they said is this a scam, it can’t be true, but it was.”
Haylee had to wait until the promotion was over until she received her points and it wasn't until they finally hit her Flybuys account that it sunk in.
“I waited and waited and then it landed on my Flybuys account the week of Christmas,” she said.
“I was shocked. I just couldn’t believe it. I’m a single mum of three and it’s just a hell of a lot of money for us.”
How did she spend the money?
Since her incredible Flybuys points haul, Haylee has purchased an iPad for her kids and some Coles vouchers for her family, but there was one major purchase she made that brought her family closer together.
“My boys had never been on a holiday, we’ve never really left Wamberal and I’ve never been able to afford to take them anywhere,” she said.
“So you can spend the points on travel stuff too, so I took my boys away for five days on a bit of a holiday.
“We’ve never been able to give the kids anything like that.”
She says she also purchased a lot of gifts for her sons from Target and Kmart, things she usually saved up her Flybuy points for.
Haylee says she’s been an avid Flybuys member for at least five years and used the points system as a “rainy day fund”.
“I usually stock up on the points and use them if I’m having a bad pay week or to treat the kids to something they really want for Christmas or their birthdays,” she explained.
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How did she win?
Haylee says being a long-time Flybuys user had nothing to do with her huge win, in fact, she says it was pure luck.
“It was a complete fluke for me. I’d just got the email that it was starting up and I thought oh ok let’s have a look at this,” she explained.
“I think I might have played it two or three times before I won, I mean I just got very lucky.”
When it comes down to others actually winning the game though, Haylee says you have to be in it to win it.
“Just play it every day, play it as much as you can,” she said.
“It’s literally just luck, there’s no right or wrong way to do it, but just get on there and play every day.”
How do you play?
The Shake ‘n’ Shop Footy Legend game is played via the Flybuys app with one new offer available for shoppers each day.
This year the bonus prize has gone up to 2 million Flybuys bonus points valued at $10,000 worth of Flybuys dollars. There's also five 100,000 Flybuys bonus point prizes valued at $500 worth of Flybuys dollars.
Players can win bonus points and special offer prizes by simply logging into the app each day.
To play the game, members tilt their phone to move across the football field and catch the footballs for offers.
The all-important golden boots and special deals will drop down too with the chance to win the associated prizes.
Shoppers can only claim one offer per day and then play again the following day. The game is running until September 26.
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