On September 1st, we're shipping our biggest update to Experiences ever. Here's some more detail on what's to come and why we've redesigned things in the app to make using your Yonder points better than ever. Right then, tuck in.

The birth of Yonder Experiences

Over the past two years, we’ve been crafting a rewards program to challenge the conventional travel programs you see with most credit cards. Why? Because we kept hearing over and over that these types of programs were hard to understand, impossible to work with the dates they wanted and required seemingly endless spending just to get a flight. So, with a bit of soul searching and over 200 user research interviews, we landed on Yonder Experiences – a rewards program designed to help you unlock London’s hidden treasures and discover the city in the most unique and exciting way possible.

While everyone moves to London for different reasons, we all share the desire to discover the best of London. From culinary adventures to nights out and everything in-between, Yonder Experiences have helped thousands of Londoners discover their own backyard in a way they never would have been able to before.

Covering every aspect of your London lifestyle

We built Yonder Experiences to become foodies’ go-to way to discover new independent bars and restaurants in their neighbourhood. But we kept hearing that our members wanted the same handpicked treatment applied to other areas of their London lifestyle – gym classes, short stays, events and more. So as we started to test new ways for members to use their points around London, we realised we needed to go back to the drawing board and rebuild Experiences to better work with all aspects of your lifestyle with more flexibility and versatility.

As of September 1st, you’ll see a whole new range of Experiences in the app around fitness, ticketed events, travel and, of course, plenty of food and drink options.

The Experiences page in the app has been completely rebuilt. We've grouped Experiences under their categories so even now as we grow the range of Experiences on offer each month, it should be just as easy to flick through the app and find something that works for you regardless of whether you're looking to go big with your points on a memorable meal out or grab a quick coffee on the way to work.

We're not finished yet. As we build out our new Experiences program, travel enthusiasts will soon be able to scratch their travel itch (sounds uncomfortable...) through unique staycations in cabins around the UK and curated getaways abroad. Fitness fanatics will be able to pick from different ways to torture themselves on a Saturday morning and if you’re a person or culture, and we know you are, you'll be able to binge out on outdoor cinemas, exhibitions and other live events. We've even got something for the hermits with at-home experiences.

Members now earn 1 point for every 20p spent

As part of this big change, we're also changing the way members earn points and the value of each point. From September 1st, members will earn 5x more points per £1 which means if you spend 80p, you’ll get 4 points (instead of zero). That means the cost to redeem a Yonder Experience will go up by about 5x to reflect the higher earn rate.

If you're already a member with us, we'll be multiplying all your points 5x on September 1st so you won't be any worse off with this change but you may notice your points balance is much higher!

Why are we doing this? Changing the points value means we can offer a ‘taster’ membership tier which is free for new customers. Members on our free membership tier will be able to earn points, just at a lower rate to full members. These members will earn one point per pound, while full members will earn 5 points per pound.

Sorry for the hassle, we know it may take a little time to adjust.

Keep your eyes peeled for more

These changes help lay the groundwork for a bunch of other fun updates we'll be rolling out soon. So keep your eyes peeled for new ways to use your points plus some other cool updates in the app. As ever, we're all ears if you have any winning ideas for us.