SAA has extended the
redemption period for its loyalty
programme’s members to
enable them to continue to process
AnyDay and MileageKeeper Awards
until February 28 at 23h00 (SA time).
This follows an outcry by travel
agents last week, who felt their
clients were disadvantaged by the
changes that took effect when
the new SAA Voyager programme
launched on February 1.
According to agents, Voyager miles
“devalued drastically overnight” when
SAA changed its loyalty programme
from a mileage-based to a revenuebased
system. See last week’s TNW
(February 11).
“It was well understood that
members who have earned miles
as per the mileage-based model,
could feel disadvantaged by the
revenue-based redemption model
when requesting high-yield fares and
therefore all members were given 64
days to exercise their right to redeem
miles as per the mileage-based model
if required,” said Suretha Cruse, SAA
executive of Customer Loyalty.
“This extension is given, without
hesitation by SAA, in response to
feedback from our members in
terms of the new Dynamic Awards
introduced by SAA Voyager. This will
allow members a further period to
review their options available,”
she said.
SAA Voyager’s new value proposition
enables members to earn miles at
1 mile for every R1,60 spent on the
base fare and fuel levy paid when
travelling on SAA-operated flights.
“The redemption value for SAAoperated
flights is transparent,
whereby members are assured
by SAA Voyager of a 5% return. In
other words, for R5 000 spent on
SAA-operated flights, a member will
have R250 to spend towards future
travel on SAA-operated flights,” says
Suretha.
These redemption seats will not be
capacity controlled and miles will be
converted as form of full payment for
the base fare and fuel levy with a set
conversion.
Furthermore, SAA has negotiated
discounted fares for its Voyager
members compared with the available
fares to revenue passengers.
These discounts, which may vary
between routes and regions, will be
passed on to members when miles
are converted to the required ZAR
value for an SAA-operated flight for
redemption purposes.
Do you have any questions about
the new Voyager programme that you
would like SAA to respond to?
Let us know by emailing
natashas@nowmedia.co.za.
