TOUGH economic times
are motivating agencies
to launch new payment
options in an effort to entice
cash-strapped clients.
New OTA, Travelcheck, has
gone one step further this
month with the launch of its
‘fly now, pay later’ payment
option, giving travellers
credit for trips already flown.
Earlier this year Club Travel
launched ‘Pay your Way’
– a fee-free, zero-percentinterest instalment payment
offering. Last month
Tourvest Travel Services
introduced its ‘Leisure by
Layby’ option, which allows
travellers to pay off their trip
over a number of months.
These services, however,
require full prepayment 30
days before travel.
Travelcheck, on the other
hand, offers customers an
instant credit facility up to
R8 000 toward domestic
and international airline
tickets. Clients can book
and fly immediately and
make settlement for their
flights in instalments up
to three months after
booking the flight.
Travelcheck has partnered
with credit provider FASTA,
which provides a riskassessment process that
takes three minutes on
the online booking site. To
qualify, applicants need to
earn at least R5 000 per
month, be in possession
of a valid South African
ID and be 18 years or
older. Customers select
their flight on Travelcheck’s
website, select FASTA on
the payment page, complete
an online form and receive
instant confirmation of their
booking.
As the credit agreement
is directly between FASTA
and the client, Travelcheck
does not carry any risk, says
Travelcheck ceo, Odette
Faling.
“This payment solution will
help our customers realise
their travel dreams while
minimising the upfront cost
burden of airline tickets
in challenging economic
times,” she says.
‘Fly now, pay later’
schemes were extremely
popular in South Africa in
the eighties, says Jose Cruz
of Rennies BCD Travel. He
says the banks provided
finance to the airlines and
that agents would assist
their clients with filling out
the credit form in order to
apply for the service. The
schemes eventually fell
away when credit card usage
became widespread.
“Business is bad at the
moment, with the rate of
exchange compounding the
situation and making it very
challenging for a family of
four to travel overseas. In
order to generate sales,
agents are needing to
introduce schemes that
make travel more attractive
to customers in the current
climate,” he says.
