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Cape Town – National carrier South African Airways' (SAA) recent overhaul of its loyalty programme from a distance travelled system to a miles per spend model, now sees the first of its redemption seat sales available exclusively to its voyager members.
While the initial change, which came into effect on 1 February 2015, was seen as placing existing members at a disadvantage the airline stated the move was done in order to reward its customers more fairly.
SAA announced the new Voyager JourneyBlitz Awards redemption seat sale in a statement, saying it has released an unprecedented number of seats, exclusive to SAA-operated flights for the next 365 days. The sale will be valid until 30 April 2015.
The new redemption seat sale is aimed at "increasing customer value" said Suretha Cruse, SAA Executive Customer Loyalty.
"The JourneyBlitz Awards mileage thresholds are on average 70% to 85% less in Miles than the Dynamic Awards. These seats are available on a first-come-first-serve basis and all levies, taxes and/or surcharges will be for the members’ own account,"said Cruse.
The airline confirmed that while the seats are mostly during off-peak periods, it hopes that loyalty customers will nevertheless benefit for some - or perhaps all - of their planned redemption travel.
READ: SAA picks up the flak for the unfair legacy of loyalty
The JourneyBlitz Awards mileage thresholds are on average 70% to 85% less in Miles than the Dynamic Awards. These seats are available on a first-come-first-serve basis and all levies, taxes and/or surcharges will be for the members’ own account.
Mileage thresholds as per the below JourneyBlitz Award Chart are flight sector based and therefore one Award is required per flight sector. For example; the mileage threshold for a return Business Class ticket between Cape Town and London will be calculated as follows:
Cape Town to Johannesburg 9 100 Miles
Johannesburg to London 35 700 Miles
London to Johannesburg 35 700 Miles
Johannesburg to Cape Town 9 100 Miles
Total Mileage Required: 89 600 Miles
"We reassured our members during the transition period of our programme changes that once our first JourneyBlitz Awards are published, we will have a different conversation. These Awards are indeed in most instances, lower than our previous MileageKeeper Awards. We believe this Award offering will be most successful and members should not wait too long to issue their tickets on flysaa.com,” said Cruse.
For more information on the SAA Voyager JourneyBlitz Awards visit their website.
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