Agents cry foul over new VoyagerT
RAVEL agents are up in arms
about the new SAA Voyager RE5
programme, which was launched
on February 1, and which, according
to agents, has seen Voyager miles
devalue drastically overnight. SAA has
changed its loyalty programme from
a mileage-based to revenue-based
system.
“On Friday, I still had Voyager miles to
the value of over 12 return tickets to
London in Business Class. On Monday,
I suddenly could only redeem one and
a half return tickets with my miles,”
said one travel agent, who would like to
remain anonymous.
“It’s like waking up one morning and
finding that the hard-earned money in
your bank account has been devalued
and is worth nothing any more,” said
another agent.
A return economy ticket from Cape
Town to London used to cost about
55 000 miles; under the new system
travellers would need about 169 000
miles, the agent said. For a businessclass
passenger, the discrepancy is
even bigger. Where a business-class
Mileage Keeper ticket used to cost
87 500 miles, business-class travellers
now need to fork out 731 000 miles
for a D-class ticket.
“The main problem was that SAA
kept saying its new system would be
much better and more user-friendly but
they refused to divulge how many miles
travellers would need to book their
tickets in the new system, he says. “I
must have logged over 100 calls to
SAA since the announcement of the
Voyager RE5 system asking this very
question, but nobody could answer.”
The new Voyager programme is “just
a clever way” for SAA to write off a
huge debt in Voyager miles, the agent
said. “SAA should give existing loyalty
members leniency and allow them
to redeem their miles under the old
system for at least another month.”
Existing members were given 64
days to exercise their right to redeem
miles in the mileage-based model,
says Suretha Cruse, SAA executive
of Customer Loyalty. She adds
that SAA Voyager has negotiated
discounted fares for its members
compared with the fares available to
revenue passengers and that these
discounts, which may vary between
routes and regions, will be passed
on to members when miles are
converted to the required rand value
for an SAA-operated flight. Members
receive one mile per R1,60 spent and
the accumulation of miles under this
earning structure counts towards tier
status.
For example, the 19 000-mile
threshold for a previous Domestic
Mileage Keeper Award was
capacity controlled and
excluded the fuel levy, which
was payable in cash. “It is
therefore not comparable with
the pricing of Dynamic Awards,
which are inclusive of fuel levy
in addition to being available
on any booking class for the
desired flight,” she says.
Suretha adds that the
changes to Voyager allow
more redemption options and
minimise the cash cost of
redemption. “The restriction on
the availability of SAA Voyager
seats and the requirement of
having to pay for the fuel levy
were SAA Voyager’s top two
customer complaints,” she
says.
“Within South Africa,
there are about 80 loyalty
programmes and the return
in ‘cash’ value based on the
rand value spend, equals
between 0,025 to 2,5%. We
are therefore immensely proud
that SAA Voyager’s return
equals 5%. In other words,
for R5 000 spent on SAAoperated
flights, a member
will have R250 to spend
towards future travel on
SAA-operated flights.”
Upgrades
A major benefit of the previous
Voyager system, agents say,
was that travellers could
confirm the upgrade of their
seats with Voyager miles up
to a year in advance. Under
the new system, upgrades can
only be confirmed 24 hours to
48 hours before the flight.
There will be instances when
SAA will know 48 hours prior
to departure that the potential
sale of seats at normal cost
will not be reached, says
Suretha, and therefore SAA
could confirm an E-Class
seat (i.e. seat allocation
for SAA Upgrade Awards).
“Members will know that the
mileage thresholds required
for Upgrade Awards do not in
the least relate to the price
in rands to upgrade from
economy class to business
class.”
SAA Voyager will have the
technology to implement
part payment (miles and
cash) for SAA-operated seats
within the next three to four
months, Suretha says. “This
will allow members to upgrade
dynamically from economy
class to business class for
immediate confirmation. The
mileage threshold required will
be higher.”
