LOCAL reward programmes
operate travel programmes
that offer their members
substantial discounts on
market prices, which often
undercut the prices that are
available to agents, costing
them business.
While the reward
programmes remain tightlipped
about how these
partnerships work, responding
suppliers insist that they
offer rate parity in the market
and that cash-back rewards
are entirely subsidised by
the reward programmes and
therefore beyond their control.
Discovery advertises travel
rewards of up to 35% on
Emirates, kulula.com, BA
Comair and Qantas flights
and discounts of up to 20%
on suppliers such as Royal
Caribbean, World Leisure
Holidays and Contiki. eBucks
Travel offers discounts of up to
40% on Emirates, kulula.com
and Avis prices and 10%
off Sun International and
Topdeck rates. Lesser known
programmes such as Investec
Rewards and Momentum
Multiply also say travel
discounts are available to their
members.
Monica Horn, marketing
manager for Harvey World
Travel, said it perceived travel
reward programmes as one of
its biggest competitors. “The
subsidised prices that they
offer are incredibly difficult to
compete with. They are a huge
threat to us.”
Zain Mahomed, reservations
supervisor at Sure Mirage
Travel, said the discounted
airfares offered by Discovery
Vitality in particular had
resulted in loss of business.
However, he said agents tried
their best to beat the rates on
reward programmes.
“We then try our best to
match the price in the system
and, if we are unable to do so,
we send the quote through to
the airline that has offered the
cheaper fare and ask them if
they can help us to match it.”
He said Emirates had a
policy that offered a number of
price match fares per month.
“If the monthly allocation of
price matches has already
been used up the client will
then book their airfare directly
through Discovery,” said Zain.
Ramesh Jeenarain, md
of World Leisure Holidays,
confirmed that it had been
working with Discovery’s
travel programme for about
eight years. However, he
insisted that neither WLH
nor Discovery provided any
discounted pricing to the
passenger. “Discovery offers
their members a cash-back
reward for qualifying spend
on holidays and other partner
benefits … World Leisure
Holidays does not have the
tools to calculate the cash
back that the Discovery
client is entitled to on their
purchase.”
Ramesh said WLH did not
cut agents out of reward
programme transactions,
confirming that it offered
agents commission for these
bookings. “In my opinion the
travel agent should be able to
close the sale far more easily
due to the client’s Discovery
allegiance and also gain the
client for future business,
including other destinations
or hotels not covered by the
Discovery loyalty programme.”
Thaybz Khan, contemporary
brand manager of Cruises
International, and Kelly
Jackson, gm of Contiki, both
said they offered rate parity
in the market. “Discovery
subsidises additional
discounts and we can’t dictate
how agents use their
commission to win business,”
said Kelly.
Partner airlines and reward
programmes, however,
remained tight-lipped
about how discounts were
calculated and funded.
Lindsay Hartmann, senior
reputation manager of Vitality
said: “We cannot disclose
details specific to our
business model related to
benefits and reward partners.”
Airlines said their policy
was not to comment about
partnerships and deals.
