Airlink, one of Southern Africa’s airlines, has announced that its Skybucks frequent flyer programme will be launched on 01 March 2023, enabling its customers to earn rewards on its flights and redeem them against future travel and other Airlink purchases.
The airline says since it “became a totally independent carrier in 2020, we have been inundated by customer requests and suggestions for a unique Airlink loyalty programme. We have spent the past year researching, planning and developing our compelling new Skybucks programme.” The Skybucks “enables our loyal customers to earn a rand value percentage on every flight and to redeem Skybucks on their next flight as a form of payment to more than 45 destinations in 13 sub-Sahara African countries, including Madagascar and St Helena Island,” explained Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
There will be four Skybucks membership tiers, with eligibility determined by the number of sectors or leg of a journey flown in 12 months (a typical Johannesburg-Durban-Johannesburg return ticket comprises two sectors). Blue Tier is for customers who have flown less than 18 sectors, while red is for 18 to 34 sectors, Emerald is for more than 35 sectors and Black tier membership is by invitation only.
Each tier earns rewards at a different rate; the higher the tier, the more Skybucks are earned for the same flight at the same fare.
According to the airline, Skybucks can also be used for full or partial payment of air tickets (excluding statutory taxes and charges) and upgrades. Additional offerings and rewards will be announced as they are added to the programme.
Skybucks will be valid for 18 months from the date of the last activity, but it will be possible to extend their validity before they expire. They are also transferrable between members, and families of up to eight members can pool their Skybucks.
The airline’s customers “will receive 1,000 Skybucks (Sb10 is worth R1) upon enrolment during March 2023. Customers who have flown sufficient sectors with Airlink in the three months prior to becoming a member, will be eligible to move to a higher tier by furnishing the Airlink booking reference (a six-character code), ticket number, flight number and date of travel; as well as the departure and destination airports for the sectors previously flown” , expalined the carrier.
If for any reason, a journey is not picked up by the system, members have 90 days from the date of flight to retroactively claim their Skybucks.
Tier membership is valid for 12 months, except for customers who will be automatically progressed to the next tier once they have flown the required number of sectors within that time frame.
“Besides providing a great added value loyalty programme for our customers, in doing so, we are also taking every measure to safeguard customer data privacy and are using servers situated in the European Union to manage the Skybucks membership information. As a result, data management and security will be compliant with both the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA),” assured Mr Foster.