SAA Voyager Revamp ASATA responds to festive season travel scam

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09 January 2015 : Issue no. 27
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WISHING ALL OUR ASATA MEMBERS A PROSPEROUS AND INSPIRING 2015!
SAA Voyager Revamp
SAA's Voyager Programme will undergo several changes effective 1 February 2015
introduced through a campaign called RE5.
RE stands for REceipt of 1 Mile for every R1.60 spent
One of the major changes SAA are implementing is the introduction of SAA earning based on
spend. Members will be able to earn their Miles based on the airfare and fuel levy paid, rather
than the booking class and distance travelled. Members will get 1 SAA Voyager Mile for every
R1.60 spent, exclusively on SAA operating flights.
RE stands for REdemptions inclusive of fuel levy
Under the new SAA Voyager redemption structure, members will be able to spend their Miles
as payment for fuel levy when they redeem for tickets on SAA operating flights
RE stands for REmoval of seat complexities
Under the new SAA redemption structure, members will be able to spend their Miles for any
available seat on their preferred flight, instead of a set mileage threshold with complexities,
exclusively on SAA operating flights, thus confirming the redemption seat request
immediately.
RE stands for REturn of 5%
Based on the new SAA exclusive earning and spending structure, members are guaranteed
at least 5% return on their SAA spend when requesting an SAA exclusive Dynamic Award for
an SAA operating flight.
ASATA responds to festive season travel scam
ASATA responded to reports of an air ticket scam that had left hundreds of South African
travellers high and dry over the festive season, confirming that the alleged perpetrator was
not a member of the association and advising members of the public to ask a travel agent or
tour operator if they are a member of ASATA before booking their travel. To see ASATA's full
response to the press, please visit our blog:
http://satravelagents.co.za/?p=335
New hand baggage criteria
ACSA has announced it will be launching a hand baggage enforcement programme at all its
airports this year. The aim of the project is to control the carriage of hand baggage on to
aircraft and identify passengers with non­ compliant and baggage before the security point,
referring them back to the check­in counters to enable passengers to check this baggage in
as hold baggage.
To this end, the airports authority has released a document outlining the principles and
procedures governing the enforcement of hand baggage criteria of flights departing from
ACSA airports. The full document can be downloaded from this link:
http://www.asata.co.za/downloads2014/141215_ACSA_HandBaggageCriteria.pdf
In summary, the allowance is:
One bag plus slipline laptop bag per economy­class passenger;
Two bags plus slipline laptop bag per business­ or first­class passenger;
No bag should exceed these dimensions: 56cm x 36cm x 23cm: total dimensions
being 115 cm;
Weight limit per bag of 7kg;
Passengers who exceed the hand baggage limits shall be subject to the specific airline's
excess baggage rules.
Use your marketing toolkit!
Thank you to Harvey World Travels – George, Knysna and Oudtshoorn for sharing ASATA's
Facebook post this week. To access the marketing toolkit with its variety of images purposed
for a range of platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and websites, visit: http://bit.ly/1DkzgAo
Biz Travel Agents must add value in 2015
The ability to add value for clients will be a crucial skill for business travel sellers in 2015. The
best way to accomplish that is to understand, analyze and anticipate client needs. Read more
about this trends report:
http://bit.ly/1zO4drS
Tips for training new agents
Whether you’ve hired your first employee or your fiftieth, whether it's a baby boomer or a
newbie fresh out of college, good training is a must for travel agents. Not only will your new
agent have a better chance of success, their success will be your success. Here are tips on
training new employees—and creating win­win situations. Read more about them:
http://bit.ly/1FeOrfy
'Botlers', 'braggies' and the sharing economy: what will
travel look like in 2015?
If travel industry experts are correct, this year will see us snapping holiday 'braggies', eating
dinner at a local's house, being served by a 'botler' and, more than likely, heading to Asia.
Here are CNN's predicted travel trends in 2015. Read more:
http://cnn.it/13Qvb6F
You know you travel too much when...
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