Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Changes to SA Voyager credit card benefits

^ Companion tickets can now be booked for any fare class (used to be restricted to T B H in economy IIRC).

:td:Voyager cc spend no longer prevents Voyager miles expiring.

The first is a fantastic enhancement of the program for many people. (I have only ever used the benefit to book J tickets so it doesn't really help me.)

The second is a real blow to folks like me who don't credit any of their miles to SA even when flying on SA metal and only use Voyager to store miles earned from cc spend and occasionally other partners. :( It will almost certainly result in me forfeiting miles at some stage.

Ha, Cheetah_SA, you beat me to it!
I agree with your take on this. With the continuous dergadation of benefits of this CC, I am almost certainly giving it up this year. Living 6 months of the year in Europe, I dont spend enough on this card anymore to earn international companion tickets (after the hike in required spend last year). So I am going back to using the Standard bank one, linked to BAEC. As most of my travel is between CPT and LHR (as my youngest son is now working in London, my annual trips to the European continent will now normally be via LHR), I am going to use either SA or BA, depending on the best overall value. And with onward travel to AMS plus the T5 vs T1 experience, it may well pull the balance towards BA. I am a member of both programmes, but I dont fly enough anymore to get to any useful status level (especially now that the euro-loophole for BAEC has been closed).

Just a heads up on what was (to me) a hidden change in the rules about Companion Tickets.

It used to be that if you booked even the cheapest D class ticket the companion ticket was always issued in C class. So effectively you could get the last seat on the plane. Now the rules state that both must be booked into the same class. If you are aware of this and book the companion ticket at the same time as the fare paying ticket that's not too onerous - though it does mean you would need to find 2 D seats and not 1, and hope the availability doesn't vanish before you call Voyager to issue the companion ticket. But if you decide to add the companion later it can be very messy.

I challenged Voyager on this for the I ticket earned last June. The call centre was unable to do anything except repeat "the rules have changed, nothing were can do". Fortunately pushing my case up the line I received a more helpful response acknowledging that the rules applicable at the time of receiving notification should apply.

So all sorted. (Thanks, Voyager! Though I'm still a bit cross that this change was not highlighted in the letter telling us about the changes - that was all "we've listened to you and enhanced the benefits" with nary a hint of any negatives.) But thought I'd tell all you people who might get caught unawares. All two and a half of you. :p

But thought I'd tell all you people who might get caught unawares. All two and a half of you. :p

Thanks for the heads-up, Cheetah_SA! I would certainly have missed that and possibly have fallen foul of that new rule. I still have a companion ticket in the system.
One of the things that irks me with the Voyager program (to be honest, one of an increasingly long list) is that there is nowhere where you can find ALL the current rules of the programme (and of the Voyager CC). Every now and then you get an email with a few snippets of change, but - as seen in this example - it does not ever seem to be exhaustive. Certainly it would be easy to have an up to date 'rulebook' on the website. Oh wait, SAA and useful website are contradictions in terms....:mad: MAybe they will - in my lifetime - understand that this how people get information on them..:rolleyes:

Just a heads up on what was (to me) a hidden change in the rules about Companion Tickets.

It used to be that if you booked even the cheapest D class ticket the companion ticket was always issued in C class. So effectively you could get the last seat on the plane. Now the rules state that both must be booked into the same class. If you are aware of this and book the companion ticket at the same time as the fare paying ticket that's not too onerous - though it does mean you would need to find 2 D seats and not 1, and hope the availability doesn't vanish before you call Voyager to issue the companion ticket. But if you decide to add the companion later it can be very messy.

I challenged Voyager on this for the I ticket earned last June. The call centre was unable to do anything except repeat "the rules have changed, nothing were can do". Fortunately pushing my case up the line I received a more helpful response acknowledging that the rules applicable at the time of receiving notification should apply.

So all sorted. (Thanks, Voyager! Though I'm still a bit cross that this change was not highlighted in the letter telling us about the changes - that was all "we've listened to you and enhanced the benefits" with nary a hint of any negatives.) But thought I'd tell all you people who might get caught unawares. All two and a half of you. :p

I just booked a companion ticket and my experience was different. I 'phoned the call centre (they answer the 'phone quickly these days :)) basically just to check D fare availability as I was going to book a D fare seat and did not want it to be the last one because of the 'new rules'. The (very efficient) agent then told me that this rule (the companion ticket books into the same bucket as the commercial ticket) ONLY applies for Economy buckets, not for Business. I went 'through the process' and indeed, when I received the e-ticket for mrs t (who - as always - will be my companion :)), it showed that all her 4 segments were booked into C, vs mine in C for the domestic legs and D for the international ones.

This is going to be my last companion ticket: with the ongoing marginalisation of CPT in SA's policy (no CPT-DUR and now no CPT-LHR), plus the erosion in the benefits of the Voyager CC, I am now collecting Avios though a few CC's. A pity, as I prefer the SA product to the BA 'sardine layout'.

I just booked a companion ticket and my experience was different. I 'phoned the call centre (they answer the 'phone quickly these days :)) basically just to check D fare availability as I was going to book a D fare seat and did not want it to be the last one because of the 'new rules'. The (very efficient) agent then told me that this rule (the companion ticket books into the same bucket as the commercial ticket) ONLY applies for Economy buckets, not for Business. I went 'through the process' and indeed, when I received the e-ticket for mrs t (who - as always - will be my companion :)), it showed that all her 4 segments were booked into C, vs mine in C for the domestic legs and D for the international ones.
This is good news! When I received notification of my last companion ticket entitlement I was very annoyed that they still don't mention the issue of both tickets in the same booking class. But if that only applies to economy I don't mind so much (though it is naughty of them not to spell it out!) as it won't apply to me.

Thanks for the heads-up, thijsseh.^

This is good news! When I received notification of my last companion ticket entitlement I was very annoyed that they still don't mention the issue of both tickets in the same booking class. But if that only applies to economy I don't mind so much (though it is naughty of them not to spell it out!) as it won't apply to me.

Thanks for the heads-up, thijsseh.^

My pleasure! Just a disclaimer:
Although I got it verbally from 2 different agents and also proven by the e-ticket receipt, I would still quickly check with them before you next book a commercial ticket that needs to be linked to a companion ticket. We all know about how / when SAA change the rules and how they inform us (NOT). :td::rolleyes:

My pleasure! Just a disclaimer:
Although I got it verbally from 2 different agents and also proven by the e-ticket receipt, I would still quickly check with them before you next book a commercial ticket that needs to be linked to a companion ticket. We all know about how / when SAA change the rules and how they inform us (NOT). :td::rolleyes:

Well I took your advice and before paying for my ticket I called Voyager and was told by the friendly agent that the companion ticket definitely had to be booked into the same booking class regardless of which cabin it was booked in. And of course D class wasn't available. :eek:

So I complained politely but persistently and read out the sentence from the letter that says book into a qualifying class then call us for the companion ticket - and nothing about same booking classes (which the average man in the street wouldn't know the first thing about anyway). She was sympathetic but remained adamant so I asked if I could speak to a supervisor to register my complaint. Got put on hold for a while and then the agent informed me that her manager was calling ticketing to see if the ticket could be issued in C class. After a few minutes that was confirmed and she proceeded to make the booking.

Very friendly agent and very clear on her instructions - but evidently the rules change all the time. :rolleyes: Net result is it's an unnecessarily tedious process to get the darn things issued according to Voyager's own instructions to members. And tbh the saving is pretty marginal. If I hadn't gotten D class it would have been cheaper to pay for both pax on EK!

...... If I hadn't gotten D class it would have been cheaper to pay for both pax on EK!

That's interesting! What is the route?

I see they (SAA) have a fare sale on at the moment (or at least a few days ago). D class CPT/LHR (via JNB of course :mad:) for R30K. I paid R39K in December (had to book then as my companion ticket was expiring).

That's interesting! What is the route?

I see they (SAA) have a fare sale on at the moment (or at least a few days ago). D class CPT/LHR (via JNB of course :mad:) for R30K. I paid R39K in December (had to book then as my companion ticket was expiring).

CPT-LHR. That R30k fare (which is fantastic!) expires on 4 April and we are flying after that. So the cheapest D fare was around R40k (after bit of currency devaluation since you bought in December). Plus, of course the taxes and fuel levies on the companion fare which come to over R7k.

EK offers a fare on our dates of R24k p.p. So almost the same price as the companion fare. If I had been forced to buy a Z class fare that would have been R58k in total (R51k for me and the R7k taxes for companion). So R10k more than the EK paid fare!

Other considerations would be that I hate the EK J seat as a seat. (Don't mind it as a bed, oddly enough.) But that only affects CPT-DXB and DXB-CPT since DXB-LHR-DXB would be on an A380 with proper flat beds. The total flight time is longer, of course - but it's still only 1 connection.

On the plus side for EK we would both be earning miles (on a longer trip). And there would be the limo transfers in CPT and LHR. So if I'm not saving much on SA I could very easily be swayed towards EK.