SAA Voyager Changes?

thijsseh · Dec 19, 08, 6:28 am

I just read in the Sawubona (in-flight magazine) that there will be 'improvements' to the Voyager programme in 2009. They are a bit short on the detail, but it appears that the most important change is that Voyager miles will be convertable to cash, with which one can then buy tickets. Any ticket can be bought with this 'Voyager Cash'. Now this could of course be good, since long haul C seats are notoriously difficult to get

, but the sting is obviously the conversion rate and they don't say anything about that. If you get enough cash for 85K miles to but a D return to LHR, FRA or MUC, I would be happy

. But I have built up enough cynicism (especially by reading FT), that I doubt this to be the case

.
Has anyone got any other (more inside) info?
Once this happens, will the "I" (or the "X" for that matter) fare bucket still have any use?

AAbuzzard · Dec 19, 08, 7:16 am

I read this post because of PAST changes in the program, namely the one to eliminate--without announcement--the possibility to convert Voyager miles into HHonors points. Maybe there will be a FUTURE positive change so that we can do something with those miles.

Cheetah_SA · Dec 21, 08, 5:10 am

thijsseh, as you say it could herald an improvement or we could get shafted. Why am convinced it will be the latter? For some reason I'm not upset that I have just about exhausted my Voyager account recently.

thijsseh · Dec 22, 08, 7:33 am

I wrote my OP a few days ago whilst waiting in the lounge in JNB for my connecting flight to CPT (by the way, 'the towels had not been delivered', so no shower

but that is way OT).
In the meantime, I have had an opportunity to ponder about this 'cash conversion for Voyager miles' story, and the more I think about it, the more worried I get:
I started by working out the value of a Voyager mile to someone like myself, if I used it for a CPT/LHR redemption. The lowest fare (D) for this route is R27190 return exc. taxes and surcharges (source: ITA). Currently, this costs 85000 miles (if you can find an I seat avialable). This suggests that a Voyager mile is currently worth R0.32. Now lets assume that this is the value that Voyager will assign to a mile

and work out how many miles a local trip would cost..... The lowest fare I can find (ITA again), is R1600. At R0.32 / mile, that would work out to 5000 miles for a "Voyager ticket'! No way are they going to give us that.....

.
Conversely, if one works out the value of a mile from the Domestic redemption rate, we get to R0.09/mile (18000 mile for a R1600 ticket) and using this value we would need 300K miles for a D ticket to LHR.
If we then bring in the *A redemption table, which gives 90K miles for that award, the whole situation becomes very murky indeed.
So I am intrigued and worried about where this is going......