Airlink has introduced an innovative new product. The South African airline is offering customers the ability to purchase flexible gift vouchers which are redeemable against air tickets and a variety of services on the Airlink website.
The vouchers are perfect for personal and corporate gifts up to a maximum R25,000 value. They are valid for three years and can be used multiple times until the remaining value is completely used up. They are transferrable and can be redeemed against all Airlink fares and class of travel as well as ancillary services such as extra baggage allowances.
“Our market research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered people’s travel spending behaviour and that they demand and value flexibility more than anything else. Our new gift voucher offering is the latest of several innovative Airlink responses to meet our customers’ expectations,” said Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
The vouchers can be applied to journeys that suit the traveller. They can be future-dated, customised as personal gifts and can also be used in combination with credit cards and other forms of payment.
Airlink gift vouchers can be purchased at any time and, unlike traditional airline loyalty mileage redemption programmes, do not require customers to earn and accrue miles. Also, the gift vouchers can be made out to anyone and any unspent balance can be put towards future travel either for the voucher holder or someone they chose to nominate.
To manage its innovative gift voucher programme Airlink has partnered with Amadeus, the global travel technology provider and Qwikcilver , an end to end prepaid and gift card solutions provider.
“Through Qwikcilver, we have deployed our state-of-the-art Asset Manager solution and with Amadeus, we have tailored it for Airlink’s gift voucher programme. We are very proud to be working with Airlink, which is widely regarded as Southern Africa’s leading airline,” said Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs Limited.
Maher Koubaa, EVP, Airlines, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Amadeus comments, “As travel returns, any opportunity to engage with people’s appetite for travel will be key to secure growth in our industry. In this respect we’re happy to work with Airlink to include its gift voucher program into the Amadeus Airline Platform. Our partnership with Qwikcilver will power more convenient and flexible journeys for Airlink’s customers. We look forward to further innovating together – as our platform ecosystem enables both airlines and partners like Qwikcilver to jointly collaborate in an open and agile way.”