Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
ETIHAD Airways Partners (EAP), a unique partnership comprising eight airlines, has announced further steps aimed at aligning the benefits for tiered members of the separate frequent flyer programmes operated by each airline.
The partnership comprises Etihad Airways, airberlin, Alitalia, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Etihad Regional, Jet Airways, and NIKI which have joined together to enhance their customer proposition and offer more choice to travellers.
The latest enhancements incorporate customer feedback on benefits they value and are part of an ongoing strategy to enhance the customer proposition and create the best global loyalty programme.
Four frequent flyer programmes are operated by the EAP airlines and include Etihad Guest which is used by loyalty members of Etihad Airways, Air Seychelles, Air Serbia and Etihad Regional; topbonus for airberlin and NIKI; JetPrivilege for Jet Airways; and MilleMiglia for Alitalia. Together the airlines offer a combined network of over 400 destinations across six continents.
Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airline Equity Partners, Bruno Matheu said: “The steps we’re announcing are just the latest initiative to create an enhanced proposition for guests travelling across the EAP. We want to give all of our guests a high quality, convenient travel experience across all the partner airlines.
“EAP partner airlines have taken key steps to align their products. For instance, all offer fully flat beds in Business Class on long haul flights. Now we want to provide further enhancements, and by aligning services such as tier benefits, we can ensure that our most loyal guests experience the same service on each of the partner airlines.”
Starting from 4 October, there will be changes in several areas such as priority check-in, priority boarding, lounge access, excess baggage and tier bonus miles, as part of the ongoing process to speed up the alignment of the various programmes.
Changes made to apply excess baggage allowances across all EAP airlines will see Silver members receive an additional 10 kg; Gold members a further 15 kg, and platinum members will receive 20 kg more whenever they fly on an EAP carrier. For those routes where the weight is measured per piece, all members will receive an additional bag up to 23kg in Economy or up to 32kg in First and Business Class. The changes made to excess baggage applying them across all EAP flights will be industry leading, and set the new benefits apart from the competition.
The Silver, Gold and Platinum members of all EAP frequent flyer programmes will be entitled to priority check-in, irrespective of which airline they are flying. Priority check-in offers elite tier members an enhanced experience, at dedicated check-in counters or premium counters when travelling in economy. While Gold and Platinum members of all EAP frequent flyer programmes are entitled to priority boarding, irrespective of the airline they are flying.
Lounge access has been expanded to ensure that status members enjoy Etihad Airways Partners’ world leading lounges, including access to the new flagship First Class Lounge and Spa at Abu Dhabi Airport for all Platinum members.
All EAP loyalty programme members will be entitled to tier bonus miles when flying on EAP flights. Members of the schemes accumulate miles on the basis of their flight’s fare and the distance travelled in miles. They can redeem them for award flights, ticket upgrades or non-airline goods and services. Under the changes announced today, Silver members receive 25 per cent bonus miles, Gold members are entitled to 50 per cent more and Platinum members will receive 75 per cent on their bonus miles, regardless of which EAP airline they are flying.
These changes will apply to all Platinum, Gold and Silver members of the EAP frequent flyer programmes that travel on or after 4 October 2016, on any one of the EAP airlines.
