Mumbai, November 17, 2016: Etihad Airways Partners (EAP), a unique partnership of eight airlines, has announced further steps aimed at aligning the benefits for elite tier members of the separate frequent flyer programmes operated by each of the airline partners.
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.
EAP is a partnership comprising 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 their travelers. The four frequent flyer programmes operated by the EAP airlines are Etihad Guest – the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, Air Seychelles, Air Serbia and Etihad Regional; topbonus, the loyalty programme of airberlin and NIKI; JetPrivilege, the loyalty and rewards programme of Jet Airways; and MilleMiglia, the loyalty programme of Alitalia. Together the airlines offer a combined network of over 400 destinations across six continents.
Bruno Matheu, Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airline Equity Partners, 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.”
Beginning October, there have been 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, which is subject to Fare Choices made by the guests for travel on board EAP partner airlines.
Based on the fare choice of the guest, changes made to the applicable Excess Baggage allowances across all EAP airlines could 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 allowance of an additional bag up to 23kg in Economy or up to 32kg in First and Business Class. The changes made to excess baggage allowance and applying them across all EAP airlines 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 the EAP 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. Gold and Platinum members of all EAP frequent flyer programmes are also entitled to priority boarding, irrespective of the EAP airline they are flying.
Lounge access has been expanded to ensure that elite tier 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 redeemthem for award flights, ticket upgrades or non-airline goods and services. Under the changes announced, Silver members receive 25% bonus miles, Gold members are entitled to 50% more, and Platinum members will receive 75% bonus miles, regardless of which EAP airline they are flying, based on the choice of fare.
While these changes will apply to all Platinum, Gold and Silver members of the EAP frequent flyer programmes that travel on or after 4th October 2016, on any one of the EAP airlines, they will be dependent upon the fare choice with each partner airline.
Full details of the changes can be found on http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/JetExperience/A-unique-partnership.aspx
ETIHAD AIRWAYS PARTNERS to align global loyalty programmes
