Not many would have bet on the survival of Star Alliance member South African – but this is what has happened at least until here, quite surprisingly. And with South African’s recent resumption of flights, its Voyager program has reopened redemptions, which were suspended for well over a year. While the airline and the program celebrate this as a big victory and achievement (what world are we in??!), they seem to have completely forgotten that South African is factually still a member of Star Alliance: Redemption is now only allowed on the handful of domestic and regional flights the airline operates, but not on any partner airline. Will this ever be the case before Covid 22 will kill the airline for good? That’s another bet you may not want to place your fortune on.

The only way to earn loyalty points with US carrier Allegiant Air was until now to use their co-branded credit card. This certainly required an engagement towards the carrier not everybody was ready to show. All has now changed since Allways Rewards has been launched, allowing members to earn 1% of their expenses in form of credit in the program. This is certainly less generous than other programs, but the program will actually become more lucrative later in the year when Allways Rewards members will also receive a direct discount of 5% on all air fares. The 1% credit also doubles when hitting the 500 USD threshold, which is not impossible since points are credited to the buyer, not to the traveller. Hence, if you book for your whole family or group of friends, you will get all the points. The program also offers additional earn and burn possibilities, notably in the entertainment and sports areas, which are otherwise not strongly represented with Frequent Flyer Programs. And for those wishing to engage more with the carrier as a result, the co-branded card obviously still exists as well.

When Radisson Rewards was split up into two separate geographical programs, common sense was that things would complicate a bit for customers travelling across the two regions, but that it would be otherwise pretty much plain sailing. This might be true – unless you live outside of the Americas region and wish to transfer your points into Frequent Flyer miles. While most FFP have actually stayed a partner with the Americas version of the program, under which you can still transfer your points into 24 FFPs, members in all other regions have only a choice of four (!) programs to do so. It remains to be seen whether this issue will be addressed any time soon. If not, it is reminded that everybody can register in both programs and transfer points freely between them – for instance in order to have a bigger choice of FFP transfer partners.

And while the look and feel of both Radisson Rewards program versions is aimed at looking harmonized, there is one area, where the differences become obvious pretty quickly: at the level of promotions. As a matter of fact, both programs run their offers independently of each other. And right now, it is definitely more interesting to be a member of the Americas version of the program: If you use a 2-night redemption stay until December 31, you receive a certificate for another free night, to be used between January 17 and May 22, 2022. You can earn up to five of these certificates.

Although many hotel programs do currently a lot of efforts for their loyalty members, the independent booking platforms continue to offer better value for many, especially those without an affiliation to a specific hotel chain or less frequent travellers. If you consider yourself in this latter category, you should act rather quickly and book as many of your upcoming hotel stays as possible by September 17 through the platform Kaligo. The points/mileage earning with the partner program of your choice, which are already rather generous in normal times, will actually be doubled! The promotion is good for stays until June 30, 2022.