Discovery is overhauling travel benefits available to Vitality Health members from January. It will roll out its Vitality Travel portal as a benefit to Discovery Bank customers, and Vitality Health members will begin to align with the rewards and discounts on the new booking platform.
Vitality Health members currently get discounts of between 15% and 35% on bookings made on the Kulula.com platform. These are limited to 10 one-way (or five return) domestic and regional flights per year and two international flights.
From January, the discounts will only apply to six one-way local flights and two international flight bookings per year.
That equates to a cut of 40% in the number of discounted flights.
After these limits are reached, Vitality Health members will receive a flat 10% discount on flight bookings.
The current status-based discounts still apply (Blue: 15%, Bronze: 20%, Silver: 25%, Gold: 30%, Diamond: 35%). These savings apply to the base fare and the fuel surcharge tax (YQ tax), where applicable.
Bookings can still be made on the Kulula.com platform and discounts are for Kulula.com and British Airways local flights (as well as British Airways, Emirates and Qantas for international flights).
Read: Discovery will reward Vitality members for being fully vaccinated
Discovery Bank customers are still able to boost their flight saving up to 75%. This will be for bookings on the new Vitality Travel portal as well as those made via Kulula.com’s portal. Bank customers without Vitality Health can save between 10% and 40% on flights. These discounts are based on the average monthly credit card spend over the previous 12 calendar months at the time of the booking.
The Vitality Travel platform will offer flights on additional airlines, including Airlink, FlySafair and Lift.
It is also adding more accommodation partners, including Protea Hotels, Sun International and Tsogo Sun (here discounts of up to 25% are available and there is no limit on the number of bookings). Its current car rental partners (Europcar and Tempest) remain, with discounts of up to 25% on unlimited bookings.
Discovery Bank members are also able to access SLOW Lounges in addition to six complimentary lounge visits a year through LoungeKey.
Read: FNB steps up travel rewards as rivals flounder
In an update to members, Discovery says “to book on the Vitality Travel platform … you will need a qualifying Discovery Bank account (which includes the Discovery Pay Account)”. This enables those Vitality Health members who don’t bank with Discovery to use the platform.
Discovery Pay is functionality that already exists to enable customers to pay other Discovery clients with just their phone number. The group will next year expand this functionality and launch the Discovery Pay digital account. This no-fee account is available to Discovery Health and Vitality clients.
Incentive
It is offering Vitality members a “limited edition” Vitality Travel gameboard as part of Vitality Active Rewards over the next two weeks.
In addition to (possible) instant R250 rewards from Cape Union Mart, Cotton On and Exclusive Books, finding a 10 000 Discovery Miles travel reward tile means the member will get 10 000 Discovery Miles back on any booking of more than R1 000 made on the Vitality Travel platform, exclusive to Discovery Bank.
Members who achieve their weekly exercise, drive or money goals this week (December 18 to 24) will earn a play on the gameboard next week (December 29). The same holds for next week (December 25 to 31), with a play on January 5.
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