Travel vouchers for Travel experiences
You spoke and we listened! Based on feedback we've received, we've made some changes to our travel voucher scheme:
-
We've increased the rate at which you earn travel vouchers. Previously we said that you could earn "some R10" for photographs and "some 10c per word" for articles written. We've changed this to photographs earning from R0 to R30 and writeups from 0c to 30c.
-
Previously we said "The voucher must be used within a month of being awarded.", we've changed this to "The voucher must be used within 6 months of being awarded (and may be used for travel further into the future)."
-
Previously we said that "The voucher may not be used together with another voucher earned through us." We have removed this condition.
Background
Humans are born to share their story with others, and everybody loves travel discounts. In a world first, we are combining these and implementing a system for our much-loved clients to earn travel vouchers, by documenting and sending us their quality travel reviews. These travel vouchers can be used to discount your next flight, cruise, car rental, accommodation, safari or hot air balloon trip; booked through us.
We will be allowing everybody who books through us, the opportunity to become our travel reviewers and photographers. Our moment of realisation came about when we questioned why we should pay professionals to do reviews, when we can instead be rewarding our loyal clients. The world has changed dramatically over the last 10 years - most people have access to digital cameras and, being an online organisation, all our clients have access to computers.
In fact, some of our clients are already blogging about their travel experiences, purely for the satisfaction of documenting and sharing their experiences, with no monetary reward. Another example was where we received a batch of photos of Namibia wildlife, where the wish of the sender was that we publish them on the website so that they're there for others to enjoy and for him to look at on occassion (if his PC crashed, the photos would still be there) - again, no monetary reward. A lot of our clients already share their good and bad travel experiences in the reader comments section at the bottom of almost every page on www.southafrica.to.
How to earn travel vouchers
There are several steps you need to follow in order to earn travel vouchers.
Step 1: book your travel through one of our booking engines
In order to earn travel vouchers, you need to first book through one of the following engines:
-
cruises at MSC Sinfonia or MSC Melody
Travel vouchers are only available for bookings made on or after 6 April 2011.
Step 2: document your experience
When you travel:
-
photograph the experience; and/or
-
write about the experience and/or
-
capture it on video.
It must be of a high enough quality and interesting enough for us to publish! Tell us what you loved, what you hated, what you paid and we especially appreciate a bit of wit and humour thrown in.
Step 3: submit your review
Once you've set up your review, email the documents to cheapflights@southafrica.to (including proof that you booked your travel through one of our booking engines, as specified above). We will then assess it and decide whether or not to publish it. If we do publish it on our website (www.southafrica.to), we will then decide on the value of the voucher you have earned. As a rough basis to begin with, photographs published will earn from R0 to R30 worth of vouchers, and for writeups it'll be from 0c to 30c a word (we reserve the right to adjust this according to quality). To be clear, only reviews which we (at our sole discretion) deem to be high enough quality, will earn travel vouchers (so there is some prestige attached to being published). If we publish your review, we will email you your travel voucher. By submitting a review, your forgo all rights to the material, and give it to Cheap Flights South Africa (and it may not be published anywhere else by yourself or anybody else).
Step 4: use your voucher
Travel vouchers awarded may only be used by booking travel at:
-
cruises at MSC Sinfonia or MSC Melody
The voucher must be used within 6 months of being awarded (and may be used for travel further into the future). Make your booking using one of the above engines, and then email proof of your booking through us, your travel voucher and your banking details, and we will refund you the value of your voucher.
Terms and conditions
The awarding of vouchers is solely at our discretion. Vouchers are not transferrable between people. Anything not specifically covered above will be decided upon at the sole discretion of South Africa Travel Online. This is an experiment, and while we're confident it will be succesful, we do reserve the right to stop giving vouchers as well as to cancel or vary the programme at any point without notice.
