The Voyager credit card is part of SAA Voyager’s loyalty program (s being a Voyager Member is mandatory). There is the option of a Premium Card or a Gold Card, issued by Nedbank. The Premium Card has more benefits than the Gold Card, but has an annual card fee about triple that of the Gold Card - so you're going to have to spend a lot of time in business class lounges to make up for the additional cost!
With the SAA Voyager Premium Card, you earn 1 Voyager Mile for every R6 of eligible spend. With the SAA Voyager Gold Card you earn a Voyager Mile for ever R6.50 spent.
The first month is the one in which to spend a lot if you've taken up the Premium Card options, as you earn double miles on all eligible spend.
For Premium Card holders there's the carrot of 19,000 SAA Voyager Miles being earned on the first purchase of a South African Airways flight ticket with the card, whilst Gold card members earn 10,000 Voyager Miles.
A complimentary Continental (Africa) or Global companion ticket on South African Airways, provided the annual eligible spend threshold is achieved - the complimentary part is only the base fare, not the taxes and carrier charges. This can't be used on SA Airlink, SA Express, Mango Airlines or other flights from SAA codeshare partners. It is not possible to upgrade these tickets either.
With both cards you can mae use of Souh African Airways' business class check-in, which usually has much shorter queues than the economy class check-in.
Voyager Premium credit card holders are allowed to use the departure lounges belonging to South African Airways when booked on a South African Airways flight. There are lounges at Cape Town International Airport, East London Airport, Harare Airport, King Shaka International Airport, Lusaka Airport, OR Tambo International Airport and Port Elizabeth Airport.
The Voyager credit card is the best of two worlds, on top of the Voyager member benefits one also gets:
Credit facilities of up to 55 without any interest accruing
Zero transaction fees when making purchases.
Competitive interest rates.
Budget facilities for up to 36 months.
Access local and international ATM displaying either the Amex or Visa logos.
Supplementary Visa card.
Automatic travel insurance
Exclusive access to the American Express Selects online lifestyle portal where you get the best offers and discounts available in over 50 countries around the world.
The card options are either the Premium or Gold card and the qualification criteria is that:
You must be 18 years old or older (& well done if you are 18 and already meeting the minimum earnings threshhold!);
Be an SA resident;
Have a clean credit record; and
Meet the minimum earning threshold
The information on this webpage may be out of date - to get up to date information go to the Nedbank Voyager credit card page.
The Voyager Credit Card was relaunched in October 2012 with new features which included: (1) an accelerated points earning rate for spending at any of SAA’s partners which include partner airlines, car rental companies, hotel and accommodation groups, retails outlets as well as property partners; and (2) earning double miles in the first month for eligible spend made locally and abroad – excludes cash withdrawals, casino chip and travelers cheque purchases, fees and finance charges.
5 Oct 2012. The SAA Voyager System migrates to a new IT platform enabling more value added services to be made available, and also to assist to better manage existing programs.
4 May 2008. Forms used when we went about applying for an SAA Voyager credit card. The site didn't work properly when I used Firefox.
29 Aug 2007. South African Airways launches its Voyager credit card.