For more than 15 years, the South African Airways (SAA) Voyager Credit Card has been enabling savvy spenders and avid travellers to earn great rewards – simply by using their cards when spending*. Nedbank launched the SAA Voyager Credit Card in collaboration with SAA as a dedicated solution for people who travel often. You can unlock exceptional rewards with your SAA Voyager Gold or SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card, and we’ve added new benefits to it at no additional cost.

You can use your SAA Voyager card for everyday eligible* purchases – from food to flights and much more – to earn Voyager miles, while also getting closer to earning your companion ticket. SAA Voyager Premium cardholders enjoy preferential debit interest rates on purchases. Spend your miles on flights to more than 193 countries with SAA and 26 Star Alliance Airline partners, upgrade awards, car hire, Uber, Wine-of-the-Month Club, NetFlorist and more. Enjoy premium check-in, get one additional piece of luggage free and get unlimited access to SAA-owned departure lounges with your Premium card on SAA-operated flights.

‘Over the years, we’ve refined the solution to offer clients companion tickets when meeting certain spend thresholds for travel, and more recently, we enabled clients to donate their companion tickets. If you buy an SAA ticket on your card for family or friends, you can donate your companion ticket so that they can travel with their partner,’ says Thabo Monkhe, Nedbank’s Head of Retail Trading.

Current global companion tickets have been extended by 12 months. You can also exchange your global companion ticket for 2 domestic companion tickets. Signing up for an SAA Voyager Credit Card also unlocks other benefits, which we’ll return to shortly. As SAA reopens more local and regional flights, and with international travel open again, there’s never been a better time to sign up.

Dual cards mean you can earn Voyager miles faster on Amex

The SAA Voyager Credit Card account is a dual card product: you receive both a Mastercard and an American Express (Amex) credit card, both issued by Nedbank. Monkhe explains how this enhances your travel possibilities: ‘Nedbank is the only bank in South Africa that enables you to access Amex cards. With the SAA Voyager Credit Card, the Amex card enables you to earn unlimited Voyager miles faster – at nearly double the rate you’d earn miles if you swiped your Mastercard.’

Amex is accepted by a variety of retailers locally and internationally, including SAA, and most Nedbank card machines at local retailers will accept your Amex card for payments. ‘We issue an Amex card to provide additional value of accelerated earning of Voyager miles,’ Monkhe adds. You earn Voyager miles no matter which SAA Voyager Credit Card you use, but you will unlock those sought-after flights much sooner by transacting with your Amex card.

How do you qualify for an SAA Voyager Credit Card?

If you earn at least R80,000 a year, you can qualify for an SAA Voyager Gold Credit Card.

Features

• There are no initiation fees.
• Your annual credit card service fee is R700.
• You earn double Voyager miles on eligible* spend in the first month after the credit card account has been opened.
• You are enrolled automatically in the SAA Voyager loyalty rewards programme if you aren’t already a member.
• You earn 1 Voyager mile for every R6.50 of eligible* spend on your SAA Voyager Amex card, and one Voyager mile for every R11.50 of eligible* spend on your SAA Voyager Mastercard card.

If you earn at least R300,000 a year, you can qualify for an SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card.

Features

• There are no initiation fees.
• Your annual credit card service fee is R2,040.
• You earn double Voyager miles on eligible* spend in the first month after the credit card account has been opened.
• You are enrolled automatically in the SAA Voyager loyalty rewards programme if you aren’t already a member.
• You earn 1 Voyager mile for every R6.00 of eligible* spend on the SAA Voyager Amex card, and one Voyager mile for every R10.50 of eligible* spend on your SAA Voyager Mastercard card.

5 key benefits of having an SAA Voyager Credit Card

1. Bonus miles

SAA Voyager Gold Credit Card 

• When you sign up and buy your first SAA travel ticket on your card, you will receive 10,000 bonus miles at the end of your travel.
• Spend R320,000 per calendar year and receive 15,000 bonus miles.

SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card

• When you sign up and buy your first SAA travel ticket on your card, you will receive 19,000 bonus miles at the end of your travel.
• Spend R300,000 per calendar year and receive15,000 bonus miles.

If you are new to the SAA Voyager loyalty programme, you’ll receive an extra 2,500 Voyager miles on both Gold and Premium cards.

2. Early access

‘You also gain access to special offers on SAA flights, 24 hours before these deals are released to the general public,’ Monkhe says.

‘SAA runs frequent promotional discount offers where seats are made available for SAA Voyager credit cardholders to redeem their miles at almost 90% discount on the miles required for the ticket.’

These promotional offers are known as Voyager SaverBlitz and Voyager JourneyBlitz.

• Voyager SaverBlitz has a booking and travel period that offers low-mileage thresholds (for example, 3,000 points for a one-way domestic flight and 12,600 for retun regional flights to Mauritius). It’s perfect for that spontaneous island getaway, considering the bonus miles you get when signing up as a new client.
  
  
• Voyager JourneyBlitz has a booking period, and you can book any available seat that is within the SAA booking system range about 365 days ahead. It offers return flights on domestic services for 7,400 miles, or you can spend 15,600 miles to fly to Mauritius, to use the same examples. It’s ideal if you like to plan trips in advance but want to use your bonus miles now.
  
  

3. Travel insurance

SAA Voyager Gold Credit Card

Receive up to R4 million basic travel insurance cover when booking SAA tickets and paying with your SAA Voyager Gold card. You also receive a 10% discount on top-up travel insurance cover.

SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card

Receive up to R6 million basic travel insurance cover when booking SAA tickets and paying with your SAA Voyager Premium card. You also receive a 20% discount on top-up travel insurance cover.

4. Companion tickets

SAA Voyager Gold Credit Card

If you spend R120,000 or more on your SAA Voyager Gold card between 1 January and 31 December (one calendar year), you will receive one continental companion ticket. That means when you book and pay for your next local flight on SAA, you can take your partner, mom, dad, brother, sister, child or friend with.
Spend R220,000 or more in a year to qualify for a global companion ticket. When you book your next trip on SAA, a travel partner can join you no matter what class you book.

SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card

If you spend more than R100,000 on your SAA Voyager Premium card in a calendar year, you will qualify for a continental companion ticket. Spend more than R200,000 to qualify for a global companion ticket.

If you’re a serious spender who makes more than R1 million eligible spend with your SAA Voyager Premium Credit Card in a calendar year, you will get a second global companion ticket. If you prefer travelling within South Africa, you can trade in your global companion ticket for 2 free domestic companion tickets. And if you have 2 global companion tickets, you can get 4 companion tickets for domestic flights instead, saving you so much on ticket costs.

5. Pack more

‘We’ve also bolstered our luggage offerings,’ Monkhe continues, ‘enabling SAA Voyager Credit Card members to carry one extra piece of luggage on all SAA-operated flights, so they don’t have to leave their favourite travel gear at home’. 

Learn more about Nedbank’s SAA Voyager and American Express Credit Card accounts.

*Eligible spend includes local and international purchases and excludes cash withdrawals, casino chip and travellers-cheque purchases, foreign exchange purchases, fees, fuel purchases, internet transfers/payments and finance charges.

Terms and conditions apply.