Financial Times

Flying miles for calling minutes

National carrier SriLankan Airlines and local cellular telecommunications provider Dialog GSM entered into a partnership to provide free flying miles for telecommunication services usage recently. The partnership makes Dialog the first telecom partner for Skywards, the frequent flyer programme of the national carrier SriLankan Airlines and Emirates.

The partnership enables Dialog subscribers to earn free flying miles for every Rs. 100 spent monthly on billings above Rs. 2,500 on the network.

On the other hand, Skyward members will be offered an array of discounts for services on the Dialog network like roaming, handset purchases, Internet usage, etc.

"With the expansion of the SriLankan Airlines network, fleet and increase in frequencies, we are indeed happy to tie-up with Dialog GSM, one of Sri Lanka's foremost mobile telecommunications company. The partnership will greatly enhance the services we offer our Skywards members," said Peter Hill, Chief Executive Officer, SriLankan Airlines.

The loyalty scheme offers its members free flights from as low as 10,000 flying miles, while miles could also be redeemed for other related services from 5,000 miles. Skywards has also received world recognition with many international awards though relatively new compared to other frequent flyer programmes.

Kashmiri Motiwalla, Skyward's Product Development and Marketing Manager, said the programme was seeking more local partnerships as well as global partnerships to increase value addition and benefits for members. Skywards is also in negotiation with other telecommunication companies in the Middle East region.

Dialog subscribers who are already Skyward members should register their Skyward membership numbers with Dialog in order to start collecting miles that will be credited automatically at each billing.

Skywards has 650,000 members of which 21,000 are in Sri Lanka. The programme has a 23% to 30% redemption of flying miles for services by members. It services its members through seven dedicated centres in Sri Lanka and other key locations.

Members could also manage their account through the Skywards website and avail themselves of standard services such as waiting list priority, excess baggage, etc.

(AA)