WOW Air boss says flights will soon be so cheap that airlines will PAY passengers to fly with them
IT’S already possible to buy a flight for less than the price of a pint of beer in the UK, but it turns out that air travel could get even cheaper.
One low-cost airline reckons passengers may even get paid to fly in the future.
WOW Air’s CEO Skúli Mogensen reckons that cheap flights are becoming so competitive that they will hand out free trips just to get them on-board.
He told : "In the future we could pay you to fly with us - if you come to us and trust us with your booking, we can see that your airfare is reduced to zero and even reward you for it."
WOW Air has been making waves in the aviation industry over the last couple of years thanks to its super cheap trans-Atlantic flights, which cost from as little as £149.99 with a stopover in Reykjavik.
Skúli believes that as airlines start to make more money from tie-ins with car hire and hotel bookings, the cheap flights could just be used as bait to lure customers in.
By rewarding loyal customers with free flights, they would then become a one-stop shop for travel, like the old fashioned travel agencies.
He added: "A lot of people now, both pre- and post-travel, share pictures with their friends, if we do a good job and they spread the word, it is powerful customer feedback.
“As they are our advocate, they can be rewarded accordingly."
In fact, fellow low-cost airline Norwegian has already started to do exactly this.
The company is handing out free return flights or upgrades to its most frequent flyers of 2017.
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But to qualify, flyers have to be members of the low-cost airline’s new loyalty programme Norwegian Reward.
Norwegian Reward is a free-to-join loyalty scheme which gives members the chance to earn rewards and CashPoints, which lead to discounted and free Norwegian flights.
Norwegian Reward members who fly at least 20 round trips (40 one-way flights) and have at least 3000 CashPoints earned on flight tickets by 31 December 2017 will receive a free return flight to any one of Norwegian’s 13 long-haul destinations from Gatwick in 2018.
The loyalty programme is also offering members who fly at least 10 round trips (20 one way flights) on flexible tickets in 2017 a free upgrade to the Premium cabin on any long-haul route.
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