TRAVELOYALTY.com is developed by Zaheer Bhyat.  Raised on the reefs of the South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province shoreline. Over the years he used proven methods to fly first class in the best airlines and stay in the best of suites in the worlds most sought after dreamy destinations on minimal spending using loyalty points and miles blended with elite status programmes.

Out of this “big travel with small spend”  way,  traveloyalty.com was born as a website that has all the up to date promotions of the worlds best airliners and hotel groups. Not long after this inception Traveloyalty has upgraded itself into a concierge loyalty based programme handling all needs and advices of its esteemed clients who want to experience the best for less.

As a renowned loyalty and reward programme expert he has been a consultant to many international hotel chains and airline brands over the years and has travelled to more countries than the digits on the oldest living person you may know.

His Instagram @traveloyalty is followed by many of the worlds biggest airlines and hotels CEO’s and VP’s, just see the recent insight tips into his Etihad posts and their comments of praise for his out the square methods to score travel even further.

In this website he shares insights, tips, tricks and the occasional travel-hack that comes along to all readers and savvy travellers alike.

Then there is the addiction of escaping monotony into the fantastic world of lucrative worldly travels.

You see the perks of  elite travel includes.. wait perhaps lets rather start what it excludes, when you travel as an elite you don’t need to pay for electricity / utility / water bill, you don’t need to pay for a domestic cleaner, you don’t even need to buy groceries by standing in a que as every thing comes complimentary via executive lounge access in hotels and airports.

You will soon realise that what TraveLoyalty is doing to the travel industry is similar to the disruption what the iPad has done to the PC industry or what Amazon has done to the bookstore industry maybe even what emails has done to the post office industry and simply put that is revolutionising a market and the way people do things in life.

So what else makes Traveloyalty different?

Unlike other travel websites (or tv travel programmes) which never discloses trip and accommodation costs and renders the audiences the assumption that its totally unaffordable, here all trip methods of booking on points and cash discounts are screenshot for proof purposes proving how anyone and everyone can travel better, travel further and travel more for less.

You are about to read and gain knowledge that WILL change the way you travel forever.

score more free stays, more often.

TRAVELOYALTY.

“Traveling as an investment.

This is what you want and should strive for all the time. Who on earth enjoys paying overpriced crazy per person rates that begets losses ensuring that you have to open your wallet again the next time you want to go on a adventure? Makes zero financial sense in a time when everybody is a bargain hunter and no one likes to overpay. This is your time to get all the knowledge and products you need to make a 180.

When you utilise loyalty programmes at elite levels, checking out will be a new found excitement as you will eagerly await the loyalty points and the bonus points to be loaded for future free travel. You can even buy points on a bonus point sale and book a mixture of points+cash rates to discounts expensive stays if need be, options are endless, when flying make use of family bonuses and book on triple miles promos to ensure the miles pile up quickly for highly discounted lucrative first and business class flights”

We all have seen the ad “specials” on overseas travel in newspapers & in windows at our local malls, seems expensive going abroad doesn’t it? Answer is no, Traveloyalty has the blue print – step by step on how DIY can be CHEAPER than living at home.

The worlds top branded hotels and the worlds best airlines, at your disposal. There is nothing wrong with going backpacking on a budget BUT if you could pay the same amount for 5* hotel blended with elite status for complimentary suite upgrades and complimentary food with lounge access on the VIP floor, which will you choose?

Traveloyalty is committed to saving.

Most contact numbers for the loyalty programmes linked are toll-free.

Here’s a tip: I often call the banks toll free number from a landline to connect to the credit card helpline who in-turn can transfer you to your frequent flyer helpline, you can book tickets this way.

Now, here’s another tip: Availability searches take some time on the phone so ideally you’d want the knowledge of a travel agent regarding the exact flight number and departure time before you call. This is how you get all the intel over HERE.

If you don’t have a landline or are out and about, remember banks have helplines inside which can do the same as above.

3 Defining trips in my life leading to starting traveloyalty.com

1) 1997 – December.

Pilgrimage to Mecca.

I got invited to the top of the range hotel – Hilton Towers for 2 nights from family that came from Riyadh. It was amazing as I was staying quite far up the road by the name of Shubaika at a simple mattress in walled apartment. Hilton was right on the marble, the closest proximity, I ( tried) to sleep in the window sill seating that gave me a slight rooftop view of the Ka’bah, this was heaven.

Little did I know come 2015 December my website traveloyalty would sell out a huge percentage of reward night bookings at this hotel, so much so that not even I could get dates here in which sent me to competitor hotels next door of Hyatt and Marriott.

During 2016 June,  the peak fasting month, Ramadhaan, as many as 200 rooms + were confirmed booked by our subscribers at the new Conrad on points. Where some people paid 300k cash for 10nights, our newsletter showed how to do it for 22k. Mammoth savings so many took advantage of.

2) 2004 – June.

Quick jaunt to Hong Kong.

A close friend and national airline employee offered me a tax only ticket to Hong Kong, at this time travel to destinations with no surf made 0 sense, however, I opted in but had to sell my beloved Playstation2 and games to come up with the taxes to be paid, its all I had and the good hearted nature of the friends I had gave me room to sleep in their hotel, I set my pillow and sheet up on the floor as a bed as I have been accustomed to on many trips and surf adventures.

Come a few short years later, August 2016, I revisited Hong Kong and stayed at the finest hotels the skyline boasts and even the finest suites within these hotels with lounge / grand club access as standard perks associated with the elite statuses. 2016 trip was followed by 2017, 2018 and 2019 all near free using miles for Business Class and points for free stays. Insane value destination.

3) 2012 – December

Diplomatic mission to Washington DC.

Being part of the tender contingent for the new SA smart ID card, there I was in the Grand Hyatt lift, a gentleman walked in, opened his wallet, took out a plastic card and swiped it and pressed the top floor for the Grand Club – all day eats and snacks with the royal treatments. Wow, I want this I thought, infact I want to get this for everyone to experience, as most of the top GM’s and Ceo’s were at this conference over 4 days, the idea of educating the world on travel made easy via a website would be such an adventure, especially the ability of communicating with the GM’s and Ceo’s during the conferences. The rest is history but still a enormous work in progress.

Then somewhere in between the above there’s a number 4:

4) Buying into a timeshare 2007.

It sounded like a good idea.. it was pretty expensive. Then boom, we in this thing with a set amount of points per year, we can borrow from next year’s points and even use previous years points combined (when we at that  future stage).

There’s a crazy yearly reservation fee due in the thousands, it makes zero financial sense.

It came with a Hotel Xpress Card that promises 50% off affiliated hotels (now we talking!) … at rack rate, say what? So we got to use this once, at a Courtyard, the rest of the time it was cheaper to book the standard rates than the 50% off rack rates. Ever been to a hotel and looked behind the door at the frame what published rack rates are. Exactly.

The timeshare properties are somewhat ok, neat, mostly self catering, off peak and peak rates using points. They did have some killer low point rate redemptions on certain off peak weekends.

Had we not paid these “school fees” of learning true value we would not be able to give our readership a hands on full experience and analogy.

Defining a great holiday is a different experience from person to person and this almost always correlates on costs. For us, a holiday is all about the premium experience (whether free or paid for) far away that’s totally different from the day to day life of the stress and worries, a time to switch off, relax, indulge, enjoy and have new experiences.

The timeshare experience just had too many worries for us, extra clothes to pack (no complimentary laundry  service?), no free breakfasts (we have to cook? On holiday?), no free lunch and supper with unlimited drinks (this is why we use hotels with lounges), no early check in and no late checkout (this we get with hotels its like 2 free nights), no complimentary shuttle from the airport (I’m assuming some people fly in to stay at a self catering over self drive).

For the yearly levy fee we could do a Waldorf Astoria!

I probably used this about 5 times up until 2015 when the levied yearly fees just couldn’t justify what we were getting at the worlds biggest branded hotels added to this we had to pre book timeshare properties months in advance (often close to a year) just to secure a weekend at a better in demand destination.

Using timeshare just did not have that holiday type of feel we were yearning for. It did not cost any less in the least nor save us any money. In fact the whole self catering thing of rush /stress of cook n bring your own food for the week/end or shop your whole grocery cupboard again at your destination and cart all the leftovers back home with you was just insane. What’s even more insane are the prices week/ends are sold / resold at and public actually pay it with nothing back on checkout.

To top this off there were too many weekends away being sold for under cost by desperate timeshare holders on Junkmail (I guess these days its Gumtree or Olx) devaluating the value of a bought timeshare further.

Some timeshares one has to go to the same room at the same resort each and every year for 7 nights. Your set investment. See how that turns out after year 4 or 5, knowing you have 20 more or a lifetime of the same to go.

We tried to use the service via RC international but the properties associated were so far away from where one actually wanted to be + guess what? Yep you have to pay and exchange fee! Madness.

I have had many clients ask me about Disneyworld in Orlando as they can pay a (exhorbitant) rate with timeshare / RC for a week + exchange fee costing in the thousands, all to stay in a standard room without breakfast at a Sheraton. We have stayed in this hotel twice on back to back trips in the space of 6months. This is what we payed (click)  and again here, using Traveloyalty as Platinum members we got free breakfast for all and the top suites as an upgrade.

TraveLoyalty was initially set up to help affordable backpack type travel in the cheapest places with the least amount of money spent. What I learnt very soon was that everyone can go 5 star plush ( even on Umrah ) and do it free for weeks upon weeks at a time.

Traveloyalty.co.za migrated internationally into traveloyalty.com within one year of starting up and is a leading unique luxury blog the world over. As the pencil scribbled slogan on the above header confirms all you will find in our Elite Feedback link.

 

2018

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