Today is a big day for one of South Africa’s biggest airlines, FlySafair. It’s the local carrier’s eleventh birthday, and if you’re familiar with the airline’s previous birthday celebrations, you’ll probably already be going to the website to pick out this year’s holiday destination, or try to, at least. As it’s FlySafair’s eleventh birthday, domestic tickets are selling for R11 a pop – no strings attached.
This is Spinal Tap FlySafair
The sale opened at 09h00 on the morning of Wednesday, 7 May, and offers 50,000 one-way tickets “across its domestic routes,” that are valid until 30 November 2025. That leaves you plenty of time to find accommodation wherever you’re headed, and put in your leave at the same time.
“It always feels good to say we’re back again for another mega sale,” said Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair. “There is so much that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to planning and executing this event each year. And while it can be incredibly stressful, it’s ultimately so rewarding to see the response to the sale. Over the years, we’ve heard heartfelt stories from passengers who have been able to take a long-awaited trip, surprise a loved one or simply fly for the first time.”
You’ll need a fair bit of luck to grab one of the 50,000 low-cost tickets, however. As is now tradition when it comes to FlySafair’s birthday bashes, many potential buyers will take to social media to complain to FlySafair about their loss, while others will gloat.
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FlySafair doesn’t just dish out low-cost tickets to those customers who turn up on the website first. They’ll first need to sit in a waiting room, after which the system will automatically determine which of the waiters will be lucky enough to buy a ticket. This has been set up out of fairness, and to help FlySafair manage the excessive traffic passing through its website this morning – an issue it has faced in previous years.
“The waiting room helps to manage the traffic to the website, while also giving everyone a fair chance to access the sale,” says Gordon. “The waiting room works like a lottery and will allow people access randomly. So some people might only wait a few minutes to get in, while others may wait longer. It all depends on when you’re selected to enter.”
If you couldn’t snag yourself an R11 ticket, FlySafair hopes to convince you to buy one anyway with its 30% off sale, which “will be running concurrently on the website and FlySafair app.” While the R11 sale is only available through FlySafair’s website, the 30% off sale will also be included on the carrier’s mobile app (Android/iOS), and will run through until midnight of 7 May.
