12 air tickets to be won on Emirates website

• Award-winning airline announces four-month promotion for on-line bookings

As the year draws to a close, the Colombo office of Emirates has once again unveiled an exciting promotion that provides passengers who book their travel on-line a chance to win a total of 320,000 Skywards Miles, the equivalent to 12 return tickets to three popular destinations.

The award-winning airline announced that passengers who book travel originating in Colombo via www.emirates.com/lk can win three prizes totalling 80,000 Skywards Miles each month from December 2012 to March 2013, and redeem these miles for free travel to Dubai, Singapore or Malé.

These Skywards Miles will be presented each month to three adult fare paying passengers who booked on-line, in tranches of 40,000 (redeemable for a free Colombo – Dubai return), 30,000 (a Singapore return) and 10,000 (a Malé return), the airline said.

 To be eligible to win these valuable rewards, passengers will be required to complete outbound travel in the month their on-line bookings were made. Winners of each month will be announced in the first week of the following month.

“As an enabler of global connectivity, Emirates is constantly looking for opportunities to connect people and cultures through air travel,” said Devika Ellepola, Emirates Sales Manager in Sri Lanka. “This promotion supports our brand promise of ‘Hello Tomorrow’ by offering our passengers a fabulous opportunity to win free travel and broaden their experiences.” “We hope this promotion will also encourage our customers to explore the website and discover the wide range of travel-related services on offer,” she said. “The site is a one-stop-shop that offers an extensive range of land products such as hotel accommodation and car rentals, which can even be purchased independent of an Emirates flight booking.”

One significant convenience is the option of purchasing interline travel on Emirates partner airlines through the website, when travelling to points beyond Emirates’ on-line destinations. Through its partner airlines Emirates connects to over 125 destinations in the USA, over 25 in Australia and many more destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In addition, passengers from countries which require a pre-arranged visa to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can apply and pay for visas through the Emirates website. Travellers with the airline who travel to or stopover in Dubai can complete the entire process from submitting the application to receiving the UAE visa through the website, without having to even submit their passports for stamping. This can be done after booking the flight through the ‘Manage a Booking’ tool.

Accommodation and car rental bookings can also be made as a part of the online flight booking process, via the ‘Manage a Booking’ tool or as standalone reservations through the ‘Book a Hotel/Car’ tab, with the latter enabling even those who do not book air travel with Emirates to make reservations via the airline’s website.

In addition to the Skywards Miles that can be won through this promotion, passengers who make use of the Emirates website can save on air travel purchases. They can also purchase additional baggage allowance at a 20 per cent discount by making payment by credit card, saving both money and time spent at check-in counters at the airport.

The winner of more than 500 top international awards, Emirates serves Colombo with 28 flights a week, 21 flights a week from Colombo to Dubai and daily flights to Singapore, offering First, Business and Economy Class travel. The Emirates network now comprises 126 destinations in 74 countries.