Supermarket Selling Air Berlin Vouchers

[PAXboy]

Reported on the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5297062.stm) Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 22:57 GMT 23:57 UK
Shoppers at discount supermarket chain Lidl will be able to buy flights to Europe along with their groceries.

In what is thought to be a UK first, it is selling flight vouchers at its checkouts to be used on routes operated by Air Berlin. Customers can exchange their £19 voucher for one-way flights worth £69 from Stansted, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and Bournemouth. Destinations include Berlin, Copenhagen, Majorca, Milan and Vienna.

The promotion begins on 5 September and lasts for a week, with flights to be booked online within a month and used within six months. Lidl, a German firm which has 390 UK stores, is famed for its pile-it-high and sell-it-cheap tactics, stocking few brand names.

"There's a natural match between a low-cost retailer and a low-cost airline," said Dr Jonathan Reynolds, director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and a Fellow in Retail Marketing at Templeton College, Oxford University.

UNQUOTE
The article continues.

[Two's in]

The obvious angle for reciprocity would surely be to allow the SLF to buy their groceries while flying with Air Berlin - surely a winning idea?

[cwatters]

I wonder if that's £19 + taxes?

[A2QFI]

A quick check on Lidl website shows that the vouchers are £19 all inclusive for a single flight which could normally cost up to £69. If you buy a voucher and can't find a flight you like you can get your money back! I don't think the fare is available on all routes and all flights but I didn't look into it that deeply. Basically £19 gets you a 1 way flight to somewhere on the Air Berlin network!

[Newforest]

Lidl in Germany have been making this offer for some time but it does not do it regularly or frequently.

[EC-YKA]

They had an equal offer for Spain in Feb this year. 29,00 € one way fare. All included and you could also buy vouchers online on their spanish site and they had a special booking plan online where you could see the flights availlable in exchange of a voucher. Among friends and family we bought about 60 voucher and it worked just fine.