Amid the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of thousands of flights have been grounded around the world while millions of would-be travellers have been forced to stay at home.
Holiday spots have already been telling tourists to stay away – and now an airline is encouraging its customers to do the same.
Russia-based airline S7 has launched a new “Fly At Home“ promotion that gifts its customers 100 air miles for free just for staying at home.
The airline said (in Russian): “The best that each of us can do in the fight against the pandemic today is to limit our movements and stay at home.”
It added that while it believes ”travel will return to our lives again”, now is the time for people to stay put.
To that end, it is supporting the effort by giving away up to 3,000 loyalty points per customer between 30 March and 30 April.
In order to get the miles, you will have to be a member of the airline’s S7 Priority loyalty programme, and click the dedicated “I’m home” button every day.
S7 is a member of the airline network Oneworld, which includes British Airways, American Airlines and Qantas.
This means you could use the points towards discounts against flights on any of the member airlines once travel restrictions have been lifted. S7 has promised that the miles accrued in your account from the promotion will be valid until the end of 2021.
S7 isn’t the only airline running promotions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Vietnamese airline Vietjet is promising to pay customers up to £7,300 each if they catch coronavirus after flying with the carrier.
The payout will be part of its new “SKY COVID CARE insurance” scheme, which will cover all domestic flights between 23 March and 30 June 2020.
It will be offered free of charge to all eligible customers, regardless of age and nationality.
