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Jetstar hopes plastic can buoy its bottom line as it rolls out a pair of announcements aimed at the card carrying public.
In what the budget carrier bills as a first for an Australian airline, Jetstar will offer a prepaid multicurrency Mastercard-branded travel card, which Jetstar says will offer frequent overseas travellers a more secure, convenient and less expensive alternative to traveller’s cheques and cash exchange.
Nine currencies are available, including the Australian, US, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canadian dollars as well as the Euro, British Pound and Japanese Yen. Customers can apply for and top up the card online.
Loading the card for the first time will incur a fee of $15 with a 1 per cent fee applied to subsequent reloads. A 3 per cent transaction fee will be charged if the card is used in a currency that hasn’t been pre-loaded. The fees are split between Jetstar, Mastercard and Macquarie Bank, which will issue the cards.
Separately, Jetstar is offering up to 30,000 Qantas frequent flyer points to people who successfully apply for a Jetstar Platinum Mastercard.
The moves come as airlines increasingly venture into services with little direct relationship to flying. Air New Zealand launched a similar travel card late last year.
