Safar Flyer Gold
Safar Flyer Gold is one of four tiers that make up Royal Air Maroc’s Safar Flyer frequent flyer membership scheme.
Gold status is the 2nd highest elite status tier and is achieved after Silver.
Royal Air Maroc is part of the Oneworld alliance meaning that if you hold Royal Air Maroc’s Safar Flyer Gold status, it is equivalent to Oneworld Sapphire status and offers similar benefits on flights with Oneworld Airlines.
History of Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer Gold
Historically, the airline only had 2 elite status tiers, being Silver and Gold, however as the airline transitioned into the OneWorld Alliance it created a new tier called Platinum which effectively pushed Gold into the second place.
Safar Flyer Gold was always comparable to OneWorld Sapphire albeit without the shared lounge benefit. While it lost a few benefits due to the creation of Platinum status, it is still a very compelling product.
Pre-Oneworld, Safar Flyer Gold had all the standard benefits including Fast Track at Morocco, 2x Award Miles earned, lounge access and priority boarding (a benefit Pre-Oneworld Safar Flyer Silver did not have).
What do you get with Safar Flyer Gold
A Gold Card
This isn’t too big of a deal for Safar Flyer members as the airlines you would have got a card at Blue and Silver.
HOWEVER… this is not to say that the new card is’nt worth a mention as it comes with a redesign and is adorned with the mark of Oneworld Sapphire status.
Business Class Check In
This one is good especially if you fly long haul often and get to the check in desk when it’s absolutely full of people at an international airports.
The fact you are able to jump the queue and check in with the other business class passengers means you can be spending more time to relaxing rather than standing in a line
Priority Seat Selection
Royal Air Maroc, like other airlines within the Oneworld alliance allows Oneworld Sapphire members to preselect seats at an earlier date than Blue and Silver Members or those who are not part of the Safar Flyer Frequent Flyer Program.
With Gold Status this is usually at point of booking where as Silver is 7 days in advance, Blue and Non frequent flyer members can choose their seat 24 hours before departure.
Lounge Access
Lounge access plays an important part of Safar Flyer Gold as it is the first tier that gives you access to business class departure lounges even if you’re not flying on a business class.
The status allows access and one guest to its own and other Oneworld partner airline Departure Lounges when flying on a Oneworld Marked or Operated Airline.
Priority Boarding
Another Standard for Sapphire status holders is priority boarding. however Royal Air Maroc’s priority boarding is a little different consisting of Economy and Business therefore if you hold Safar Flyer Gold or Platinum they you can have Priority Boarding even when flying in Economy
Bonus Award Miles
Members get an extra 75% Award Miles when flying on Royal Air Maroc and American Airlines.
Nice to have as it help you get reward flights faster but ultimately not that special as this is somewhat short lived as the Award Miles expire after 3 years for the average holder (2 years for business accounts, 5 years for Family accounts).
Complementary Baggage Protection
One of the more unique points of the Safar Flyer program is that upon reaching Gold you are able to have complimentary access to wrap up to two suitcases when boarding a flight out of Morocco which is both operated and sold (not marked) by Royal Air Maroc.
The service is limited to larger airports in Morocco including Casablanca, Agadir, Fez, Laayoune, Marrakesh, Nador, Oujda, Rabat, Tangier, Beni Mellal and Dakhla.
Complimentary Checked Bag
One of the Benefits of having Gold status is that you are able to bring one additional complimentary checked bag with you.
While total weight cannot exceed 23Kg, this policy is only on Royal Air Maroc flights. but as Oneworld Sapphire status allows 15Kg extra weight as standard across the board – if you have an onward flight on another Oneworld airline you could exceed your allowed weight allowance
However Airlines may have their own Policy such as American Airlines which allows for an two additional checked bags with Oneworld Sapphire Status.
How to Collect the Status Miles
When you travel with Royal Air Maroc, or a Oneworld partner, you earn status miles with which you can achieve elite status with. Blue membership is the most basic and is available to everyone and does not come with benefits except the ability to earn Status and Award Miles. Silver, Gold and Platinum are earned and come with a varying degree of benefits.
Moving up the ladder with Safar Flyer is completely dependent on the distance flown and the total accrued distance status miles accrued within a given year, and like award miles, expire after a set time period – in this case at the end of each calendar year.
There is no other use to status miles other than setting your elite status; they cannot be spent.
Safar Flyer allows you to register your Royal Air Maroc flights retrospectively up to 6 months before you join.
When compared to other airlines, such as British Airways, Royal Air Maroc sets a somewhat higher bar when it comes to earning status through miles alone – the airline requires that 50% of travelled miles must be earned on Royal Air Maroc marked or operated flights where as British Airways only require 4 flights to anywhere to be on their airline and 600 Tier Points (which can be equated to 2 long haul business class returns and a short haul economy return).
Conversely, it is a little more relaxed when it comes to status through flights travelled – where British Airways requires 50 operated or marked flights on their airline to reach British Airways Executive club Silver, Royal Air Maroc only requires 30 flights with 10 of them to be with them.
To achieve Royal Air Maroc Gold status, you need either:
- 35,000 miles with and at least 17,500 miles on Royal Air Maroc flights in a calendar year; or
- 30 status flights and at least 10 flights with Royal Air Maroc
To Renew your membership, for the following year once you have reached Gold, you need:
- 32,000 miles with and at least 17,500 miles on Royal Air Maroc flights in a calendar year; or
- 28 status flights and at least 10 flights with Royal Air Maroc
In this case, flights with Royal Air Maroc include
- Any Royal Air Maroc operated flight, no matter the flight number (for example AT69)
- a flight with a Royal Air Maroc flight code but operated by another airline
Reward or redemption flights (using Award Miles) are NOT treated as eligible flights.
How to calculate how many status miles you will earn
Royal Air Maroc calculates status miles accrued based on Distance in miles travelled. For Example: Miles earned in from New York (JFK) to Casablanca (CMN) in Fare class H (100% miles) is 3,609 miles which is the same distance between the two airports.
The good news is that Royal Air Maroc doesn’t operate a model where you can earn less than the miles flown (like some other major airlines) meaning even on the cheapest economy, you will still earn 100% of the miles.
The simplest and best tool for finding out how many Status Miles you’ll earn on any flight is to use Royal Air Maroc Miles Calculator.
Remember flights are calculated per flight not by route so if your flight has a stop over, you will need to calculate for 2 flights and double it for the return.
Safar Flyer Tiers
Blue
Equivalent
Oneworld Basic
Silver
Equivalent
Oneworld Ruby
Gold
Equivalent
Oneworld Sapphire
Platinum
Equivalent
Oneworld Emerald
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