Online travel agency Webjet, in its corporate earnings announcement, revealed they were entering an arrangement with American Express that would allow cardholders to redeem rewards points with all airlines within their service umbrella.

Details of the new arrangement will be announced in February. It looks to be a good move for cardholders, allowing greater flexibility in redemption of rewards points while travelling.

The conference call was largely positive. Webjet returned to profitability in the first half of their fiscal year, with a 40% surge in profits and 36.6% higher transaction volumes pointing to continued recovery for the Australian economy and growing demand for airline flights. The company is issuing an interim dividend of five cents per share.

“The transaction volumes are particularly encouraging given the global economic environment,” said the company representative.

Signs of economic recovery cited by Webjet include increasing airline capacity indicating a resurgence in discretionary travel demand, in turn due to stabilising unemployment, which over time should lead to rising ticket prices.

“Against this background, we are cautiously optimistic for the six months to June 2010,” the company representative said.

Webjet has posted its presentation slides on the ASX website. A North American branch of the company is on track to begin operations on April Fool’s Day.

Source: news.smh.com.au