FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. How can a club afford to provide so many benefits ?

A. Firstly, we are a very large club operating in 5 countries, so our buying power is huge. We have been able to get low rates on the benefits, insurances and travel deals simply by providing large volumes.  We feel these benefits and insurances provide a comfort factor and are attractive benefit and leisure additions for everyone. 
Secondly, we derive revenue from sponsors who  list at our sites. After all we are a virtual "Yellow Pages" of the tourism and leisure industry, and infra structure owners want to reach you our members, who are potential travellers to show you their businesses through our sites. 
Being a non profit club owned by you our members, we channel back some of this revenue and some of our other profits in the form of subsidies, and prizes, because as a non profit club, we are not allowed to pay dividends. Other big clubs use their poker machine revenue to subsidize activities within their clubs, we use our advertising revenue to subsidise prizes and benefits.

Q. Then why is membership free?

A.  Most clubs charge a membership fee and don't give you anything when you pay your fees other than entry into their club.  

We used to have a membership fee, but eventually because of the size of our membership, revenue flowing from our various activities,  became sufficient to support the Club overheads and we decided that provided the applicant met the entry criteria outlined in our constitution, membership would be free. This would give us additional members and therefore an even larger audience to participate in our benefits, travel deals and activities, so one runs hand in hand with the other.

The other influencing factor is that we would have had to add in the GST on the Membership fee and that would have created an unnecessary cost and unworthy contribution to politicians "pork barrels", and we were definitely against that! So we dropped membership fees.

Q. How do I know I will get the best price on my travel?

A. We work a sort of reverse auction system, in that carriers, hotels etc bid on certain trip requirements. In most cases more than 5 principles will be bidding, so it is very competitive. 
To this add that you also have the additional price benefit of getting the Free Atlas Travel Insurance included in the travel price, which is an enormous cost saving. 
When you represent the volume of travel that we book, it is hard for providers to by pass such huge market. However that is not to say that we will always be the lowest price, but being a club working through one single booking entity, our overheads are a fraction of those of travel agents with high profile high cost shopping mall outlets.
However if you  apply some Travel Cash Reward Points towards paying the cost of your trip, which will help you greatly reduce the price even more and  because the points are free, no one can beat a quote from your club.

Q. Surely my local travel agent could do the same?

A. No. Travel Agents have very high overheads created through the expensive rents for street-front locations, shop fit-outs, staff wages and insurances, communication costs, licensing fees to Governments and  payments  to the Travel  Compensation Fund for  each branch they operate( the TCF by the way, is not Government backed, owned or Guaranteed body as many think, it is an independent Travel Agent body with only minuscule funds compared to large insurance companies such as those we use). 
When you buy travel product from a travel agent there are also a number of tiers involved. There's the airline for example, the wholesaler, and then the agent each getting their %'s. When you buy Travel insurance it's even worse, the agent often gets 60% or more in commission. Travel is not a major profit centre for the club, it is a benefit we run for you the member and we cut out middle men, which results in savings for you. 
Often we contract for large blocks of seats, berths, rooms and even charter own own aircraft and guarantee to pay for them whether we use them or not. Obviously this creates a new price structure.

Q. Why doesn't Atlas run a street front travel operation?

A. Cost and logistics. The internet is now a major force in product distribution and very cost effective (notice how airlines offer special web fares). We can handle our worldwide activities from one low cost venue. The savings are then passed onto you the member. When it comes to shopping for appliances, cloths and other items at Atlas you will see this reflected in the pricing.

Q. Why does Atlas not provide a phone connection anymore?

A. For a number of reasons. One again is logistics. How do you answer potential phone calls coming in from  millions of members spread across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and USA all in different time zones?  
Two, cost. We would need umpteen hundreds of staff working 3 shifts a day, because of these different time zones. Then there is the question of who is going to pay  for the calls, bearing in mind that around 87% of calls would either be an interstate or international call. Why should other members suffer the consequences of the expense of us fielding long toll-free calls? We have found that more than 70% of telephone calls received in the past, were about trivial matters or simply non members ringing up to find out how they could short circuit the system to get a quick cheap flight or insurances. If you put it in an email and send it to us, it is in writing and we can answer it quickly and to the point by simply hitting "reply", and then our reply is in writing too. It is the way things are going, whether it be banking, buying shares, shopping, booking travel or whatever.

Q. I love this idea of free insurance, but I just don't quite see how it works?

A. Well when we first decided to combined the buying power of our various world-wide operations, to negotiate better insurance deals, we hit one small snag. Although we could buy insurance cover in many insurance categories cheaper in the USA and British markets, many of the risk underwriters did not have, nor were they interested in, obtaining licenses to sell in the small markets like Australia or New Zealand. 
Question was how to give the individual the ability to obtain  cover for free?
Knowing how positive many Brand lines have been about participating in the Travel Cash program and how positive sponsors were to "click through" advertising, we developed the concept (which is unique to Atlas) of getting sponsors to pay the insurance premiums for you in exchange for buyer loyalty . This is done using our Travel Cash reward points program.
Naturally one sponsor alone would be incapable meeting all the premiums, so we pooled "loyalty" revenue into a pool of Travel Cash reward Points, which you can earn buy buying participating brands, using participant merchants and shopping through the Club. Because of the buying power we exercise in negotiating insurances, you are able to obtain considerable leverage in the amount of cover you can buy for your Travel Cash Reward Points. Make sense? 

Q. So I can use Travel Cash Reward Points to buy a range of other things besides travel?

A. Yes, our Travel Cash reward points program will possibly become the most important benefit in the club. It is more flexible and easier to use and collect than other reward point programs and the TC points can be used to subsidize or pay for almost anything you wish. One very important different between the other reward points schemes and our Travel Cash program, is that it can be used in conjunction with real money, so you can apply your accumulated TC Points at any time you like. The more points you have collected the less you will pay. This includes not only travel but anything you buy through the club - mobile phones recharges, long distance calls, ISP connections, investment fund units - you name it. Visit the Travel Cash pages by clicking HERE

Q. What do I do if I have additional questions or problem?

A. Just send an email to atlasadmin@atlascluboz.com 

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