Malaysian Airlines, Air Asia has rewarded the golden medalist of Rio 2016 Olympics, Joseph Schooling, free tickets for a lifetime, along with 20 medalists from Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
The airline granted golden medalists free tickets for a lifetime, while silver medalists were granted 5 years of free flight, and 3 years for bronze medalists.
However, Joseph had requested to pass his reward to his parents until he graduates in 2018, as he is not allowed to receive monetary awards or prizes from endorsements for taking part in events like the Olympics under the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US, in which the request had been granted by the airline. Colin and May Schooling can use the benefits until their son ends his studies.
When Singapore Paralympics athletes Yip Pin Xiu won her second golden medal in the 100m backstroke S2 event at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the chief executive officer of Air Asia, Tony Fernandes, announced on Monday (12 September) that the Paralympics medalists would also be granted free tickets for lifetime.
He wrote on his Facebook page that “the Paralympics athletes had shown what determination is all about that they had been giving us the spirit to never give up despite all the obstacles in front of us.”
He also said that since the airline was all about democracy, it also granted the Paralympians medalists the same prize as the Olympians medalists earned : free flights for life for all gold medals winners 5 years for silver and 3 years for bronze.
According to the statement, Yip Pin Xiu who won a golden medal will be granted free flights for life, while Theresa Goh who won bronze in SB4 100m breaststroke will also be given 3 years of free flight from the airline.
Earlier before, Singapore Airlines (SIA) awarded Joseph Schooling a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Elite Gold card and one million KrisFlyer miles for winning a golden medal at the 100m butterfly event at Rio Olympics 2016, like it said on its Facebook page on 13 August.
However, till today there has not been any mention of offering the same lifetime flight to Yip Pin Xiu.
