American Airlines ConciergeKey is the ‘super secret’ level that George Clooney had in Up in the Air, in some sense equivalent to United Global Services and Delta 360.
ConciergeKey began mostly for corporate travel buyers and folks in their old VIP program back in 2007, and gradually expanded to individual high revenue customers.
Starting in 2017, you’ll have to meet minimum spending requirements in addition to miles (or segments) flown for American Airlines elite status.
This more or less copies United which copied Delta, both of whom already have such a requirement in place. They even copied the minimum 12 cents per mile dollar threshold.
Elimination of the ‘stay’ method of qualifying for Hyatt Diamond status has ruffled a lot of guest feathers, there will be many people who lose status because they can’t meet the new criteria for top elite status with Hyatt under changes going into effect next year.
That’s not the feature of the new program I dislike the most, and indeed those who do qualify still for top elite will be treated even better than before.
I’ve always said that a program decides who they consider to be a customer they want to reward, but once they do they should provide those rewards consistently every time they interact with that customer. And that’s going to change.
Every time in the past two years that a co-brand deal switched banks they also switched payment networks, That underscores the surprising role that Visa and MasterCard play in putting together your rewards card deals.
If you have a lot of money sitting around, or investment assets, you can earn miles. Basically just about anyone will reward you with miles for your business and when a lot of money involved so are a lot of miles.
Here are three ways your money can work for your mileage balances.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
I’ve seen the argument that changes to Hyatt’s loyalty program going into effect March 1 violate the Gold Passport terms and conditions.
The implication is that since this is a(n adhesion) contract with members, it’s a contract violation, and should be legally actionable.
I had just an overnight in Abu Dhabi. Normally if I’m getting in late at night and leaving the next morning I’ll stay at the Premier Inn attached to the airport. It’s a bit dorm-like but it’s clean and close.
However this time I was landing before 1pm and it was Valentine’s Day. I wanted something a bit nicer and didn’t mind heading farther afield since I had a layover of about 19 hours. I settled on the St. Regis Abu Dhabi.
So while it should be obvious, a new paper by the University of Chicago’s Dennis Carlton and several co-authors finds that the Delta-Northwest, United-Continental, and American-US Airways mergers haven’t been anti-competitive at all.
Priority Pass Prestige memberships come with unlimited visits and usually retail for $399. They do not come with free guests.
The Priority Pass Select card that comes with Chase Sapphire Reserve includes unlimited guests (subject to limits imposed by any individual lounge) so is ‘worth’ even more than that.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
