A whole bunch of patent infringement lawsuits were filed on Tuesday — against Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines,Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, and U.S. Airways. The suits allege that there’s a portfolio of patents on loyalty programs where you can transfer miles and rewards from one program to another program electronically without going through an intermediary. Each is a separate suit, though similar. Here’s a copy of the filing against Hawaiian. The two patents at issue are for “Exchange of non-negotiable credits of an entity’s rewards program for entity independent funds” and “Graphical user interface for the conversion of loyalty points via a loyalty point website” Do they have a claim? Does someone really own the rights to being able to transfer points? I spoke with Robert…
The House of Lies Team is Pitching for Frequent Flyer Program Business: Another Flawed Study About Miles
Terry Maxon gives coverage to a study Deloitte has been pitching about frequent flyer programs, claiming customers aren’t especially loyal so the programs are failing and they need to take a more tailored approach. Consulting firm Deloitte and Touche surveyed frequent travelers to gather their thoughts on their airline loyalty programs. It concluded that the programs aren’t working as intended – to nail frequent fliers to one airline and one loyalty program. “Our findings strongly suggest that the state of airline loyalty is less than what carriers would like it to be. More sobering is our finding that airline loyalty programs are far from effective in engendering that loyalty,” Deloitte executive Adam Weissenberg wrote in the foreword to the study. “We conclude that airlines should approach any effort to improve loyalty programs as a customized…
What is the Most Devalued Airline Frequent Flyer Program in North America?
I believe the Most Devalued Airline Frequent Flyer Program in North America award goes to Air Canada and Aeroplan. I do caveat this, I am very specific in the title of the award. Airline frequent flyer program so the March 28 bloodletting at Hilton HHonors doesn’t count. (Nor does the introduction of category 7 awards at Starwood, although that was a specific devaluation and meanwhile the program has improved elite benefits.) North American programs, so LatinPass which first tried to make members earn back their existing point balances and then changed from being a frequent flyer program to an online shopping program doesn’t count. Devaluation isn’t the same as “going out of business” so while I lost all value from my Mexicana Frecuenta miles I don’t really think that airline’s shutting down is really a…
Get Top Tier Hotel Status and 30% – 50% Off Your Room Rates from Accor Hotels
Get Instant Top Tier Hotel Status with Le Club Accorhotels The Points Traveler offers two links for Accor instant Platinum status: here and here. I wrote about two offers for Accor instant platinum status and there are mixed reports on success. Between these four offers though many readers will find themselves with a top tier status upgrade. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and other related properties frequently, you never know when you might find yourself in one and having top tier status can’t hurt. Platinum status usually requires 60 nights or 25,000 points earned. It offers double points…
Why 35,000 Starwood Points May Be a Good Deal for 2 Tennis Tickets
Starwood is offering Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express cardholders the opportunity to redeem 35,000 Starpoints for a pair of US Open tickets, including access to a an event in the SPG Luxury Suite with food and drinks. You Shouldn’t Usually Buy “Stuff” With Your Points I almost always say that it’s a bad idea to redeem miles for merchandise. Use points from travel providers for travel, because then you’re getting not just the ‘rebate’ but also leveraging the travel provider’s ability to purchase inventory that would otherwise go unsold at a deep discount and pass that savings onto you. It’s why United MileagePlus miles can get business class award tickets to Asia for 120,000 miles whereas spending Bank of America Worldpoints it would generally be over half a million points. When a…
Hyatt and MGM M Life Status Matching Starts Tomorrow and Chat Live with the Heads of Those Two Programs
Jeff Zidell, who runs the Hyatt Gold Passport program, posted on Milepoint: Starting tomorrow, August 20th, you will able to opt-in to receive your matched M life Tier Level. As an M life member, you will receive exclusive benefits like room and show discounts, members-only access to award winning restaurants and much more. Check back with us tomorrow at hyatt.com/mlife for your opportunity to opt-in for your matched M life Tier Level. Hyatt’s new partnership with MGM M Life’s 12 Las Vegas resorts includes reciprocal elite status. Hyatt Gold Passport Platinums (the status which comes with the Hyatt Visa) get mid-tier M Life Gold status. Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds get M Life Platinum, which is behind only the invite-only Noir level in MGM’s program. As I noted last month, Hyatt’s Jeff Zidell and MGM’s Scott…
Seeking Playground Justice: Why Premium Cabin Travel is Best for Families
Mommy Points kicks off her “keeping it real week” by arguing that families have to stretch their miles across more people so premium cabin travel may be unrealistic or undesirable. And of course it’s mathematically true that more award seats cost more miles. But I think that ignores a good part of the picture. And of course the last thing you want is to add the stress of coach travel onto the already stressful family travel experience. It may sound funny for me to talk about family travel. I do not have children. So feel free to write this post off as insensitivity on someone who ‘just can’t understand the plight faced by families’. Hopefully it’s not just a rant, but useful advice, and I do think I’ve gained some perspective by working with countless…
Bits ‘n Pieces for August 19, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Singapore’s Changi airport is planning a 3rd runway and 5th terminal. As United tests Mercedes tarmac transfers for high value customers, Delta is expanding its Porsche service from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Airport challenges aside I would have expected a rollout at JFK before LAX. Not sure how I missed this, but a week ago Lufthansa celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first non-stop transatlantic flight. The American-US Airways merger becomes a Texas gubernatorial election issue as American’s pilots take out an ad against the state’s Attorney General who joined in the Department of Justice anti-trust suit. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the…
American’s New Pimped Out Airbus A319s
I had a chance to crawl around American’s new Airbus A319 in a hanger during a layover a DFW. They had the plane parked and they were doing media tours. Turns out the tours were scheduled for the afternoon I was coming through in late morning but they were happy to accommodate. There were several planes parked, both in the old and new livery. I actually like the new American logo, overall the paint job has grown on me and even the tail looks a lot better in person than it did in the renderings the day it was released. The planes parked side by side, viewed from the terminal, are actually quite nice. But I do find the tail to be a bit much. I climbed on board to get a closer look at…
What it Takes To Use Your Miles, Sometimes: Brazilian Edition
Denis passes along this Brazilian video talking frequent flyer miles to both me and to Ben. The main character is traveling with his wife and kids using miles. They each have to travel separately, using circuitous routes to get to Miami. (“Yeah, I got lucky that bus service is now part of the Star Alliance…”) His wife is going by donkey to Maceio.. He’s going Galeao – Guarulhos – Campinas – Belem – Bogota – Mexico City and taking a ferry to Miami. The newborn gets a truck ride straight to Miami! He’s been planning this trip since ’97… The return trip, that’s not booked yet, they’ll get home eventually but in the meantime he’s arranged work in Miami. (Perhaps frequent flyer mile capacity controls are at the root of illegal immigration? What public policies…
