US Airways is back with their 100% bonus on purchased or gifted miles between September 16 and November 15. When they ran the bonus from mid-August through mid-September the full 100% bonus was only available on larger mileage purchases, this time the full 100% bonus is offered regardless of quantity of miles purchased. And 50,000 bonus miles is the most that can be earned from the promotion, except that the gift miles offer is stackable with the 25% bonus running all year for elites gifting miles. So elites doing the gifting will generate an extra 25% bonus for mileage recipients, on top of the bonus of up to 100% under this offer. US Airways accounts have to be at least 12 days old before buying or gifting miles, so if you’re even thinking about using…
American Express and Continental Lounge Access and Points Transfer Relationship to End September 30, 2011
[Details in this post are no longer current.] American Express has announced that their relationship with Continental will end on September 30, 2011. Currently, the US Membership Rewards program offers the ability to transfer points into Continental Onepass. And the American Express Platinum and Centurion lounge benefit includes access to Continental clubs (when flying Continental same-day). Both of those benefits will cease. Two months ago when American Express added US Airways to its roster of lounges providing access to Platinum and Centurion members, I said that it meant the Continental relationship was dead in the water. When the United-Continental merger was announced, the end of the Amex relationship was almost a foregone conclusion. In many ways, United exists today in order to support Chase’s credit card business. The issuer of the United Visa provided debtor-in-possession…
The Challenge of Continuing to Encourage Incremental Business from Elite Members that Have Already Requalified for Next Year’s Status
One challenge that loyalty programs have in their elite tiers is what to do to continue incentivizing business after a customer has reached all of the thresholds they have to offer? Some programs like United and American have offered continued bonuses, though not additional elite tiers, for travel beyond their 100,000 mile top status level. So there’s an opportunity to earn more international upgrades or bonus miles or to gift status to others. It’s not always as rich a benefit as it might be, but it’s something. Both Marriott and Delta have pursued a rollover concept — stays or miles above the level of status you qualify for count towards status in the next year. So you can keep flying or spending hotel nights and that activity counts towards status… next year. That’s attractive, it…
New “Priority Club Anywhere Challenge” Photo Up — Guess Today for 2000 Points (And This Thread May Contain the Correct Answer….)
Last week I outlined Priority Club’s weekly giveaway of points for naming the geographic location that ties to a photo they put up on their site. Each Tuesday for eight weeks they’ll offer a new destination. If you guess correctly on the first day you earn 2000 Priority Club points. Each successive day they add a photo and clue, and the points reward goes down — 1500 points on the second day (Wednesday), 1000 points on the third day (Thursday), and 500 points on the fourth day (Friday). Fortunately I can outsource my guessing to the folks over at Flyertalk, since I’m not especially good at this. (I rarely guess right when Lucky posts a photo..). The consensus seems to be that the new photo which went up today is of the Chitwan National Park,…
Wing and a Prayer Blog is Back… and Acerbic as Ever
After a long hiatus, Gray Roberge returns to blogging. And his first post after declaring his return lambasts Flyertalkers and travel bloggers for caring about their travel experiences on the days before and after the anniversary of September 11, failing to appreciate its importance, and being overall self-centered on the important occasion. Here’s what he had to say about yours truly. And finally, the King of Excess Himself, His Holiness Gary Leff of View From the Wing, writes on September 12 with a speculation of whether a double elite qualifying mile promo may occur. Just a few days before, he got in one of his trite cracks at unions, one of American industry’s main checks on corporate greed. And since he criticizes my blog posts a week before and a day after September 11, just…
Ritz-Carlton Introducing Loyalty Program with Points Earning/Burning
Luxury chains have for the most part eschewed points, the belief was that they provide recognition not freebies and compete to offer the best luxury experience not guest kickbacks. Though that’s long seemed a mistake — first, because giving folks formalized tiers and defined benefits means setting clear stretch goals fro your customers. How can you incentivize someone to achieve something if they don’t know what they need to do in order to get something they’re not aware of? Meanwhile, many luxury hotel guests are indeed staying on other folks’ dimes, which means they’re just as susceptible to anyone else to making their stay decisions based on the ability to garn personal rewards later for directing others’ resources today. And Ritz-Carlton is now jumping on the bandwagon with Ritz-Carlton Rewards. Barbara DeLollis previews the program…
Are Loyalty Programs Really Worthless? (Only if you’re disingenous…)
Chris Elliott has another column on how awful frequent flyer programs are, how we’d be so much better off without them. Which seems crazy to me. Some people may not get full value out of them, some people may be confused by them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still worthwhile — both to those of us who maximize them, and even some value to those that do not. Chris presumably believes that the programs are costly, that if travel providers got rid of the cost they would lower prices. But he fails to understand first, that the programs themselves are profitable (rather than being a cost center) and second, that they are a marketing device without which there would still be a need to spend resources in marketing — presumably less effectively, at higher…
Still Anxiously Awaiting Double Elite Qualifying Miles Offers
Brent SnyderLaura Jackson details the year-over-year drop in aviation traffic during the traditionally peak summer travel season. And this past week, a PR firm promoting the Chase Sapphire Card shared details of their survey on upcoming travel plans. While not comparative data, it’s suggestive that early (leisure) bookings for future travel may be soft. [A]ffluent Americans may be taking a wait-and-see approach to winter holiday travel. Intuitively, the economy is still weighing on travel considerations, even for affluent consumers. According to a recent poll of Americans with a household income of at least $150,000, a majority (57%) of respondents confirmed that economic considerations are affecting travel mindset in planning personal travel for 2011. What’s more, only 30% have booked travel for upcoming holiday travel season (in late December), and 39% are committed to staying home…
25000 Delta Miles for $500 Skymal Purchases Extended Through September 15
On August 31 Skymal ran a promo offering 25,000 Delta miles for $500 in purchases. That offer has been extended through September 15. (Hat tip to mrp alert in the comments.) Not all items are eligible for miles, those items and vendors excluded from the offer anre so indicated on the product’s page. And the offer isn’t valid for gift cards. The $500 total spending required excludes tax and shipping.
Hilton Point Stretcher Awards Are Back
Outsourced to Loyalty Traveler Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher Rewards discount the regular rate 40%. Hotels are grouped by brand. The link loads Conrad Hotels and the dropdown menu leads to the list of participating hotels in other Hilton brands. You need to check each hotel since Point Stretcher dates does not mean there is Point Stretcher reward availability during those dates.There have been special Gulf Coast Point Stretcher Reward dates for July through September at about 50 hotels in Florida and one hotel in Louisiana. Odds on the hotels won’t be the ones you want to stay at, or if you do the discounted awards won’t be available for the dates you’re interested. But it’s worth checking the list if you’re going to consider a Hilton award redemption between now and the end of the…
