I frequently and fervently extoll the virtues of loyalty programs, both as a consumer and from the point of view of businesses whose profits are likely to come from frequent repeat customer and for whom product differentiation is otherwise difficult. (See for instance here.) At the same time, loyalty programs can be poorly designed, and improperly conceived rules can become very costly for a company. And I do my best to point out those poorly conceived rules! I make the most of many of them, and I’m comfortable doing so. Pushing the envelope on promotions and loopholes serve a very real economic purpose: by exploiting and exposing loopholes, companies are forced to get better. They’re forced to think through promotions. They’re forced to improve their computer programming. These things make commerce stronger. That doesn’t say…
Gosh, golly, gee
I’ve been getting lots of mentions lately, by Frommer’s and now in Flyertalk.com’s TalkMail. an excellent Weblog, which is hosted over at WebFlyer.com, titled “View From the Wing,” and that his blog has been recognized by none other than noted travel-industry expert Chris Elliott, who has this to say about our very own gleff “Gary Leff (is) the original business-travel blogger. Terrific observations on the industry. Sometimes, you wish he’d write more.” Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If you’re coming over here from Frommer’s or TalkMail, welcome! If you like what you read, you’ll want to sign up to have each day’s content delivered to you overnight by email. Just enter your email address in the box to the right beneath by picture. You might also check out some of my past…
Aloha Airlines Ends Intra-Island First Class
Aloha Airlines is removing first class seating from its intra-island flights. “Times have changed,” Zander said “Demand for first-class service on interisland flights has diminished as more and more trans-Pacific carriers, including Aloha, now fly nonstops direct to the neighbor islands. Today, virtually no one in Hawaii wants to pay a premium for a first-class seat on a 30-minute interisland flight.” Naturally Aloha still offers a premium product between Hawaii and the mainland United States. Hawaiian Airlines offers first class both across the Pacific and on its intra-island service. While Aloha wasn’t seeing substantial revenue from purchases of their first class product on short-haul flights, upgrades to first was the primary benefit of their elite frequent flyer program. It remains to be seen how they will retain the loyalty of their frequent customers as long…
250 Free United Miles
Sign up for emails from United Cruises and get 250 miles.
Free stuff
Sign up for two free years of Best Life magazine.Free mousepad for Virginia residents from the Commonwealth… wonder why my state government needs to be giving away mousepads? Oh well, you can also get a free mousepad by signing up for a psoriasis support group!
Free flat-screen TV
The same company offering free iPods (see post below) is also offering free flat-screen TVs. The offer works exactly the same way. The company making the offers can’t lose — they only ship the stuff to you once you’ve taken actions that get them paid by their advertisers. So really that’s who is bearing the cost. The key is to take advantage of advertisers’ offers that won’t actually cost you anything.
Free iPods
There’s a longrunning discussion at Flyertalk.com about a website offering free iPods. You sign up, complete one of their offers, and get five friends to complete offers as well. Then they send you an iPod. Seems pretty generous, in fact my first reaction was that it was too good to be true. But now that tons of folks have already taken the plunge, and confirmed that iPods have been shipped, I’m sharing this offer. The economics are pretty simple: this website gets paid for each offer you and your friends take advantage of. The commissions are enough to cover the cost of an iPod. And since many folks won’t complete all of the steps, they’ll keep commissions on some folks who they don’t ever have to pay out to. So how should you approach the…
Free Earbud Offer from Sprint is Back
Sign up for a free earbud from Sprint. (Thanks to Samir for the pointer.)
Hijacking ‘dry runs’?
WomensWallStreet.com carries an unsettling first-person tale of a US domestic flight, suspicious activities by a group of Middle Eastern passengers, and the concerns of one passenger. It raises the prospect of airplane hijacking “dry runs,” construction of bombs in mid-air, and difficult questions of civil liberties and racial profiling. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but it’s worth a read even though the author loses 90% of her credibility when quoting Ann Coulter. Instapundit is covering the article and developing story. Michelle Malkin has confirmed the main details of the story.
South African Likely to Continue non-Star Airline Partnerships
The Star Alliance will not require South African Airways to drop its partnerships with outside airlines such as British Airways, Air France, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas when the African carrier joins Star next year.Chris Klick, Star Alliance’s vicepresident for corporate affairs, said yesterday that although the organisation would prefer collaboration among member airlines, it would not demand that new alliance members relinquish deals with other airlines. “We are striving for a win-win situation. A decision to join (or relinquish certain partnerships) should not hurt the bottom line,” said Klick. Star Alliance’s six-member team was in SA to start the process of integrating SAA into the alliance, Klick said. The integration would include harmonising the ticket booking systems and frequent flyer programmes. SAA spokesman Onkgopotse Tabane said the airline would communicate with its current code-sharing partners…
