What I Would Do If I Ran Independence Air’s Marketing

United is bringing out the big guns in DC in anticipation of Independence Air’s launch. They’re running huge promos like their Round-the-World promo and 15,000 bonus miles. They’re sending out e-mail hit pieces to their membership. And all Independence Air has done is complain to the government. I walk into bars and hear people talking about United’s round the world promo. It has an incredible aspirational value that gets average folks talking, and that’s without my being in the conversation at all. I wonder what Independence Air is paying to be the official airline of the Redskins. That’ll get some notice, but it’s pretty ephemeral. They need to offer a clear value proposition and hammer that value proposition home. Always low fares on brand new jets The most flights out of Dulles, taking you where…

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Non-mileage earning credit cards

SmartMoney carries a piece on credit card rewards outside of the standard mileage-earning options. The best one in the article seems to be the no annual fee MBNA Fidelity Investment Rewards Card offers a 1.5% rebate (up to $1500 per year) deposited into any Fidelity brokerage account.

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Hotel Amenities and Furnishings for Sale

Tyler Cowen writes that hotels have a fairly captive audience for consumer attention, and have found some success selling items in the room. This is certainly true, and if you recall fondly the amenities of your hotel room you can shop online to purchase the items from your room at a Westin or at a W hotel. Westin Hotels not only offers to sell you the bed from your room, but their signature “Heavenly Dog Bed” as well. There’s even a bridal registry. But the phenomenon of pricing items in a room also serves as a deterrent for guests to simply take the items. If the item is for sale, it isn’t meant to be free. And since hotels usually charge a premium over what a consumer might pay elsewhere, the threat of seeing the…

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Decoding Priceline’s Rating System

Frommer’s points out that since Priceline has acquired Travelweb, the two sites will be integrating their hotel rating systems. It’s not completely there yet, but useful to determine possible hotels that would come up on a successful bid. Travelweb’s hotel star ratings will soon be the same as Priceline’s, with one important exception. Travelweb doesn’t use half-stars, so Priceline’s 2.5-star hotels will show up on Travelweb as 3-star hotels. Priceline and Travelweb are still working out some glitches in their system. For example, Travelweb rates the Four Points in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood as a 3-star hotel, while Priceline calls it a 2-star. Priceline’s Brian Ek assured us that the ratings will soon be brought in line. “If there’s a discrepancy, I’d attribute it to updates not having completely worked their way through the…

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Launch of the AAdvantage Mall

American has launched an online shopping portal, AAdvantage Shopping.com, joining the ranks of existing shopping portals like those of: United Northwest Continental USAirways America West Delta And many others. This is only news because American is so late to the party, but they’re certainly an important addition. Inside Flyer ran a cover story in December about earning miles for online shopping.

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