Tag Archives for elite benefits.
Hilton announced a new food and beverage benefit that replaces breakfast at U.S. hotels starting in July and running through the end of 2021. They will offer a food and beverage credit for use any time at the hotel, including in-restaurant, for grab and go, or for room service.
That sounds great in theory – you can take your meal as it’s most convenient to you. However the devil is in the detail of how much that credit is for.
With Alaska Airlines joining the oneworld alliance and continuing to partner more closely with American Airlines, the two airlines have introduced reciprocal elite benefits – the most valuable of which are access for elites to extra legroom seats and upgrades.
As the partnership was being developed, American Airlines Senior Vice President Vasu Raja emphasized the need for a seamless customer experience between the two airlines so “that a customer of either Alaska or American Airlines would choose us over one of our competitors’ long haul services” as a result of upgrades, seat assignments, and other benefits. And yet….
Marriott has continued to promote its elite benefit guarantees despite suspending them during the pandemic. Fortunately the cash guarantee compensation is back for when hotels fail to deliver specific promised benefits.
With Four Seasons Hotels even about to launch new elite rewards, it’s become clear: loyalty holdouts lose out. The principles of loyalty marketing apply to all travel businesses, and to other industries too.
How much it makes sense to invest in a customer depends on a product’s margins, and the extent to which elite benefits versus rebates matter to a customer depend on their profile and subjective preferences – but the basic principles are the same across customer groups and even industries. What form the program takes can vary, but recognizing and rewarding customers matters.
Platinum Pro members can have choose a confirmed international upgrade, miles and other choices – and get new higher-tier oneworld alliance benefits. Executive Platinums can choose several options like miles and a club membership instead of confirmed upgrades if they’d like – and get the Platinum Pro choice, too.
Whether 2021 status requirements are set too high or too low really isn’t clear yet, because we don’t know what travel is going to look like even as it starts to come back once the pandemic begins to get under control. And not all benefits are scarce, so that more elites mean fewer benefits for those who earn it ‘the hard and usual way’.
If it turns out there are too many elites, how a program handles that is still entirely within their control. But we’re going to have to wait to see how the 2021 travel year develops, and how programs continue to respond. Laying out elite qualifying criteria is the start of this, not the finish.
At some point in 2021 “Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members will be eligible for free domestic upgrades on Alaska and MVP Gold 75K will be eligible for free domestic upgrades when traveling on American.” And “[w]hen the long-haul international flights launch” that are part of the partnership, Seattle – London and Bangalore then Alaska’s MVP Gold 75K members will be able to upgrade on American’s international flights. There will be access to extra legroom coach seats as well for top- and mid-tier elites.
American Airlines is surveying some top elites on how they might reorganize systemwide upgrades, the upgrades American’s top elites and million milers receive that can be used to secure a seat in a higher cabin than what you purchase any time after booking. They’re looking at how they might replace at least one of these upgrades with other rewards. Here’s what they seem to be testing, according to reports I’ve seen:
When I first started flying United regularly in the mid-1990s, all elites had a benefit known as middle seat blocking. When an elite frequent flyer picked a window or aisle seat in coach (in a row that was at least 3-across), the middle seat next to them would be blocked.
As airlines have empty seats, and customers place a premium on social distancing the offer of space available empty middle seat could drive real share shift.
I’ve been a frequent critic of American Airlines, and that’s largely because I believe no U.S. airline has greater potential to be better than it is today than American. I’m also frustrated with many things about its loyalty program, AAdvantage, but when I sit down to compare AAdvantage to the programs offered by United and by Delta it actually comes out ahead. Here’s why.
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 »
