Tag Archives for rewards.
Silvercar quietly rolled out a loyalty program, and enrollment is automatic. If you’ve had a recent rental (as I have) you may already have points. This is in effect a 9%+ discount on your future rentals that stacks with various promo codes and makes Silvercar rentals incrementally more attractive.
IHG Rewards Club is offering a status challenge. With a screenshot of your current elite status with another chain, or photo of your current elite membership card, IHG Rewards Club will give you comparable status for 90 days — and an expedited way to keep the status through 2020.
A Brookings Institution piece argues that the “poor subsidize wealthier consumers” in financial transactions from checking accounts to credit card rewards. I do not think this is quite right, but let me first lay out the argument.
In many ways this is the golden age of rewards. There are big initial bonus offers, fast earning for spend, and rich benefits. And rewards expense is higher than ever for card issuers.
There are risks though, and challenges for issuers. Here’s how rewards are going to have to change to be successful.
IHG reported its year-end results and noted the importance of their loyalty program to drive direct bookings (no commissions to online travel agencies) and higher revenue (“Loyalty members 7x more likely to book direct, and deliver a 25% stay premium.”).
They also noted that they’re testing variable redemption pricing.
At Marriott and Hyatt the payment a hotel gets for your award night is not linked to the number of points you pay.
Most hotels actually want your award business. If you’re taking up a room that would otherwise go empty, it’s pure marginal revenue. And if you’re taking up a room on a night they’re full they get a large payment – generally equal to their average rate for the year, though not as high as the highest rate they might charge on that night. One hotel is even warning members about the impending award chart price increase for the property.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Marriott is rebranding their loyalty program, with ‘Bonvoy’ launching February 13. There are no substantive changes whatsoever at that time.
Where does the money for this come from that the loyalty program is investing to transform themselves into Bonvoy? It comes from members, and more specifically from member loyalty accounts.
Several online shopping portals are offering bonus miles right now. When one shopping portal has a bonus usually many do because they’re mostly run by the same company.
All of these bonuses are called “Extra Rewards.” However the earning from each for different merchants and the value of each currency varies.
The reason I love points in credit card programs that transfer to frequent flyer miles is flexibility. I don’t know which airline is going to offer the award that I want when I want it. When I can transfer to airlines in all of the different alliances, and to airlines that offer more availability to their own members to partners, I really multiply the chances of getting the saver award I’m looking for. And I make my miles go a lot farther.
What’s more, several foreign frequent flyer programs will give you the same awards that a US airline will — for fewer miles. They partner with the US airline, but have a more favorable award chart.
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 »
