Loyalty Programs by Claudia Sonea

Airlines had the balance sheet of frequent-flier awards this year too and what do you now it was up 21 percent from last year. Normally it shouldn’t surprise anyone taking in consideration that anything that is for free is very appealing. Yet, this is not the case because airlines are trying to add tougher rules for these awards as a bonus to higher fares.
Up to now the number of miles could bring you a free trip to some exotic destination like Hawaii or anywhere else you want. Due to the economic crisis and the high fares people started to focus more on spending the extra mileage on emergency trips and visiting relatives. They prefer being loyal to an airline that has a better redemption program, but that it is very difficult to find in the context that most of them have been raising mileage requirements, shortened expiration periods and added fees if you want to cash them in. For instance, Delta increased the number of miles required for a free trip and added a fuel surcharge on reward tickets two months ago.
The main reason for the percentage going up is that the programs still seem appealing because of the business trips and also because there is still the slight chance of actually getting something for free. Continental, a major U.S. airline, has the OnePass loyalty program giving the customers to use mileage to book available seats on partner airlines and also give them the possibility to compare routes and the miles it will cost them. It is beneficial both for customers and for airliners because for the first is a way to avoid the fares and for the others is money.



related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20081020/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_airlines_frequent_fliers;_ylt=AnXeWE91F_OzQZ8JPpAD_Lms0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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