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Frequent Flyer Miles |
A Business Week Special Advertising Section |
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Currency for High Flyers |
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For Best Airline Customers, More Legroom Is Just One Benefit After years of tempting their best customers to spend hard-earned miles on upgrades to Business and First Class, airlines in the last year decided to reward frequent flyers another way. Give them more legroom. United Airlines got the ball rolling in the fall of 1999 with its Economy Plus seating plan. Passengers in the forward part of the coach cabin were promised five more inches of legroom. Sha-zam! Room to move, read, maybe even break out the laptop and do some work. Ann Storbeck Peterson, Unitedís vice president of marketing for MileagePlusÆ, says priority in reserving those seats goes to all Premier status members and passengers paying full fare for Y or B class Economy tickets ó in other words, frequent flyers. Storbeck Peterson says United in mid-March finished refurbishing Economy Plus seats for about 400 planes serving major domestic routes (not Shuttle by United flights) and some Latin American routes. Not to be outdone, American Airlines and British Airways earlier this year rolled out expanded legroom plans of their own. Americanís plans, by contrast with Unitedís, extend to all seats in the coach cabin. More than expanding the benefit of miles, airlines also are extending the life of those miles. US Airways, for instance, earlier this year altered its policy to protect miles for even those people who donít fly all that often. ìUnder the earlier mileage expiration policy, if you didnít fly on US Airways or a related airline in a three-year period, the miles would expire,î explains Dave Castelveter, manager of corporate communications.ìAt the first of the year, we changed the policy so that if you have any kind of account activity ó you shop with any partner, you use your Visa card ó that would extend the life of the account by three years.î Obviously, it makes sense to pay attention to every carrier and every frequent travel promotion. Individual mileage plans undergo constant fine-tuning and regularly offer new opportunities to pick up bonus miles. The most remarkable by far has to be the current million-mile promotion by the Latin PassÆ partnership. Curious? Read on for details on that offer and others. Latin PassÆ Earn one million bonus miles with LatinPassÆ? Itís true. It will take some work, but itís possible ó before July 1 ó by flying one international segment on each of the 10 LatinPassÆ member airlines, flying at least three segments on each of its three partner airlines, spending at least three nights in any two partner hotels and renting a car for at least five days from any car rental partner. Other combinations of air travel, hotel stays and car rentals can earn 500,000 miles and 100,000 miles. Get the details at www.latinpass.com. Delta Air Lines (SkyMilesÆ) By establishing a codeshare relationship with South African Airways, Delta has opened another route for SkyMilesÆ members to pad their mileage accounts. All SkyMilesÆ members flying on qualifying flights with SAA will earn at least 500 miles ó and the actual mileage, if greater. Paid Business Class passengers earn 125% of actual miles. Paid First Class passengers earn 150% of actual miles. America West (FlightFundÆ) FlightFund members who buy at America Westís Web site and fly by May 31 get an extra 1,000 bonus miles. And if that ticket happens to link Phoenix with one of the airlineís West Coast destinations? Bingo! They score another 2,000 bonus miles per segment, for a potential of 5,000 miles per round-trip. To register for FlightFundÆ, go to www.americawest.com/frequentflyer/ff_enroll.htm. United (MileagePlusÆ) Premier Executive 1K status (100,000 miles) members now get six systemwide upgrades. Previously, that privilege extended only to domestic U.S. flights. Mileage PlusÆ members also may purchase Personal Miles at 2.5 cents each to use as gifts or to push their own accounts to the next award level. For people with questions about their accounts, United has extended the operating hours of its MileagePlusÆ Service Centers. Theyíre now open 365 days a year. Northwest (WorldPerksÆ) Shop for a variety of merchandise through Northwestís Web site and earn two WorldPerksÆ miles for every dollar spent. In affiliation with Northwest Airlines, Shop at Home (www.shop4.com/nwa3) offers discount prices on more than 500,000 items ó everything from tools to dinnerware. WorldPerksÆ members also score 500 bonus points for registering with Shop at Home and making their first purchase. Continental (OnePassÆ) Figuring that the friends of OnePassÆ members could be its friends, Continental has extended its Miles of Thanks loyalty program for businesses and customers to an interactive PC-based format. Interactive Miles of Thanks is based on the popular Miles of Thanks program which lets businesses award OnePassÆ miles by certificate. The electronic version lets companies create loyalty programs by offering OnePassÆ, customize programs to link miles with specific purchases and target specific customer or employee groups. It also kicks out reports. To learn more about Interactive Miles of Thanks, call 888-6-THANKS or go to Continentalís Web site: www.continental.com.
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