Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for June 2005.

Flyertalkers meet with Northwest Management

by Gary Leff

nwa-planes
Jun 30 2005

A couple of Flyertalk members met with management from Northwest Airlines and the Worldperks program and filed this report. An interesting read, though I’ll nitpick at a couple of explanations Northwest offers for decisions. In keeping with its commitment to customer loyalty, WorldPerks currently has no plans to participate in the American Express Membership Rewards program. Northwest see this as simply: “Why should someone who has no loyalty to Northwest Airlines receive miles for the points they have in another loyalty program, and redeem them for awards, thus reducing the number of awards for loyal WorldPerks members? If that’s the case, how come I can transfer points to Northwest from Diners Club, Starwood, Goldpoints, etc. etc.? And if the issue is sharing a fixed pie of award seats with folks other than Worldperks members, how…

Continue Reading »

Frontier Introduces Miles for Merchandise for Elite Members

by Gary Leff

frontier
Jun 30 2005

Frontier Airlines has launched a new feature for its frequent flyer program allowing elite members to redeem points for merchandise: the More Store. Frontier Ascent and Summit Early Returns members (those who fly at least 15,000 miles a year) will be able to trade miles for jewelry, rounds of golf, restaurant meals, luggage, sporting events, overnights at the Brown Palace and tickets by visiting www.frontiermorestore.com …The Web site also has an online auction feature, with items including a new Mercedes M- Class SUV with a starting bid of 10,000 miles. More Store perks partners include restaurants such as Jax Fish House, Tamayo, Zengo, Panzano, Lola, Aix, Luca D’Italia, The Palm, Rioja and Opus. Frontier frequent fliers can trade miles for rounds of golf at Bear Dance, Green Valley Ranch, The Raven, Pelican Lakes and Arrowhead,…

Continue Reading »

The economics of frequent flyer program spinoff

by Gary Leff

united
Jun 30 2005

The cover story of the July, 2005 Inside Flyer is on airlines spinning off their frequent flyer programs in public offerings. David Rowell thinks United could be worth $15 billion. Randy Petersen says “greater than $2.5 billion.” According to the piece, airlines sell $3 billion worth of miles annually. United’s spinoff of Mileage Plus into a wholely-owned subsidiary in 2002 was a $1.4 billion transaction. Mileage is clearly a big business: In 2003, ULS accounted for 5 percent of UAL’s 2003 revenues. In 2004, United recognized more than $400 million in revenues related to ULS, which would not reflect the entire business revenue of ULS for that year. In 2000, revenue for third-party mileage sales reached $220 million during the first six months alone. But American AAdvantage is clearly the king of frequent flyer programs,…

Continue Reading »

Reactivate expired American Airlines miles

by Gary Leff

american airlines plane
Jun 30 2005

Through the end of the year, American is offer AAdvantage members the opportunity to reactivate miles that expired after December 30, 2002. There’s a fee — $50 for every 5000 miles plus $30 for ‘processing’. So really you’re just being allowed to purchase miles at a discount, one cent per mile, but that’s actually a pretty good value. (Hat tip to the MilesLink newsletter.)

Continue Reading »

Spending so much on hotels, you should own the company

by Gary Leff

hotel
Jun 30 2005

Jameson Inns, which owns 123 economy properties in 13 states, is offering stock as a frequent guest perk. Three million shares have been registered with the SEC for this purpose. Guests who enroll in the program would have 10 percent of their room charges credited toward the purchase of Jameson stock, now trading near $2.50 a share. Shares will be provided through a designated broker or the company, based on the average closing price for the last five trading days of each month. Customers won’t pay commissions on shares they receive, but will pay fees on shares they sell. (Hat tip to the MilesLink newsletter.)

Continue Reading »

NetBank Offer Improves

by Gary Leff

Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles, NetBank has improved its offer for United, Delta, and America West miles. If I recall correctly, the maximum points earned used to be 7000 and is now 9000. Priority Club points are also still available with no change in offer. NetBank offers a decent free checking account, I actually have one myself, but beware of odd fees triggered by inactivity over 3 months and closing the account within six months. My main checking account remains BankDirect, which has helped me to earn over 70,000 American Airlines miles in the past two years. It has much richer offers than NetBank, but only makes sense for someone who can maintain a minimum checking account balance of $2500. There’s a 1000 mile bonus for being referred by an existing accountholder, I’m…

Continue Reading »

Goat show infiltration scenario for terror drill

by Gary Leff

goat
Jun 27 2005

When distribution of funds for homeland security is done politically, as pork (the system we have now, more or less), you get farces like this one. Kentucky’s large rural population prompted program coordinators to center this exercise around agriculture. Likewise, he said since Kentucky is one of the nation’s top five goat-producing states, setting the attack at a goat show seemed plausible. The goats “have been infected with a bio-agent. … Then, the infected goats are at the show and you have people come and look at the goats and pet the goats and then they go home,” Cline said, summarizing the day’s scenario. “We try to focus on what really matters to Kentucky,” he said, adding, “this is a perfect way to do it.”

Continue Reading »

Another “No Notice” Frequent Flyer Program Change

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines
Jun 25 2005

Effective yesterday, Alaska and KLM have discontinued their partnership. This was revealed on Flyertalk. I can’t find any mention of the change on the Alaska Air website, all references to the KLM partnership are just gone — down the memory hole — very Orwell-esque. Award tickets that have already been issued are valid for travel for one year from date of issue or June 6, 2006, whichever comes first. Not only was the change done without warning, but members haven’t been informed.

Continue Reading »

Miles for Laser Eye Surgery

by Gary Leff

nwa-planes
Jun 25 2005

The D.O.C. Optics eyecare chain is offering Northwest miles for a variety of services. It’s been 1000 miles for purchases of glasses, and now 20,000 miles for laser eye surgery in suburban Detroit. (Hat tip to Today in the Sky.) This has got to be up there with the 2500 Alaska mile guarantee from the Danny Schurman Home Selling System.

Continue Reading »

Bonus Miles for Flying US-Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific

by Gary Leff

cathaypacificairline
Jun 25 2005

You can earn triple Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles (August 1 – September 30) when flying from LA or San Francisco to Hong Kong on first, business, or qualifying (Y, B, H, K, L, M, V) coach fares. You could also choose to earn double American AAdvantage miles through August 31 on these flights, but only when flying first or business class (“I” business fares are not eligible for the AA offer). Personally I’d opt for the AsiaMiles, both because coach fares are eligible and because AsiaMiles are hugely valuable — they allow upgrade redemption on Cathay, American, and British Airways and 60,000 AsiaMiles gets you a business class award on BA from the US East Coast to most destinations in Europe (it would take 100,000 BA miles).

Continue Reading »