Are you planning a mileage run? Four reasons to rush to the airport

by Tom Johansmeyer on

There are only a few weeks left in 2009, and frequent travelers across the country are staring more intently at their mileage statements than Santa does at the naughty/nice list. The stakes are high: miss the elite cutoff, and a year of upgrades, accelerated check-in and other perks disappear. For passengers who see gold or platinum status levels within reach, year-end “mileage runs” can make a great investment. Pay for a cheap flight, even if it is just for a night or a same-day return, and use this benefit for the next twelve months on upgrades and services that would cost a fortune otherwise.

With the low prices airlines are offering these days to bring passengers back into the cabin, the return on your investment in a “mileage run” is higher than ever. But, it’s not all to the flyer’s benefit … there’s an upside for the airlines, too. They get loyalty.

Randy Petersen, founder of FlyerTalk.com, a website for frequent travelers, told USA Today, “Whenever someone doesn’t requalify for elite status, they become free agents. And in tough times, airlines don’t want to gamble that some of their best customers will leave.” He puts the number of elite-level passengers at 7.3 million of the 210 million passengers who belong to at least one loyalty program.

So, the airlines are rolling out the red carpet for mileage runners. Here are four mileage run deals to kick around with the end of the year approaching.

1. Through December 15, 2009, American, Continental and United are doubling the elite-qualifying miles they give their passengers. So, a shorter mileage run goes a little further.

2. In the middle of next year, Continental and Untied are going to give each other’s elite passengers unlimited upgrades (based on availability) on domestic flights — and premium coach seats, too. So, if you hit the right status on either airline this year, you’ll gain even more for your efforts.

3. Starting in the spring, Delta will let you roll over extra elite-qualifying miles and credits you don’t need to reach a status level to the next year. So, you don’t have to worry about starting from zero when January 1, 2011 rolls around.

4. Delta is also adding a new top level — diamond — that will include even better perks, including free Sky Club membership.

For the frequent business traveler, especially, reaching a high elite level involves so much more than bragging rights. It defines your lifestyle for the next year — from how early you need to get up on Monday morning to your mood when you get home Thursday or Friday night. But, there are better measures to watch than up-ticks in frequent flyer accounts. My friend and former coworker from the road warrior days put it best: “The only thing better [than accumulating airline and hotel status levels] is watching them expire.” Yeah, nothing tops getting off the road for a while when you live that life.

Earn elite status on US Airways for 7,500 miles

by Grant Martin on

The jockeying for elite passenger revenue continues. Earlier this year, most of the major carriers announced double “elite qualifying mile” promotions, specials that drastically reduced the number of airline miles that one needed to fly to enjoy special perks. Usually, one needs to fly at least 25k miles to start earning low level perks such as bonus miles, preferred seats and upgrades.

With those promotions over in the spring, everyone reveled in their fortune of finding a shortcut to elite status this year — until this month, when American Airlines and United Airlines relaunched their promotions. Now, scrappy passengers (myself included) are racing to top off their frequent flyer accounts to reach even higher levels of status, a fall season full of mileage runs, lost sleep and airports.

The latest in a spate of elite promotions comes from US Airways. The Arizona based carrier just announced massive reductions in earnings tiers, now requiring only 7,500 flown miles to reach low level elite status. That’s only 30% of what you would normally have to fly. Their top tier of status, Chairman Elite, can be reached with only 30k miles.

Why the race to lock in elite passengers this year? Business travelers are one of the most reliable, return customers for airlines, and the better that they can be catered to (via elite status,) the more likely they’ll stay with an airline. In today’s global recession, they’re an important demographic to hold on to.

Check out US Airways’ page for more details on the promotion.

[Thanks to moody75 for the tip]

Get double miles elite on American Airlines flights through December 15!

by Grant Martin on

They’ve done it again! Earlier this year, American Airlines launched a pomotion to double elite miles on all AA operated flights. These special miles are the gateway to elite status, where tiers of rewards such as upgrades, bonuses and free drinks await savvy travelers.

In the several months that followed the initial promotion, travelers booked all sorts of tickets to maximize miles and earn status, from “Mileage Runs” from Boston to Los Angeles to weekend trips to Rio De Janiero. Everyone reveled in the victory, as double elite qualifying miles promotions only come around once in a blue moon and almost certainly never more than once in a year…that is, until today.

Just this morning, AA just announced that they’re running the same promotion again through year’s end, so for those of us that didn’t quite get enough miles to make Platinum or Executive Platinum, there’s still time.

You can sign up for the promo at their website using code ELTRW.

Keep an ear tuned to your favorite airline for similar promotions — earlier this year all of the other legacy carriers followed suit after AA launched their promotion.

Status seekers pulling back

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s not just the travel companies’ bank accounts getting hit in this market – loyalty programs are getting spanked, too. The management consultants, investment bankers and attorneys – now fewer in number than a year ago – who accumulate elite status quickly aren’t spending as much time on the road. With considerably less travel time being logged, the folks who used to have platinum status on multiple airlines and in multiple hotels aren’t hitting the same levels they have for the past several years.

A study by Colloquy, which conducts marketing research for loyalty programs, showed that loyalty program membership dropped 28 percent in the travel industry. In 2007, the average traveler belonged to 2.8 of these programs. Now, it’s down to merely two. Lower- and middle-income men are being cited as the source of the decline, as they’ve been hit harder by layoffs.

Additionally, active participation in loyalty programs is down almost a third. This year, the average traveler is participating actively in 1.5 programs – a year ago, it was 2.2. Among the wealthy, this type of engagement fell 13 percent – from 2.3 programs down to two.

According to Colloquy, travelers are focusing on fewer programs and looking to get as much as they can out of them, rather than spread around their travel with the knowledge that they’ll have enough to reach and maintain high statuses with several travel companies.

American Airlines passengers: Get double elite miles

by Grant Martin on

Now that the economy is low and demand is tapering off, airlines are doing whatever they can to encourage passengers to return to flying the friendly skies. Sure, oil has come down from it’s all time high of $5000/barrel, but without passengers to fill airplanes, some equipment has to be shelved, and that’s never good for profit.

What to do? Incentivize. A deluge of fare sales including dirt cheap tickets to Barcelona, Tokyo and Moscow have all hit the charts this past week, and the few of us with the travel bug have been booking tickets like madmen.

Other promotions include American Airlines recent Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) bonanza. You might remember that Elite miles/points, the nifty little jobbers that get you points towards Elite status are fairly hard to come by, and those that maintain status often have to do Mileage Runs to keep up their quota. But with this promotion, passengers can earn double elite points through June 15, effectively reducing the number of miles to earn Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum to 12.5, 25 and 50K respectively. Heck, I might even take a gander at that.

You can sign up for the DEQM promotion here using the code DBEQM. Check out American’s elite info here.