Tough love is a really relevant application to the loyalty of frequent flyer miles. There are just times when one has to reward the love with a tough statement or action. Certainly most frequent flyer programs get defensive when they see a critical review of something they have instituted, but there is hope — OK, very slight hope — that they will see it as tough love.

The tough love? I started it with this editorial from InsideFlyer magazine:

The 2008 Dumb Decision Award goes to American AAdvantage. What were they thinking in adding a $5 online award booking fee for their program back on June 21? While this gem was quietly rescinded in early October, it nonetheless stands out for a few reasons. First of all, AAdvantage became the only loyalty program I know of in the world to require some sort of fee to redeem any award. There was no opportunity to redeem an award, no matter how simple or no matter the outlet, without paying at least $5. American suggested that the fee would help them offset the technology investment the airline has been making to its Web site. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the Web site paid for by those members who don’t like to book online and still to this day call a service center and are charged $20? And correct me if I am wrong, but I can’t remember AAdvantage recently introducing anything specifically to their Web site that wasn’t an offshoot from the airlines’ normal reservations Web site. The award calendar? It was launched back in March of 2007. A little late to begin paying for that wouldn’t you think? And all the AAdvantage enhancements were offshoots of price-and-scheduling tools developed for the aa.com Web site. Did this 13-week period really pay for the technology investments? It could be argued that AAdvantage redeemed nearly 850,000 awards during this period. Assuming that 73 percent of these awards were redeemed online at $5 a redemption, minus the exception for their EXP members, that would mean roughly $3 million in special fees. I’m just not getting this decision–absolutely no way to redeem a single AAdvantage award without paying for the privilege. Sorry AAdvantage, love you, but hate seeing you act this dumb.

There are two other programs that can share in this award, but as the industry leader over the years, I place more responsibility for this dumb move in the hands of AAdvantage. But, as we have seen, they did wake up and rescinded that fee for online award redemption.

Today, I’m glad to say that peer pressure and tough love is alive and congrats to Frontier EarlyReturns. They have now seen the light and yesterday announced this:

To better serve our loyal flyers Frontier is eliminating the $25 redemption fee and $75 expedite fee for award redemptions booked on or after December 15, 2008.

So, we are now down to only a single frequent flyer program here in the U.S. that still has a Dumb and Dumber type fee to redeem from your mileage account. And to clarify, I’m not talking about redeeming by contacting the service center — this is about online redemption. The reaming holdout? Glad you asked and it is none other than US Airways Dividend Miles. Here is their last holdout policy:

Online Award Processing fee – $25 continental U.S./Alaska/Canada, $35 Latin America/Caribbean, $50 Hawaii/international

Considering where we were just a month or so ago, life for the frequent flyer is better (I didn’t say best!) but as long as US Airways tries to hold down the best interest of the frequent flyer, we’ll unfortunately have to judge the industry by its dumbest competitor. So what’s it going to be Dividend Miles, Scrooge or lose?

So far much of the work that Delta and Northwest has put into the merger of the two distinct frequent flyer programs has been well above board and in fact rather excellent with the communication and the ensuing details. They have jumped to early reciprocal benefits for the two elite programs and now comes crunch time – the start of the real merger of two databases of members and miles and miles to go.

I’m predicting that early February will be when we see the start of their database merger with both programs allowing members to convert miles from one program to the other — without a transfer fee. This full mileage transferability is not as easy as it looks since to squeeze the pennies, Delta has opted to do the technology work in-house.

Basically, members will be able to move miles from WorldPerks to SkyMiles or SkyMiles to WorldPerks as often as they want, as many miles as they want until later in 2009 when the two programs are actually merged.

Now this may help some members with their mileage accrual as it will allow them to combine the two types of miles should they need them for award redemption in 2009. As well, it will perhaps help those who are wondering which is the right way to work on their elite-level status in 2009 and perhaps even more importantly, it allows members to control the merger of accounts. 

Back in 2001 when the merger of AAdvantage and Aviators (American and TWA) were going on, that program relied heavily on merging accounts by database and as a result, some members were never credited with their correct miles since some accounts were dormant and/or contained differing address matches. With this self-select method that Delta will introduce, readers of this blog will get a head start on actually making sure that all your miles end up in the correct account of your choosing. So I strongly suggest you follow along when the time comes. For instance, I have two WorldPerks accounts, one with BizPerks going strong and a regular account that came from my elite status. I have retained the two independently since i got enrollment bonuses for each account and did not want that “double” to be discovered. With this new Delta system to move miles, I think I’ll be able to do it from both accounts into SkyMiles without discovery. BUT, wait a second. The other unique advantage of this new system or pre-merger just might be if you have miles two different ways is to move them to the award chart that will best benefit you before the merger. Yes, things aren’t always the same and those SkyMiles members who have more miles than their neighbors just might find that a “false” transfer to WorldPerks might allow you a chance to save some miles come redemption time.  And of course vice-versa.

Examples: Northwest members who want to opt out of the Saturday night stay over requirement for the 25,000 mile award might transfer those to Delta where there is no Saturday night stay requirement. SkyMiles members – why pay 40,000 miles to Hawaii when you can transfer those SkyMiles to WorldPerks and go to Hawaii for only 35,000 miles. As well, why pay 60,000 miles to Europe when you can transfer those miles to northwest for the same award only paying 50,000 miles.

Get the idea? I’m on this and will be your guide to the varying differences of this merger of the miles.

On Thursday, Nov. 20, Dividend Miles will announce a sudden reversal of their change to elite benefits some 3 1/2 months ago. With the economy of fuel stabilizing and the growing wariness of both Star Alliance (well, Continental is soon to be) partners, Continental and United adding back in 500-minimum mile bonuses and never even considering ending their elite bonuses, Dividend Miles has found that it may be better than late since there is the usual interest in year ending mileage runs to validate or complete elite status for the following year. Look for official announcements to come from US Airways, but if you had read my original statement of the chages:

http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/printable/article.php?key=4787

and then my subsequent recommendation for solution in an earlier Mileopoly column:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onthefly/2008/08/

Shake it up with a little SaveDividendMiles (1.6 billion miles registered)

http://savedividendmiles.com

And you have a best-case-scenario for appeasing the remaining and hopefully faithful members of DividendMiles.

Along the windy way of earning miles and points, there comes a time when one just really has to let loose — you know, unwind. And when staying at a hotel racking up the points, what’s the second thing that comes to mind when really unwinding while sleeping in someone else’s bed? Yea, you guessed it – jumping on the bed.

This childhood activity continues to this day and there’s a real chance that you could immortalize yourself by submitting a photo of yourself, jumping on your hotel bed when you submit it to 

http://www.hotelsbycity.net/blog/bed-jump/

You go ahead and post your picture, I’m still working on finding the hotel room with the highest ceiling …

As has been reported, the actual merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest was approved which means that in the months ahead miles you have in both programs will be merged (though as we know from the days of the American/TWA merger, some of you may get caught in the undertow of trying to match accounts). What this means is that we’re entering the official period of the honeymoon, when members of both programs should be looking for easy ways back-and-forth to boost their accounts. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Here’s a promotion by Northwest WorldPerks with Sentry Insurance, offering 1,500 bonus miles just for receiving a no-obligation quote on auto or homeowners insurance. (Don’t get fooled by other mentions of a 1,000 bonus mile offer for the same) Now, Sentry Insurance is not currently a partner with Delta SkyMiles and does not offer the same offer. This means for the opportunity seeking SkyMiles member, make sure you have a WorldPerks account, get the insurance quote with the WorldPerks bonus miles and in the months ahead, those miles will convert into your SkyMiles account. Simple as that.

WorldPerks to SkyMiles Bonus

OK, year end melt-down when the holidays and more take us away from the paperwork of actually managing your frequent flyer miles. For many, the year-end is when they lose track of time. And with that, they lose their frequent flyer miles. Here’s a quick tip, only taking a single minute that can help you from losing any American AAdvantage miles from expiration.
AAdvantage members were moved to an 18-month activity policy on December 15, 2007, which means that the next period for expiration will be June 15, 2009. Now, AAdvantage members can wait until then to start to worry, but let me help with that.
To keep your AAdvantage miles active, you need some sort of activity in your account because each qualifying activity extends the expiration date of all unexpired mileage credit in your account for 18 months from the date of the qualifying activity. Why worry about it? Head on over to this URL:
Bose Headphone Video Earns Frequent Flyer Miles
Spend one-minute, that’s all … one-minute, to watch this Bose headphone video and you will earn 150 AAdvantage miles, which means that no matter your situation with AAdvantage, your miles will not expire before April of 2010. That is perfect peace-of-mind. This one minute exercise buys you 10 more months of no expiring miles!

Each qualifying activity extends the expiration date of all unexpired mileage credit in your account for 18 months from the date of the qualifying activity.

For whatever reason, I’ve always found myself drawn to the subtleties of the marketing message. There’s a new one going around that most frequent flyers will miss or even ignore. Such is not the case for me. It’s about the sudden and growing use of the word, “redeemable.” Now, the pundit part of our Type F frequent flyer personalities will surely scoff at the use of that word, “redeemable, yea right?”
I noticed it in a recent bonus offer from United Mileage Plus. In apparent days gone by, it was enough to simply offer “40,000 bonus miles.” Today, that is clarified as “40,000 redeemable bonus miles.”
The change? Why of course the confusion of non-redeemable bonus miles used for elite qualification vs. the bonus miles used for awards. Started nearly 4 years ago, it has become a trend for programs to offer two types of bonus miles, forgoing 23 years of history when in fact there was only a single type of bonus mile. Ah, the good old (simple) days.
So what of this change? It is and will continue to confuse members. I have started to receive requests for advice when “bonus miles” don’t post. A quick look at a statement will often camouflage that the elite qualification or EQMs have grown when the base mileage does not. So beware frequent flyers and learn “when is a bonus not a bonus”!

Someone asked me the other day why there is so much attention in advice to picking airline frequent flyer programs but nothing in the way of advice for picking a hotel loyalty program.

With that question in mind, I remembered something I wrote long ago that looks like it would still be information to use today:

1. Start by doing your homework. There are a range of things to consider. First, what kinds of rewards are you most interested in: hotel rooms, frequent flyer miles, merchandise, charitable giving? Then be realistic. Look at how many points you will need for any or all of these but unlike airline frequent flyer programs, you can’t easily compare hotel points to hotel points. Most hotel programs have different earning values such as two points per dollar spent, three points per dollar spent, five points per dollar spent and even ten points per dollar spent. Keep this in mind when comparing one programs reward chart to another.

2. Look at your own spending and regular travel patterns. If you seldom stay at a hotel or if you only put $1,000 a month on your credit card, the chances of getting that dream reward might be slim. Better to opt for a program that offers low redemption rewards like simple electronics, movie passes or gift certificates and many of them now do. Tip: some programs are better for merchandise than for room redemption, so if this is your choice, compare programs based only on this measurement.

3. Think about programs that offer more than a single way to earn points. Many hotel program credit cards are ranked among the best being offered – airline or even cash-back type cards. Yes, just like frequent flyer programs, you can spend your way to great things in your life.

4. Enlist the help of family members by sharing a single hotel account. If life partners and maybe even the older children are all putting points gained by spending and travelling in a single account, points add up quickly.

5. Maximize your points earnings by using the hotel program credit card for everything you can think of – as long as you pay outstanding balances every month (or very close to it). Carry a balance and the interest costs can quickly erode any benefit gained through these programs.

6. Don’t worry about hotel point redemption problems. Unlike frequent flyer miles, hotel programs generally enjoy a trouble free experience when using your points for hotel rooms.

7. Think about the various non-travel options these programs offer. How big is the range of choice? Is there anything you either want or can use at rewards levels you can reasonably collect? Some hotel programs offer you the ability to convert your points for anything you can dream – including braces for your children!

8. Be on the lookout for special promotional offers. Many merchants use bonus points in place of discounts on merchandise.

I just love quoting frequent flyer executives and in this case the quote comes from Mark Bergsrud, Continental’s Senior Vice-President regarding their recent elimination and reflection and restoration of the 500-mile minimum flight mileage bonus. 

Now, ask yourself this. The members of OnePass complained about the loss of a few hundred miles on just a few flights in the Continental system (their average is over 1,000 miles per flight segment) and it was enough for a responsible marketing program to admit they might have done something without the right reasons and there’s enough evidence to support restoring the benefit.

Compare and contrast that with the marketing executives over at US Airways, whose members it seems messages are getting lost in the spam trap because there is no logical reason that Dividend Miles members could be any less concerned about there frequent flyer benefits unless of course there is no one at Dividend Miles listening any more. I just can’t believe that in addition to the 500-mile thing at US Airways which pales in comparison to the loss of the elite-level bonuses hasn’t elicited a single response. 

But, I think I have discovered part of the problem. Here’s an interesting recent advertisement from US Airways citing the need for a new Director, Corporate Communications. Given the type of lame-brained announcement of how the loss of the elite-level benefit was portrayed in their press release of information related to it and responses form that same department, is it any wonder? Combine that with the sudden departure of their marketing guru (which I still and will have all the respect in the world and will consider this a mid-mile crisis for him) it looks like heads might have rolled but certainly the mile (buck) stops somewhere. Count me as totally disconnected of how OnePass members can get the attention of senior executives on this somewhat minor issue and Dividend Miles members can’t get a single followup to a really important change for this program.

I estimate that elite members of Dividend Milers are losing out on about 20,600,000 bonus miles daily that members of other programs are earning because they chose a richer program. That’s got to be hurting the mileage pocketbook but could it be that after these years of struggling just to stay aline, the fight is gone from Dividend Miles members? I certainly hope not.

If you’ve ever seen me out chasing the miles and points, you’ll know that the tux in the logo for Mileopoly is rented and that I can only be found sporting the Nike logo. But nonetheless, welcome to the name change and welcome to my thoughts on the topics of the day for miles and points. I’ll return soon enough to apply my most recent post.