First of all this doesn’t qualify as a full-on rant. Merely, it is an exclamation of being downgraded by SPG (Starwood Hotels) in my favorite annual exercise with them—”Design Your Card.”

I just love the idea of having a custom membership card with sPG, especially that i can put my clever comments on the back. For the past several years, i’ve chosen as the hotel property image for my card the W Retreat & Spa, Maldives. That’s my aspiration goal for collecting many SPG points yesterday, today and tomorrow. I love that area and know that the hotel will be magnificent. So, i turtle my way toward earning the millions of points i want to splurge on a reward stay there.

WELL, this year i just received my annual email reminder to built my custom card and I’m all in for replicating last years as my aspiration for the W Retreat is still alive. BUT, when I go to chose from their 60 hotel options, I scan the list and move from ‘region’ view to ‘hotel’ view and and back and forth. I see a few W Hotels listed, but somehow i missed the W Retreat, Maldives. Scratching my head, I start all over—this can’t be, I mutter to myself. ALAS, I find the Maldives property for my card … but wait, SPG has downgraded me. No longer is the W Retreat Maldives and option, now it is the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort. LOOK, I’m sure that the Sheraton Full Moon is a very nice property, but in my aspiration moment, it is clearly not the W Retreat. I scramble to see if perhaps the W Retreat has been closed—a possible reason, no? But, that’s not it, the W Retreat is still a Starwood property and available.

SO, there you have it, I, Randy Petersen, was downgraded on a plastic member card from the W Retreat Maldives to the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon. But I’ll do my own downgrading and just to make myself happy, I walk myself over to another card and now have the Al Maha (Luxury Collection Desert Resort, UAE) as my custom card.

That’s my story, the only time i’ve ever been downgraded by SPG and yet somehow i remain happy. Go figure.

Rapid Rewards 2.0

Come March 1, Southwest Airlines restarts their frequent flyer program with everything brand new—except the name.

For three years Southwest Rapid Rewards has worked tirelessly toward redefining their future when it comes to loyalty programs. While not content with winning awards with the current version of Rapid Rewards, the old program simply did not measure up to the others when it came to two very important issues: 1) appeal to business travelers deep into the elite levels of other airlines and, 2) a frequent flyer program as a revenue generator. With the success of “Bags Fly Free,” Southwest still needed a program to be more flexible than the current credits system and thus (please welcome …) ‘points’ as the new measure of currency of Rapid Rewards 2.0. We might call this part of the program TrueRewards, with apologies to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program since both now award “points” based upon “airfare.” But wait, all airfares aren’t created equal and thus Southwest will award varying amounts of points based upon the price you actually pay. Want more points, pay more for the ticket or simply console yourself to flying more.

But this program is much more, in fact there’s so much more that it might border upon being complicated, especially to long-time members and fans of the simplicity of the credit-based program. Differing points based on airfare to earn and differing points based on airfare to redeem doesn’t seem so simple once you look at the actual award chart.

OK, let’s move on.

More about the TrueRewards, I mean the Rapid Rewards 2.0 program: Just like JetBlue’s TrueBlue program >> No blackout dates; all seats eligible (for redemption); points never expire. Certainly Southwest has adopted the industry standards for these types of program features and as with other programs, your points never expire with activity in the program over a 24-month period which honestly should not be a difficult thing for any member to stay active with.

Other notes (with more information to come in later editions): A credit card re-launch will include the ability to earn some tier points (elite status) based upon your credit card spend. While not being able to spend your way to a Companion Pass, it’s good to know that you’re much closer to this richly rewarded benefit than you’ve ever been in the past; the addition of true elite levels, A-List and A-List Preferred which include elite-level access at airports allowing preferred passengers lines, tier bonuses (25/100%) and the newest and greatest benefits of all, free Wi-Fi. While we can’t rely on Goggle to pay for free Wi-Fi all the time with their annual promotions, we do love the fact that Rapid Rewards becomes the first to offer free Wi-Fi for elite among the major air carriers. Bottom line, all members in the new Rapid Rewards are not create equal—thank goodness.

And finally, borrowing something from the playbook of new airline acquisition AirTran and it’s own award-winning frequent flyer program A+ Rewards, Rapid Rewards credit cardholders will now be able to redeem their points for international flights to more than 800 worldwide destinations (AirTran’s A+ Rewards members currently have this benefit in that program) and as well for hotel stays and gift cards. But if I can give you an advance tip here—while SWA became famous for peanut fares, awards to international destinations will likely be based on truffle fares. Yes, you can now go to London on an award, but you can’t earn for flights to London.

So while Rapid Rewards 2.0 can’t boast of much new for the industry, it certainly bodes well as a more flexible program and more competitive program for their members and members of other programs.

Go see for yourself at:

newrapidrewards.com

Hits/Misses: Hits will be for members who have yet to typically qualify for an award in the current credit-based system. Because of the redemption opportunities being revenue-based, short haul destinations from your location will be much more affordable and will likely make award redemption possible even for those who didn’t think they had a chance. And I really have to give their new elite levels a hit because of the free Wi-Fi and the additional bonuses (25/100%). The two misses—a simple program has become more complicated for the masses and the long haul member of the program may feel the inflation of a revenue-based redemption system.

A hit perhaps for members of other programs? Given that this program now becomes very rich on the short-haul, might we see a return to short-haul rewards from both American AAdvantage and United Mileage Plus who a few years back introduced such awards for redemptions of less than 750 (or 751 miles in UA’s case) miles. We’re just saying …