According to this FlyerTalk thread, Delta has been testing a program at JFK for their Diamond Medallion members (those that earn 125,000+ elite qualifying miles/year) for a while now. Basically, they’re offering a “meet and greet” service for Diamonds upon arrival from international destinations.

They “fast track” you through immigration and then all the way to your connecting flight. Apparently they’ve been doing this for arrivals between the hours of 12PM and 6PM.

No doubt being “fast tracked” through immigration can save a lot of time (especially if you’re not a US citizen), though I think that’s where most of the value is. Not in them waiting with you for your bags and bringing you to your connecting flight.

Anyway, what’s really surprising to me here is that they’re able to do this. But according to a poster in that thread, there are 20-30 Diamond Medallions arriving between those hours, which isn’t a whole lot.

So more than anything else, this raises the question, does Delta not have that many 100,000+ mile flyers, or does United just have that many more? The average international 777 on United must have anywhere between 25 and 50 1Ks. While 1K is a slightly lower tier than Diamond in terms of miles required, even if you raised the tier by 25,000 miles, I still think they would be lightyears apart in terms of their elite ranks.

Anyway, kudos to Delta for this very cool benefit. I don’t expect it to be replicated anywhere else. Though at the very least, the legacies left with international first class (American and United) should consider offering this service for paid first class passengers. It’s the least they can do given how far behind they are in most other regards.

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Nathaniel for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Waterbury, Connecticut
Winner: Paul

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

For a long time, the Starwood American Express credit card has offered a referral bonus for existing cardholders that refer new people to the card. The referrer earns 5,000 points if the application is approved. Unfortunately it was always the “watered down” version of the sign-up offer that the person referred was offered, for 10,000 points after the first purchase. The normal offer was for 10,000 points after the first purchase and 15,000 bonus points after $15,000 in spend within the first six months.

Fortunately they have changed that now, and the application sent when referred offers the full 10,000 points for signing up and an additional 15,000 points when spending $15,000 within the first six months.

Still not quite as good as the recent offer for 30,000 points after $1,000 in purchases, but I don’t think that offer is valid anymore.

It goes without saying that if anyone is looking to sign up for the best credit card out there, you’d be doing me a huge favor by letting me refer you — onemileatatime@hotmail.com.

Check out this ABC News article. Especially this tidbit:

Well, in the last 12 months, British hotel chain Travelodge has reunited more than 75,000 bears with the owners. That’s a lot of stuffed animals left at its 452 hotels in the United Kingdom and Spain. So the company decided to investigate a bit further.

Travelodge surveyed 6,000 Britons and discovered that 35 percent of adults admitted they sleep with their teddy because they found cuddling their bear comforting. Additionally, many said the calming feeling of a bear hug helped them lower their stress level after a hard day.

And it turns out that a large number of the bear-toting travelers are men.

Travelodge said that 25 percent of men reported they take their teddy bear away with them when going away on business. The stuffed animal supposedly reminds them of home and — some say — helps fill a cuddle-void left by distant partners.

Admit it. Who travels with their teddy bear?

As leaked earlier today by the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort on Facebook, Hyatt’s 4th quarter promotion will in fact be 10,000 bonus Gold Passport points for every five qualifying nights. Per Gold Passport Concierge on FlyerTalk, the promotion will run from September 15 till December 15.

Now, I think it’s fair to say that just about everyone was expecting “Faster Free Nights,” whereby you earn one free night at any Hyatt property in the world for every two stays you make. It’s a Hyatt tradition, and they’ve had it every fourth quarter for years.

In the second quarter they had the “Big Welcome Back” promotion, which was the same thing as “Faster Free Nigths,” offering one free night for every two stays. If anything, the fact that they offered it early in the year (especially since it wasn’t a response to competitors) indicated to me that they would definitely have it towards the end of the year. I went from not being a Hyatt customer to making nearly 50 stays in a matter of months. Now admittedly I made a lot of very cheap stays and redeemed at high end properties, which probably isn’t their target customer.

So I was definitely shocked when I found out that they (apparently) won’t be running “Faster Free Nights” this fourth quarter.

There is a little tidbit that makes this promotion not quite as bad as I had originally thought. Typically you don’t earn any sort of Hyatt bonus points when you choose to earn airline miles for your stay. Since American is offering 3,000 miles per stay right now, it’s a no brainer to go with them for one night stays. So I fully expected that those of us wanting miles wouldn’t get any benefits from the promotion. But Gold Passport Concierge has confirmed that you can earn the bonus points even if you choose to earn miles for your stay.

So what’s the bottom line? This is an okay promotion. Am I going to make any stays I otherwise wouldn’t make? Nope. Am I going to be spending more time at InterContinental hotels again? Yep.

So it’s not “mattress runnable,” but it’s decent. Still, I think Hyatt didn’t do a good job managing expectations on this one. It’s their extreme generosity in the past which causes disappointment with this promotion.

The Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort has posted the following on their Facebook wall:

COMING SOON!!! – Hyatt Gold Passport proudly introduces, “The Great 10K” promotion, which will run Sept. 15 thru Dec. 15, 2010. Members can earn 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after every 5 eligible nights. The number of bonus points a member can earn is UNLIMITED & bonus points DO NOT EXPIRE! http://goldpassport….hyatt.com/gp/en/offers/index.jsp

Well, we have been waiting for a Hyatt fourth quarter promotion. It sounds to me like the hotel leaked something a bit too early that they shouldn’t have. An average of 2,000 Gold Passport bonus points per night is actually a fairly generous promotion, but I know almost everyone is hoping for Hyatt’s “Faster Free Nights” promotion, whereby you earn one free night after every two nights. And frankly, such a promotion wouldn’t add any value for me, since I currently select airline miles for most of my Hyatt stays, which would make me ineligible for the bonus points.

Some say that “Faster Free Nights” is a Hyatt fourth quarter tradition, which it is, but I doubt they’re feeling much pressure to offer such a promotion this year given the lack of lucrative promotions offered by the competition.

So not definitively trying to say this is going to be their fourth quarter promotion, but it wouldn’t surprise me. If this is the case, something tells me “Faster Free Nights” will be back with the introduction of their new credit card.

Still crossing my fingers that they’ll have Faster Free Nights!

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Chris for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
Winner: lelee

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

If you have an American Express Membership Rewards credit card, British Airways is offering a 20% transfer bonus at the moment. I’m not sure if this is for anyone with a Membership Rewards card or just Platinum and Centurion members, but it will show up on your Membership Rewards online page if you’re eligible.

This isn’t really a reason to just transfer points without a specific goal, but this is a great time to top off an account for those of you that got the British Airways credit card with the 100,000 mile sign-up offer last year. In some cases it even might make sense to transfer even if you don’t already have a sizable balance. British Airways has decent redemption rates if you stick to just one partner. For example, flying Cathay Pacific business class from the US to Asia with a stopover in Hong Kong is 100,000 miles, so take 20% off of that, and you’re looking at a pretty good deal.

Check out Air New Zealand’s new rugby-themed safety video:

Very creative. And I have a feeling this will actually help people pay attention, so kudos to them!

(Tip of the hat to Matthew)

A question I often see over on FlyerTalk is “why doesn’t [insert your favorite loyalty program] have a higher elite tier?” People “double qualify” for the highest elite tier, and think they should receive more benefits. As someone that consistently more than double qualifies for United 1K status, and is about  to double qualify for Hyatt Diamond status, I can appreciate the sentiment. Admittedly I’m not the most profitable customer for either of those companies, but then again, I wouldn’t be if I only traveled half as much as I do either.

But why doesn’t United, for example, have a 2K status level? If you fly 100,000 miles per year you get upgraded before someone that flies 50,000 miles per year, so why shouldn’t someone that flies 200,000 miles per year get upgraded before someone that flies 100,000 miles per year? Along the same lines, if you make 25 stays at Hyatt properties you get all kinds of benefits, while you don’t if you make only 10 stays. So why shouldn’t you get any extra benefits for 50 stays?

The incremental benefits of elite status beyond the top, published tier are minimal. At United I can earn eight confirmed regional upgrades and six systemwide upgrades for the first 100,000 miles I fly, while I earn a total of four systemwide upgrades for the second 100,000 miles I fly. For Hyatt I earn four confirmed suite upgrades for the first 25 stays I make, while I earn nothing additional for the next 25 stays I make. Yet interestingly enough the incremental benefits typically increase proportionally up until the top tier.

So what’s a rational person left to do? Well, probably shoot for top tier status with more than one program. There’s nothing wrong with diversifying, though I’d argue regardless of whether we’re talking about airlines or hotels, top tier status with one program is better than middle tier status with two programs.

But that doesn’t answer the question in the title of my post. Why don’t they offer more incremental benefits? I’ve thought about it for a while, and I don’t really have a good answer. I can think of a few answers, but they’re not necessarily good ones.

One argument is that the programs aren’t keeping up with the times. I have a feeling it’s only somewhat recently that the programs have thousands upon thousands of members that more than double or triple qualify for a status level. And that’s largely due to the double miles/segments/stays promotions they have.

Another possible answer is that they’re tackling this issue by creating invitation only status levels. United has Global Services and Hyatt has Courtesy Card, and they’re not the only ones. At the same time, that’s for truly high revenue customers and “important” people. That doesn’t address the person that spends a more “normal” amount on travel, contributing double as much revenue to a company as someone that just hardly qualifies for top tier status.

The third, and only truly practical answer I can think of, is that it dilutes the current top tier status levels. I remember flying from San Francisco to Washington Dulles last summer on a Monday morning with a seat assignment in regular economy (not even Economy Plus). As a 1K I nicely approached the gate agent and asked her if there was any chance I could get an Economy Plus seat as a 1K. Her response? “You’re only a 1K, I have five Global Services in economy that I’m trying to find Economy Plus seats for.” Hmm, so I “only” have the top published status tier with your airline? I can understand what she meant, but there are definitely more tactful ways to communicate that. And unfortunately this wasn’t just a bad reaction — that’s how the employees feel when there’s a new top tier; it does devalue the former top tier.

Along the same lines, if I’m flying business class, I’d much rather do so on a two cabin aircraft than a three cabin aircraft with a first class cabin. It should be the same product and feeling, right? Either way, you’re paying the same amount. Yet some airlines differentiate service between two cabin business class and three cabin business class, like American. They offer more service in business class on a two cabin aircraft than they do on a three cabin aircraft. How does that make any sense?

So I don’t think there’s a good answer. On one hand I’d love to see airlines have higher status tiers, but on the other hand I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea, since it does dilute the current highest tier. If I flew 100,000 miles per year with United and there were a 200,000 mile or 300,000 mile tier, and American didn’t have those additional tiers, I’d probably want to fly American.

But I do think it’s time for the airlines and hotel programs to provide more incremental benefits. It doesn’t have to be in the form of a higher published status level or even better recognition. But how about not reducing the marginal benefits? How about silently factoring in how much a person has flown that year when sorting the upgrade waitlist (even if it’s only after factoring in the fare paid)? Does it make sense that the time you choose to check-in online for your flight factors into your upgrade chance, while how much you fly doesn’t? How about offering at least as many upgrade instruments for each additional 100,000 miles as they did for the first 100,000 miles?

Anyway, just some food for thought…