Does a merger integration still count as wildly successful if it hurts revenues to the tune of 1.5% for 9ish months? Alaska Airlines’ PSS integration came off incredibly smoothly on the operations side, but the carrier missed on the loyalty side. And lots of frequent flyers got a ton of award seats as a result.
loyalty
Air Canada, banks offer to buy Aeroplan
A year after announcing that it would no longer be an Aimia customer Air Canada (and its banking partners) now wants to buy the Aeroplan program off the loyalty operator. At a nice discount, of course. And it still is probably a smart move for everyone.
Emirates Skywards swallows flyDubai OPEN
The long slog to full integration of Emirates and flyDubai continues apace. This week’s announcement brings the loyalty programs of the two carriers together. And the move looks an awful lot like a shotgun wedding, with minimal regard for the flyDubai OPEN members’ history with that program.
Star Alliance teases increased award availability, new top tier for travelers
More award seats? Better elite status recognition? Star Alliance hopes to deliver both thanks to its new digital middleware platform. But can these improvements be delivered without eroding the inherent value of points or the existing status tiers??
Alaska Airlines launches hotel booking portal
Extending an airline loyalty program into hotel earn & burn is a common evolutionary step. Today’s play by Alaska Airlines follows the plan pretty well, but comes up short on delivering a solid, consistent value to program members.
Loyalty program changes: AsiaMiles gets the messaging right
Change happens. Getting the messaging about those changes right is a rare win for loyalty programs and their members. AsiaMiles is in that rare group, announcing changes this week and owning both the good and bad that come from such.
Yotel’s new not-really-a-Loyalty Program
Getting creative to launch a new loyalty program is no easy task. Just focusing on points is passé and doesn’t work so well. So what’s a company to do? Probably not what Yotel chose with its new “YOTEL Membership Programme” launched this week.
A last hurrah for topbonus loyalty
The TopBonus program, formerly of AirBerlin, has airline redemption options once again. But how long will that – or the rest of the program – last??
Behind the Miles&Cash numbers at Miles and More
Cash & Points awards make loyalty program members happier and more engaged. That’s the theory and it usually seems to hold true. But some stats from the year old Miles and More version of such raise an interesting question about member retention.
Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer Blockchain Bullshit
Are frequent flyer “cryptomiles” the next big thing? Sadly, you’re likely to hear a lot about that in the coming years, including today’s announcement from Singapore Airlines. Alas, it is mostly buzzword bullshit.