Travel Loyalty News

This two-day seminar in LA is for anyone has ever wanted to learn mileage collection and redemption tricks, but didn't want to actually hunker down and study sites like thepointsguy.com.

Cruise lines have learned from the airlines that travelers are willing to pay for the perks that loyal customers earn, which is fine as long as they don't start charging regular customers for checked luggage.

Don't spend all your time flying back and forth when you can get premier status for a fraction of the cost.

Travel managers can provide certain perks, but smart independent travelers can get similar deals and keep all the loyalty rewards for themselves -- one reason more business travelers are going rogue.

Online travel agencies playing by American Airlines' rules are becoming the haves and the others are becoming the have nots. And, with Preferred Seats, casual travelers who don't turn to Priceline will be relegated to positions toward the rear of the plane.

Starwood will wisely continue to pour money into Starwood Preferred Guests and its most loyal members because they are driving profits. Too bad online travel agencies don't actually operate hotels -- they'd then have better luck at discovering the loyalty gene.

Bag fees are not against Southwest's religion and, with the acquisition of checked-bag-fee charging AirTran, management is undoubtedly mulling whether to see the green light.

The U.S. is the most aggressive region in the world when it comes to ancillary revenue, with seven of the top 10 airlines in ancillary revenue totals. However, Asia-Pacific, with carriers such as AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar, is certainly no slouch.

Rocking the boat while going through a bankruptcy is unusual for an airline. And how many such frequent flyers are there anyway?

Finally, a way to make social media addiction pay. Every location-based update a user makes to linked social media accounts -- no matter the number of followers they have -- gives them loyalty points equal to what spending $20 does.