Articles tagged “points”

IHG sees promise for growth in Europe's largest economy, Germany.

Helping travel reward programs and consumers make the most of unredeemed points could be easy pickings, noting that $30 billion in rewards go unused each year — signaling a need for the mechanics of loyalty to evolve.

The American Express Travel website and mobile experience won't win user experience awards. But it may have something better for cardmembers — private fares, other negotiated deals, perks and points redemption.

Travel brands have a unique opportunity to realize greater potential from their loyalty programs. Through creative merchandising that allows travelers to earn points and miles in different ways, they can grow ancillary revenue, build more meaningful customer relationships, and increase lifetime value.

The pandemic has proven the resilience of loyalty programs. But it has also suggested the need for travel brands to supplement their loyalty programs with subscription-based products that address complementary needs.

Airlines built loyalty programs around spend thresholds rather than miles traveled in recent years. The pandemic may catapult airline and hotel loyalty programs into becoming less transactional and more experiential and creative.

In the past two months, travelers have bought roughly 100 million points and miles a day, on average. That's good news for cash-strapped airlines and hotels. They're using promotions to transform potentially costly refunds for canceled travel into less costly miles and points.

Points, a reseller of airline miles and hotel points, has begun to sign up travel companies to its newer ways of squeezing money out of their programs. But it's still too early to tell for sure how successful these efforts will be.

With the change by Lufthansa Group, travelers in Europe will have to adjust to the new normal in loyalty programs.

As banks develop new instruments to pitch credits cards and travel writers become more experienced in marketing them, it's likely that the industry will see an uptick in well-written, cleverly crafted ads. It's up to the reader to carefully figure out the difference.