Archive for category Travel & Tourism
How do Frequent Flyer Miles Work
Posted by admin in Travel & Tourism on May 25, 2011
In a highly competitive sector, any company which aims to maintain its market share, must come up with innovative ideas that keep customers interested in their product or service. One such out of the box idea, introduced in air travel sector is the frequent flyer program, which has enjoyed huge success in the domestic, as well as international sector.
When I think about frequent flyer programs, a picture of George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, from the 2009 movie ‘Up in the Air’ floats into my mind, as the character’s biggest motivation in life is to earn 10 million frequent flyer miles! There are many such Ryan Binghams out there, who literally live a life out of the suitcase and enjoy the exclusive status and facilities provided by airlines to frequent flyers like them. In this Buzzle article, you will find a clear explanation of how do frequent flyer miles work for these vagabond air travelers.
How Do Frequent Flyer Programs Work?
The sole reason why a branded business survives over the years is the loyal customer base it maintains. As the competition in the air travel sector heated up, airlines needed to come up with new ideas to grab the customer’s attention. That’s what gave rise to frequent flyer programs. The objective of the program is to create loyal customer base, through awarding of free air miles, or ‘points’ for every flight that a customer takes with the airline. Number of points earned are directly proportional to flight distance.
The number of points or free miles earned can be ‘redeemed’ at a future date to get free air tickets or gain other privileges and discounts with associated services. The free miles or points earned per mile traveled, vary for every airline, but it’s typically one point for every mile traveled. Of course, the accumulated air miles come with an expiry tag.
They have to be redeemed within a fixed period of time, which also varies for every airline. Every airline has it’s own complicated formula for calculation of the points according to the air miles traveled. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles
Posted by admin in Travel & Tourism on May 25, 2011
In today’s highly competitive and globalized marketplace, customer is the de facto king, with multiple brands and businesses out to woo him with special offers and competitive prices. Air travel is in general, an expensive proposition compared to other means of transport, but thanks to competition in this sector too, there are ways in which you can get cheap airline tickets or practically travel free using points earned through frequent flyer programs! In this Buzzle article, I provide you with some essential tips on how to earn frequent flyer miles to sponsor your free air travel.
About Frequent Flyer Programs
Air travel is expensive and one of the ways in which domestic and international airlines provide incentives to their customers to continue using their service is by enrolling them for ‘Frequent Flyer Programs’. Once a traveler has signed up for such a program, he receives free air travel miles in proportion to the number of miles he travels through a flight.
These ‘Air miles’, ‘Points’ or ‘Frequent Flyer Miles’ keep getting registered and accumulating in the customer’s account for every flight. When a sufficient number of points get accumulated, they can be used to buy a free air ticket of proportional value eventually. There are more than one ways in which you can earn extra points and I will talk about some of them, in the following lines.
Ways to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles
At the beginning, the only way you could get hold of air miles or points was through flying, but when more allied businesses got on the bandwagon, opportunities for earning miles multiplied. Here are some smart ways of maximizing your share of frequent flyer miles. Read the rest of this entry »