US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Double Miles (towards Preferred Status too)

Seems to be a targeted one since I havent flown them in almost 8 months now, but I will post it none the less.

1-800-872-4738 #9631

Between Aug 5-Nov 15 2003
Double Miles toward award travel
Double Miles toward preferred status

No mention of class of service so I am assuming valid on all classes

It let me register, though it warned ahead of time that some promotions required eligibility.

also http://www.usairways.com/dividendmiles/9631.htm

This new status offer is great news for my fall.
Any chance of adding this to the Visa double miles (for the rest of August), or do you think it's one or ta' other?

I realize this isn't a challenge but I have called twice in the last two weeks asking if there was anything going on to help secure my status for next year. Both reps said there wasn't anything going on but to check back next month.

No one offered that there might be a double miles offer.

Also doesn't seem to be listed on the website with the other current promotions.

The fine print does include the dreaded "Valid only for addressee."

Good thing they aren't running any special promotions that might dilute the elite levels.

Speaking of dilution, would you like more ice in your plastic cup?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
Good thing they aren't running any special promotions that might dilute the elite levels.</font>

With all these tier promotions, is there any US Airways FTer who doesn't have status?

Thanks to FT and US Airways, I just requalified for CP last night.

I have no figures to back this up but I think the ranks of Silver (and maybe Gold) have significant increases in membership numbers but overall, little or no increase in revenue.

I suspect the numbers of CP's has remained constant.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by safetymom:
I realize this isn't a challenge but I have called twice in the last two weeks asking if there was anything going on to help secure my status for next year. Both reps said there wasn't anything going on but to check back next month.

No one offered that there might be a double miles offer.</font>


FIRST TIME POST!

I called the Silver line and asked the same question regarding promotions...none. I mentioned to the rep that one of my relatives received an offer #9631, and could I register for that one. Long story short, I was able to be targeted and registered without much pushback. Though the rep did press a bit regarding name and address of my "relative..." Note: She warned me that registering for this might take me out of the running for "other" promotions that may have come my way. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I agree GEO. I smell trouble if this keeps up. It is getting too much play here.

I registered for this bonus prior to a trip earlier this week. When my #9631 miles didn't appear, I called and asked to be manually registered......no problem. The miles appeared within eight hours.

I'm happy and preparing for a bunch of double DM runs this fall!

My problem with all of this isn't dilution of the tiers, registering for too many bonuses, taking advantage of the system or whatever...my issue is that I've *NEVER* been targeted for one of these promotions. And my flying has been all over the place, so one would think that I would have eventually fallen into some kind of grouping. I used to fly a lot, then I didn't do much at all, then I had flights every other month or so on a regular basis - I've never had any status, so it isn't like I'm getting any of the "perks" (upgrades, etcetera). What gives here?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tcollins33:
my issue is that I've *NEVER* been targeted for one of these promotions....What gives here?</font>

Try changing your address of record to something other than a fortress hub.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gardener:
Try changing your address of record to something other than a fortress hub.

</font>

Im not in a fortress hub and I dont see many of them. I had one GOM last year as I recall. The DM Visa one this year is great, and not targetted.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gardener:
Try changing your address of record to something other than a fortress hub.

</font>

You may be right in that it could possibly increase my chances, but at that point, it's too much of a bother. I'd really like to know what their scheme is for picking people to receive the targets, but I don't think they really know, either...

I can't understand how they target people other than possibly by location and status. My boyfriend and I both got targetted for this promotion and we haven't been targetted in awhile.
Him: Silver 2002, flew once in 2003 thus far, did not GOM, actually hasn't particpated in any promotions listed on FT.
Me: DM but will be making silver and maybe Gold, GOM, various other promotions, have flown 15 segments YTD.

It doesn't make any sense to me. He hasn't flown much but I have (in my eyes).

Is this promo eligible on US flights "operated" by UA? Trying to do a MR to Vegas on the cheap and all the nice roach type fares are on UA metal.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kdinino:
Is this promo eligible on US flights "operated" by UA? Trying to do a MR to Vegas on the cheap and all the nice roach type fares are on UA metal.</font>

If you mean the Visa bonus no, US planes only.

On a happy note (well for me at least http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif) I arrived back from LGW and my mileage and bonus posted today. Another visit to jolly 'ole England coming up!

I mean the supposed "targeted" promo. If I have US flight #'s will it matter? Has anyone ever received double miles on UA operated flights w/ US flight #'s?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kdinino:
I mean the supposed "targeted" promo. If I have US flight #'s will it matter? Has anyone ever received double miles on UA operated flights w/ US flight #'s?</font>

At least in the case of this summer's R&R bonus, no. The US promotions are good only on US metal (which makes sense from US's perspective since the airline only gets the money when you travel on one of their airplanes).

Also, even if your trip on UA metal was ticketed under US numbers, it will still credit on your mileage statement under the UA flight numbers. At least that's been my experience on DCA-ORD-STL several times this year.

I received the double tier miles bonus on UA metal using my US number this July...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tcollins33:
My problem with all of this isn't dilution of the tiers, registering for too many bonuses, taking advantage of the system or whatever...my issue is that I've *NEVER* been targeted for one of these promotions. And my flying has been all over the place, so one would think that I would have eventually fallen into some kind of grouping. I used to fly a lot, then I didn't do much at all, then I had flights every other month or so on a regular basis - I've never had any status, so it isn't like I'm getting any of the "perks" (upgrades, etcetera). What gives here?</font>

We all want to be targeted for every bonus.

But put yourself in the shoes of a business - who do you want to dangle your best (eg 2x tier miles) promos to? People who might become a better long-term customer.

For example, in the Caribbean surey that came out last week, some of the questions asked things like 'how many trips a year do you take?' and 'how many of those are on US'? If I were running the marketing department, the people with 80+% of their flights on US would go onto my back burner of sending promos to. I dont have much ability to increase my revenue from getting them to fly on US - they already do.

But people with a 'fair' number of trips (one a month?), and who I get 50% or less of the business - those are possibly people I'd like to attract. Especially if they lied and checked the 'I buy full fares' box ;-)

There's no reason not to throw a bone every once in a while to the diehards, but from a marketing standpoint, you wouldnt necessarily send them your best stuff. The problem with FT and the Internet is there is no such thing as a 'targeted' promotion anymore. Where people used to never know that they were 'missing on the best promos', now everyone knows.

Once someone gets the promo code, everyone else finds out and tries to get it too. It then becomes hard to tell who brought incremental revenue to the table, and who just got miles for trips they would have already taken. If they could get 'pure data' (ie without people begging to be signed up) they would actually have a decent idea of what it took to get a new customer.

This is certainly an important factor behind the debacle of GOM last year. Aside from the tons of bonus miles given out, and the cost to fix the system, they lost a potentially valuable way of connecting the 'carrot' with the revenue. And they ended up giving us the 'stick'.

I think that there are a few levers in play that can work for or against US in their targeting decisions.

For instance, I am flying to SEA next month. I am SP on the way to GP. I was NOT targeted for the Double miles, but was able to convince them that I should be. Why should they target me? If I had the choice between flying UA in E+ or US in E- (or potentially first with a ton of e-certs) and I was only getting SINGLE miles, I would choose UA E+ every time. I chose US solely because I am now getting double miles.

The same scenario applies to a full fare trip to Europe over the next month or so.

Whereas, if I were a CP, I would choose US for the potentially free upgrade regardless of bonuses (on the domestic).

Following this logic, only people who would choose to fly other airlines but for some US promotion or bonus should be targeted. What targeted email promotions demonstrate to me is that US marketing thinks that they understand how to generate incremental revenue increase, but they do not. While I hesitate to use anecdotal situations to prove a theory, I believe that my scenario is not an uncommon thought process for non-super-elite (i.e. CP and 1K) flyers.

Sorry, had to add to this: As US no longer has an advantage on price, they need to provide another reason to fly with them instead of UA.

[This message has been edited by Score8 (edited 08-26-2003).]

PHLBuddy - Did your flights have US flight numbers or UA flight numbers? Just wondered!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MikeM6090:
PHLBuddy - Did your flights have US flight numbers or UA flight numbers? Just wondered!</font>

Mike: UA #s, UA metal, US FF # The planes were ancient so no E+ http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif.

Well there goes my original theory. Thanks for the replay PHLBuddy

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by HScottM:
Especially if they lied and checked the 'I buy full fares' box ;-)</font>

That's redundant ;-)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Score8:
Though the rep did press a bit regarding name and address of my "relative..." Note: She warned me that registering for this might take me out of the running for "other" promotions that may have come my way. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>

CP desk has been told that they can no longer register a CP for a targeted promotion over the phone. Looks like Ben has shut another door!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

Edited to add the word tergeted which I had ommitted.

[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited 09-05-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by longing4piedmont:
CP desk has been told that they can no longer register a CP for a promotion over the phone. Looks like Ben has shut another door!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif</font>

Do we know as of when?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lt1GM:
Do we know as of when?

</font>

No but based upon a phone call this morning it has been at least a week.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by longing4piedmont:
CP desk has been told that they can no longer register a CP for a targeted promotion over the phone. Looks like Ben has shut another door!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif</font>

Great, another excellent marketing decision. I guess they are just trying to reward to good customers, and I guess that I am not one. When is this battle with us going to stop BBB?

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No thanks, I'm just lurking. Call me the Lurker!

How is not allowing an individual to sign up for a targeted promotion they did not receive a bad marketing decision?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

Targeted promotions are a fact of life, but it still remains that using them to reward one segment of the same customer class over another is risky. As we see, in the information age, there are no secrets. Mileage accumulation for status is the holy grail of airline rewards. On the assumption such promos are directed at customers they fear losing, financial incentives (some discounting or companion stuff) might be a better choice. For one thing, offering faster accumulation to people who evidently don't really care, probably won't get that much incremental business from them. Meantime, some poor slob flying mileage runs and extra connects, has to sit there and watch it happen. Doesn't appear to be a big loyalty builder, to me.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
How is not allowing an individual to sign up for a targeted promotion they did not receive a bad marketing decision?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif</font>

Go back and read my post again. I didn't say I wasn't targeted. I didn't say I was. I said you can no longer sign up for targeted promotions using the CP Desk.

Jumping to conclusions? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited 09-05-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
On the assumption such promos are directed at customers they fear losing, financial incentives might be a better choice. For one thing, offering faster accumulation to people who evidently don't really care, probably won't get that much incremental business from them. Meantime, some poor slob flying mileage runs and extra connects, has to sit there and watch it happen. Doesn't appear to be a big loyalty builder, to me.</font>

All hail the maker of deals.

And you know what, geo, it is a bad marketing decision because when I am on the fence about going somewhere, you bet your bottom dollar that I take into consideration if I'm getting double tier miles or not.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by longing4piedmont:
Go back and read my post again. I didn't say I wasn't targeted. I didn't say I was. I said you can no longer sign up for targeted promotions using the CP Desk.

Jumping to conclusions? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>


Methinks you jumped, not me. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I was responding to the preceeding post from The Lurker. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


As the deelmakr points out, sending these targetted promos in the age of instant communication via the internet is dangerous. The word will get out. The bad marketing decision has EVERYTHING to do with how the crowd at CCY communicates (mis-communicates?) with its customer base when it comes to these promos. It has nothing to do with one's ability to register or not register via phone with the CP desk.


[This message has been edited by geo1005 (edited 09-05-2003).]

I agree that the SP and GP are deluted but I don't belive it really matters. If they don't fly much and don't have e-certs, they can't upgrade (unless they buy them) and it doesn't effect anyone. The prefered mile bonus is minimal.

Also, we are approaching the 1 yr anniversery of the 4-1 paper to e-upgrades conversion. At that time the enormous volume of e-upgrades will convet to miles since they are only valid for 1 yr (but you can't tell on the web site when they expire). At that time, a lot of SP and GP will have to be selective about their upgrades or buy more.

For example, A GP earns 18 e-upgrades every 20K flown (8+10). This allows him to upgrade for 9,000 miles of flights for every 20,000 miles flown. This is a radical change from the paper 800 mile certs.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mileshound:
For example, A GP earns 18 e-upgrades every 20K flown (8+10). This allows him to upgrade for 9,000 miles of flights for every 20,000 miles flown. This is a radical change from the paper 800 mile certs. </font>

Agreed, and additionally it used to be point2point and now it is leg-by-leg. That is why CP is more valuable than ever. xxx-PIT-SFO/LAX was 3 certs now it is 6.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
How is not allowing an individual to sign up for a targeted promotion they did not receive a bad marketing decision?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif</font>

I guess my sarcasm wasn't apparent. I thought my second line about BBB would make it clear. It is a bad marketing decision, as it upsets customers, and as has already been said, If I have to fly somewhere, I'd rather fly with an airline giving me double miles. Besides, when has BBB ever made a good marketing decison? Isn't that an oxymoron?

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No thanks, I'm just lurking. Call me the Lurker!

Since the ability to get into promos is important to many of us, I thought I'd share this in two places. Hope it's not a FT violation of some type...

As I have posted on "The Official Bonus Code Thread - V2" page 6 (I don't know how to cross post - sorry), CP say they signed me up for this promo this week, and when I called today (out of fear, mostly) they confirmed they see it on my record.

I pointed out I wasn't signed up for any other active promos when I spoke to them - so maybe that has something to do with it???

So, I guess I will see when I take my next flight in a few days....

Why would CP tell me they have signed me up if they aren't allowed to?

I registered for this, and guess what - they have made a great change to the system!

My line item for this promo shows up as:

05-SEP-03 US 0781 E FRA PIT 4,120 4,120 8,240

05-SEP-03 MULTIREWARDS BONUS #9631 0 4,120 4,120

They have the promo number in the entry - so you can actually see whether the promo you have registered for is working.

Hopefully, this will save some time for everyone, especially the phone agents who have to deal with all of the 'why am I not getting credit' calls?

That is a great change. But why dont I ever get any of the promos......... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Just out of curiosity HSCOTTM, how did you get to view your line item of your reservation? Is there a site that you can look this up? Please enlighten me.

Jon

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sweetp267:
Just out of curiosity HSCOTTM, how did you get to view your line item of your reservation? Is there a site that you can look this up? Please enlighten me.</font>

It looks like he copied the lines from the online Dividend Miles statement at usairways.com.


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No thanks, I'm just lurking. Call me the Lurker!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PhillyFive:
CP say they signed me up for this promo this week, and when I called today (out of fear, mostly) they confirmed they see it on my record.

Why would CP tell me they have signed me up if they aren't allowed to?</font>

This is basically what happened to me. Called the prior week and was told I could sign up. Called back to check and the agent said "no you are not" and "how did you find out about this promotion" I told her a couple of friends had gotten it and then she asked if I remembered who I talked to. Something about the tone of her voice told me not to disclose this information.

It was at this point that she stated that the agent who attempted to sign me up should not have tried to register me as they had been told they could no longer sign up CP's for targeted promo's. Oh well! I guess you should can still try to call, but it sounds like they are getting serious about this procedure.

geo, see you were right after all. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The Lurker:
It looks like he copied the lines from the online Dividend Miles statement at usairways.com.
</font>

sorry for my confusing terminology. As Lurker said, I just pasted my most recent DM online account statement transactions. Nothing special.