mke9499

Donate your Midwest Miles:

http://www.airtran.com/donatemiles/

I personally find this distasteful and underhanded.

newsmanhoss

Alright, this is hilarious. Help Milwaukee charities out and AirTran will give you a free business class ticket.

And the free elite to current Midwest elite members can't hurt in drumming up business either.

Maybe underhanded, but also creative. There's nothing stopping Frontier from fighting back with their own promotion.

Here's the news release

flyYX

Since the Midwest Miles program will be gone with the Midwest Brand Name I don't see a problem with this promotion. As I said before, the decision to drop the Midwest Brand Name gives AirTran a more level playing field in the MKE market. AirTran is taking advantage of this. Now if Frontier was smart, they would do a counter promotion to this.

newsmanhoss

Only the Midwest name is going away. The miles are staying and will be merged with the Frontier program.

I just want to be clear that the miles are safe and it's not like you're going to lose them and have to donate them instead. But I wonder if people who don't use FT will be taken and think that their miles are going away if they're noit donated.

BlueHorseShoe2000

This is absolutely hillarious.

I certainly can't recall a situation in which one airline has asked customers from a rival carrier to donate miles to charity. However, targeted offers relating to status matches, etc. happen all the time in the airline industry. It's a competitive business afterall and everyone wants the frequent traveler as a customer.

It will be interesting to see how many people act on this offer. Regardless of how many people ultimately participate, this will get AirTran some additional press in the Milwaukee market.

tvnwz

It is neither underhanded nor devious. It is a great marketing scheme. Ball is in Frontier's court.

newsmanhoss

Just when you think the heat in MKE couldn't be turned up any more, AirTran just dialed it up a notch.

mke9499

I just hope that AirTran does not play this as if this is part of an altruistic program to give back to the community, i.e. charity.

This move is for their own benefit to move YX/F9 customers to FL; if they wanted to be truly charitable, there would have been a promotion with their own FF members making a donation to benefit Make-A-Wish, in exchange for the benefits.

This looks like guerrilla warfare.

From Today in the Sky's Ben Mutzabaugh:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...&ak=92557.blog

iahphx

Of course it's not "altruistic." AirTran is a business, and they're trying to steal some of Midwest/Frontier's customers. Giving the miles to charity makes the switching customers feel good and perhaps does a bit of good. What's wrong with that?

If I were Frontier, I'd cap charitable contributions at 49,000 miles for the life of the AirTran promo. Not the nicest thing to do, but why let AirTran "exploit" the Midwest program for their own gain? Sure AirTran might respond by changing the promo, or issue a snotty press release, but so what?

And, of course, Frontier could respond with its own ff promo.

BTW, how much longer is the AirTran/Frontier ff partnership likely to last? A couple days?

And I'd love to see one of the Star Alliance carriers run this promo on Delta!

8C4IOW

This is the most interesting part of the situation. If they were good with each other at status quo then why initiate a program like this?

It seems as though the end is near for the AirTran/Frontier FF agreement.

mke9499

Very astute comment!

flyYX

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my post and it wasn't my intention to scare anyone into thinking their Midwest Miles would disappear. My comment was in regards to only the brand name and not the FF Program. Maybe Frontier can offer a miles boost for staying with the Midwest Miles Program through the transition period? Double your miles if you stay? That might be too much, but something like that to counter AirTran's offer.

iahphx

While holding hands and singing kumbayah is nice, it's obvious that competitive circumstances have changed and Frontier and Airtran can no longer be partners. So be it.

BlueHorseShoe2000

That was pretty much a given.

I was told at the brand unveiling that Republic is actively pursuing a relationship with one of the big alliances. If that doesn't happen, a partnership with one or more international carriers will likely materialize. Bedford himself recently said that Frontier customers will have access to a global route network later this year.

Republic will kick AirTran to the curb soon enough. The real question is why this hasn't happened already?

BlueHorseShoe2000

As this offer seems to be targeted at more frequent travelers, perhaps Frontier should launch a "Fly Three Get One Free" promotion on all competitive routes to individuals traveling to/from MKE. Sure, this would cost a few bucks put would put the screws to AirTran.

Republic needs to take a good slap at AirTran. Why let your chief rival have all of the fun?