ILovetheReds

My sister forwarded me this email she received from Frontier. She lives in Milwaukee so I am not sure if it only went out to Milwaukee flyers or all Frontier flyers.

I don't fly Southwest much but this is great if they start giving status to other airline elites.

We have an exciting opportunity for Wisconsin Rapid Rewards Members looking for ways to use their Frontier EarlyReturns® miles! From now through August 31, 2012, donate all of your Frontier miles to one of the EarlyReturns charitable donation program participants, and we will give you a Rapid Rewards Point for every EarlyReturns mile you donate!

In addition to matching your Frontier EarlyReturns miles, we are also offering EarlyReturns Ascent and Summit members complimentary Rapid Rewards A-List and AirTran® A+ Rewards® Elite status. That means you can gain tier status in two frequent flier programs regardless of whether you choose to donate your miles or not!

Here's how it works:

Donate all of your Frontier miles to an EarlyReturns charitable donation program of your choice.

Submit a copy of your Frontier EarlyReturns statement that denotes the mileage that you have donated and reflects that your account balance has been zeroed out along with all of the information below to [email protected].

And if you are an EarlyReturns Ascent or Summit member and wish to gain elite status in Rapid Rewards and A+ Rewards, submit a copy of your current, valid tier card or statement along with all of the information below to [email protected].

Rapid Rewards Points and any eligible elite status match will be granted within four to six weeks of submitting your request. Don't miss out on this one-time special offer!

Submit the following information to [email protected] by August 31, 2012:

First and last name.

Rapid Rewards account number.

A+ Rewards account number (if requesting A+ Elite status).

Enroll now if you are not yet an A+ Rewards Member.

Phone number.

A copy of your EarlyReturns statement reflecting a zero balance and the donated mileage.

A copy of your current, valid EarlyReturns Ascent or Summit tier card or statement if requesting status match.

To avoid delays, please ensure that your request includes all of the above information.

Please note that e-mail attachments cannot exceed five megabytes (5MB).

Donate your mileage today and get matching Rapid Rewards Points!

kevin78

Called frontier to donate miles----was told the donation program has been suspended.

formeraa

Not surprising. Southwest is clearly trying to bankrupt Frontier. With high fares and underhanded stunts like this, it's clear that WN is officially a legacy carrier.

nsx

Not only that, but apparently the donations have been reversed retroactively.

MrMan

You know the Frontier Pilots are kicking themselves going with Republic rather than WN. WN now carrying more passengers than UA mainline in Denver and the largest in Milwaukee.

Not sure how this is underhanded though. No different than AA matching UA status for Exp Plats.

nsx

WN offered FL members a benefit only if they engaged in a redemption that would cost FL cash money. WN was messing with FL's cash flow. Too clever by half. JMO.

Had WN bought FL, the AirTran acquisition likely would not have occurred. Perhaps that result would have been better for Southwest: Time may tell.

luv2ctheworld

As far as tactics go, this is pretty ingenious... entice your competition's customers to hurt their bottom line, and build loyalty to your own brand, all in one fell swoop.

UnitedRhapsody

FL was Frontier Mk I. Frontier Mk II is F9. FL (ironically) is now Air Tran.

jamesteroh

I heard Delta sent out a similar email offering to allow members to exchange their F9 miles for Delta miles. Thank God they aren't doing status matches on Deltas or giving any MQM's only RQM's but not sure how that is working. I can't imagine F9 would want to sell miles to Delta or Delta would want to buy miles from F9. If that is the case I am surprised WN didn't try to work out a similar deal.

nsx

Oops. I earned quite a few miles on Frontier Mk I. IIRC those miles were matched by AA and also by People Express when Frontier had an aborted merger, then a completed one.

As a poster on the F9 forum pointed out, the DL offer costs F9 nothing out of pocket. DL picks up the liability apparently without any money coming to DL from F9. Southwest's deal was presumably designed to bleed the value of the miles from F9 immediately. As I said, that was too clever by half.

jpetekYXMD80

Since this is using my post, I want to be clear. The Delta match does not involve donating miles, so we have no reason to believe this is related to the Southwest offer today. I just found it odd for them to disappear and then reappear, but I have no reason to believe they're not still in transit to DL... yet.

pinworm

It's called "competition" and it has a function in the free market. I don't see any major difference between this and retailers accepting competitor's coupons, a practice engaged in by many companies.

jamesteroh

If someone "donates miles" on F9 do they make a cash donation in exchange for the miles? If they are then that is costing F9 money right away. Or are they donating the actual miles to the charity and the charity has to use the miels to fly clients on? If it's donating just the miles I dont see how it would cost cash to F9 immediately unless the charity uses all those miles right away.

The Delta situation is odd because F9 is deducting the miles from the members account. The two airlines have to be working together. I really don't see the advantage to the airlines unless Delta thinks they can get a lot of the Milwaukee business (and I know DL has a SC at MKE so they must have a decent amount of business there) and F9 is happy having the miles off their books (and since they are RDM skypesos and not MQM's they aren't that valuable IMO anyway). I know F9 is cutting service drastically at MKE but I thought they were still going to have a preference, like what Delta did at CVG.

nsx

I thought it was the former, a cash payment by F9. After all, not every charity has a use for miles. But I could have been wrong.

If it's the latter, presumably with the miles aggregated from all donating members, then the liability is deferred until redemption. I don't know what would happen if a charity receives a total amount that is insufficient for even one redemption.

nsx

You are correct. I goofed on the retroactivity because I was not familiar with the DL offer. I erroneously assumed it was also a match for donations. That leaves open the question of what if anything DL is getting in exchange for its miles other than the customer list and some goodwill.