Canadian Airlines Pulls Out Of American Express Membership Rewards Program


MARKHAM, ON, April 24 /CNW/ - Amex Bank of Canada said today that it has
moved quickly to protect the interests of its Cardmembers after Canadian
Airlines pulled out as a partner in its Membership Rewards program.
American Express says it is immediately bringing forward plans to revamp
the travel component of its Membership Rewards program to allow members to use
their points towards a range of travel options, including tickets for any
airline for any destination in the world.
Cardmembers will be able to redeem their points for travel certificates
which can be applied to up to 50% of the value of their purchases of air
travel, package vacations, hotel stays, car rental, or other travel related
services through any of Amex Canada Inc.'s 85 retail travel offices throughout
Canada.
In addition, at the end of the year Cardmembers enrolled in Membership
Rewards will receive a points loyalty bonus of 10% on the points they earn
between May 1st and December 31st.
American Express says that it has been planning these and other yet to be
announced improvements to the Membership Rewards program for some time. But it
said the move to bring forward their announcement to today was prompted by
Canadian Airlines decision to pull out of the program.
Canadian Airlines informed American Express that, effective immediately,
it would stop accepting transfers of Cardmember's Membership Rewards points
into the Canadian Plus frequent flyer program.
Alan Stark, President & CEO of Amex Bank of Canada commented: "We are
very surprised by Canadian's move, but with the continuing uncertainty over
the airline's future, we had already come up with exciting plans to strengthen
the travel options in our Membership Rewards program."
He said that Canadian Airlines had been a partner in the program for
eight years, and that the current program was expected to be in place until
the end of 2002.
Mr. Stark pointed out that American Express pays a "significant sum of
money" to Canadian Airlines each month for points redemptions - revenue that
Canadian will now lose.
"It's a strange business decision for an airline in trouble to turn its
back both on an ongoing source of revenue and on many of its best customers,"
commented Mr. Stark.
"But our main concern had to be to protect the interests of the
Cardmembers in our program, and that is what we have done."
He added, "While we regret their decision, we feel it will have more of
an impact on Canadian Airlines and their customer relationships than it will
on American Express or our Members," said Mr. Stark.

New travel reward for the Amex Membership Rewards Program
---------------------------------------------------------

Membership Rewards enrollees will be able to redeem their points for
travel certificates that can be used at Amex Canada Inc. retail travel offices
for up to 50% of the value of their purchases. Enrollees will receive a $100
travel certificate for every 10,000 point redemption, which can be used
towards the purchase of airline tickets, train tickets, tour packages,
cruises, hotels, car rentals and travel insurance packages.
The addition of this new reward option makes the program even broader and
more flexible than other card or frequent flyer programs. American Express
Cardmembers will be able to:

- Book travel without the restrictions of blackout periods
- Use certificates for a much wider range of travel options
- Use certificates for discounted travel offers
- Use certificates for friends or family, or give as a gift

Along with these improvements, Membership Rewards enrollees will continue
to have the option of transferring their points into the frequent flyer
programs of Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Cardmembers will also
earn a 10% points loyalty bonus at the end of the year.
In all, the Membership Rewards program offers over 150 reward choices for
travel, leisure, dining and entertainment. It also continues to be one of the
fastest points earnings programs available, with one point for virtually every
dollar spent and an optional program on selected cards to accelerate the rate
of points earning.