Originally Posted by UnitedSkies
It might help to think of it this way - if you were in charge of targeting customers for the purpose of revenue generation, how would YOU do the targeting and what kind of offers would you send?
Also consider how to measure the effectiveness of the promotion.
It's never been clear to me how effective most of these promotions are given that the many travelers do not have total control over their choice of carriers (business travelers locked into a specific carrier; leisure travelers interested in lowest price/best schedule). Also, in the past anyway, many promtions rewarded previously ticketed itineraries so no incremental revenue. UA/MP has gotten better on this one recently.
I'd like to hear how UA/MP evaluates the effectiveness of various promotions? Mu gut tells me that since they are giving away something (status/miles) that have little cost associated so the inclination is to just throw promotions up against the wall, but not look to see what "stuck"?
I guess they could analyze who registered for a promotion and then subsequently purchased a qualifying ticket, but even then you don't know if that ticket would have been purchased anyway?