Randy Petersen

After finishing the 1,000,000-mile LatinPass run, MilesRUs and I got into a discussion of the best promotions of all time. I would count this LatinPass promo among any out there. A few others that come to mind is the original Triple Miles promotion in 1988, the General Car Rental bonus of 4,500 miles per rental, the original Marriott Rapid Rewards from the late 80s, the 4:1 redemption conversion of United miles into Hilton HHonors points and the double point redemption of Diners Club points into British Airways miles.

I'd love to hear from any and all of you for your nominations for the best all-time bonus promotions with any program. Once compiled, perhaps we should list them in the FT Hall of Fame?

doc

Hard to beat the ones you mentioned but lets recall the Healthy Choice for AA and Diet Coke for DL promo's this year are worth mentioning!

megamiles

- PanAm triple qualifying miles before it went bust coupled with low award redemption levels for Asia (can't remember the year - I was very young

- Air Canada triple qualifying miles along with a massive seat sale after the Fall 1998 pilots strike

- Triple Hilton points + double-dipped with frequent flier points at the Las Vegas Hilton - my room rate was only $19.95/night + got me some Hilton bonus points for having x number of qualifying nights.

MileageAddict

Back in January 1996, Alaska Airlines was trying to give Southwest Airlines hell for moving into Seattle.

For two weeks, they had a deal where as soon as the plane took off, the flight attendant handed out vouchers good for one free RT flight to any destination that both AS and WN served nonstop. This included the Bay Area, LAX, SAN and LAS.

Well....at the same time, AS was matching WN on a fare of $29 RT between Seattle and Spokane. I flew that route 12 times during those two weeks! End results were my wife and I going on a bunch of wonderful free weekend trips to California and Vegas soon after!

------------------
Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop

kempis

SAS EuroBonus fly 5 get 5 must also be consider.

Catman

I missed so many of these promotions.

For me right now, The Starwood Free Fridays and Free Saturdays programs. AWESOME.

And I love United "fly mor ethan you did last year" and get extra miles on top of your elite bonuses.

Latin Pass through takes the Krispy Kreame!
(or Key Lime Pie, or Strawberry Shortcake!

Beckles

I'd have to go with:

1) The new airline's (Legend I think ...) promotion where you fly one round-trip in the first x months and you get double miles for life in their program.

2) UA's fly to all fifty states promotion way back when.

milesrus

1989 4,500 on Thrifty Car as well.
1997 MCI 25,000 if you sign up and spend $100. a month.
1999 Delta get the AMEX 20,000
1999-2000 Double Segments on Southwest (internet bookings)
First Mortgage Promo's $1. interest one mile for life of the loan.
1995 Diner's Card 4 to 1 to Hilton Program.
1999 Jan 1 -June 30 10,000-20,000 Miles bonus for flying to certain Latin America distenations.
1984 Holiday Inn stay x nights and get around the world tickets, one of the first big promo's.
Chart House visit all 65 restaurants get 2 tickets around the world.

freakflyer

Randy,

After USAirways purchased PSA they offered triple miles (2,250 minimum) PLUS an addition 1,000 miles per segment. Thus a $58 SFO-LAX-SAN round trip earned 17,000. For 15,000 under the old PSA schedule you could get a round trip whereever PSA flew (including Cabo) PLUS a free night at any Marriott.

Also don't forget the UA 50-state promotion. For the first 50 days after they started flying to all 50 states, if you flew to all 50 states you got one year unlimited system-wide first class flights. Some people truly cleaned out on that one (not me unfortunately, as UA told me at the time that I could not get the type of unrestricted ticket allowing you to qualify fairly cheaply that other people later used to qualify).

Many airlines also used to have yearly segment promotions that are long gone, e.g., if you flew 7 segments on AA you would get a first class ticket wherever they flew (and I used that one for London!).

And I still need to use all of those Rapid Rewards points. Your publicising of that promotion sold me on you and your company. Thanks!



[This message has been edited by freakflyer (edited 06-22-2000).]

magic111

Yes, those are some good ones.
I agree with the Pan-Am 1988 triple mile bonus. Combined with the low mileage awards (30k coach to europe 50k business) Also it seemed that PA was always giving out coupons for free companion travel.

MileKing

In 1998 Sheraton ran a promotion with AMEX ("Dream Promo" or something similar) that awarded 25,000 Sheraton Club Miles after 8 stays charged to an AMEX card. That is the equivalent of over 3000 miles/stay! There were smaller awards for fewer stays.

Old Gold

I remember well the UA 7 segment/7,000 mile for a F/C ticket promotion in the early '80's, and those tickets permitted 2 stopovers! Once I used one on the route TUS-EWR where I took a stopover and was joined by my brother and 2 friends, we went EWR-HNL and returned HNL-LAX, flew LAX-TUS on Republic since United didn't have service on that leg at the time. They continued back to EWR after a few days in Arizona.

Another time, with my wife, traveled TUS-PDX, PDX-CAK, CAK-EWR, EWR-TUS

I did a quite a few TUS-PHX-TUS runs to pick up segments taking advantage of a $25 walkup O/W fare!

Darien-l

1999 and early 2000 - 5000 miles every month for 5 months for switching to MCI. Choice of several major airlines, and no minimum monthly spending requirement. I don't think it gets much better than this - I got my 25,000 miles for less than $20 in expenses.

[This message has been edited by Darien-l (edited 06-22-2000).]

Paul3456

TWA ran a promotion once in the late '80s where they awarded 100,000 bonus miles if you flew 20 (I think) segments within a period of time.

l etoile

Hilton had a promo in early '90s, I think, where person with most stays per quarter received a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Just remembered ... those stays had to be at different Hiltons - so 91 or 92 different Hiltons in a three-month period.

Triple miles, combined with low redemption levels, were definitely tops.

The current Hilton/UA deal is a good one too.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 06-22-2000).]