Likes & Dislikes of Credit Card Travel Programs
 

I'm involved in designing a new travel awards program for a credit card company and looking for input from people who know. From reading some of the postings, you guys appear to be experts at everything travel and award related.
What do you like?
What don't you like?
What do you think of expiration policies?
What do you think of fees?
What would you think about a dollar-based program (instead of arbitrary miles/points) where you could buy tickets at market value, anywhere and anytime?

What do you like?
Easy miles/poits/cash with BIG sigup bonus!

What don't you like?
Fees & Poor customer service!

What do you think of expiration policies?
BAD! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

What do you think of fees?
SEE ABOVE! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

What would you think about a dollar-based program (instead of arbitrary miles/points) where you could buy tickets at market value, anywhere and anytime?

Fine! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

You may want to look at the back issues of InsideFlyer, who had a good article on this a few months back.

I don't like fees. I believe that a few existing cards are dollar based and also not subject to blackout dates and earn miles on the "freebie" tickets.

I think you have to define the market you're going after. The problem some people have with credit card award programs, versus cards that earn miles in an airline program, is precisely that they ARE dollar-based. Many travelers use their miles for international upgrades, last-minute flights with no Saturday stay, and international business/first class flights. The if-purchased value of these can approach 10 cents/mile. You can't compete with that if you don't own the seat inventory.

Another factor is that some programs, such as AA's, count credit card miles toward your lifetime program total for "million-miler" status. You can't compete with that either.

Therefore, you're probably targeting more the people who will use awards for discount coach tickets. These are vacationers, but they're also fairly big spenders or they'll never get enough points for an award. Figure out what that segment wants and how to reach them, and you have a winner.

I don't see any reason for points to expire, ever. You've got the cardholder's money and you're earning interest on it. It's to your advantage if they sit on their points instead of rushing to redeem them as they're about to expire. (If they really do expire, you win, but you also lose because you have an unhappy customer. That's why the airlines effectively stopped letting points expire.)

Fees - build this into the cost of the card. Don't charge a separate fee for this. You've got the cash balance of unclaimed awards working for you in this department too.

You also have to explain how your card differs from something like Discover, where I get real money back to spend on anything I want. I can buy airplane tickets at market value if I want, or I can buy an electric drill or a pizza. Granted, Discover isn't taken everywhere, but the principle is there.

Copy that of the NEA Credit Card - just about perfect!!

You may want to take a page from the Citibank "CitiMiles" program. This program requires that you spend $15 to earn one mile but when you redeem the miles, a mile is a mile. As an example, Tampa, Fl to Bahamas is charged around 500 miles. Since the bank buys the ticket, you have some choice of airlines and can thereby earn FF miles. No blackouts but Saturday night stay is required. No expiry but must originate in USA

I find this program to be idealy suited for out of the way, not too distant (read expensive) destinations.

What do you like?

Low/No Fee, and the ability to use the miles on any airline (preferbaly by converting to FF miles on that airline, not purchase a ticket from another source)


What don't you like?

Fees that don't make it worth using


What do you think of expiration policies?

I don't mind them as long as they are reasonable, say three years or something

What do you think of fees?

Would anybody say they want to pay as much in fees as they can? With cards like the CompuBank debit card offering you one mile per dollar spent with no annual fee you would have a hard time convincing me to pay a high fee for a similiar deal. (yes, I know that is debit card, but I usually prefer Debit cards)

What would you think about a dollar-based program (instead of arbitrary miles/points) where you could buy tickets at market value, anywhere and anytime?

I like miles I can convert to use as I want with programs I'm already a member of.

Use the Sheraton Starpoints card as a base:

* No fee
* $1 = 1.25 miles on virtually any airline
* No expiration

To improve on this:

* Special privileges e.g., car upgrades, elite level membership
* No annual cap on points earned

I am not interested in a dollar-based card as I tend to maximize my miles and use them for international FC travel and upgrades worth far more than 2 cents/mile.

I agree that no fees are better. I have avoided having a credit card that provides miles for exactly that reason. I now have one from Amex and delta, which is free fort he first year - and I will cancel after one year. Since then I have noticed a few more offers like that (I wonder if that is a trend). I would also prefer being able to transfer the points to an existing FF account, therefore being able to use the milage/points for upgrades as well as free tickets.

And to improve on what QuietLion said , add:

Full 30 day grace period

Ability to change the biling cycle date.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/003244.html


Mac

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Via con Dios!

[This message has been edited by macbravery (edited 08-24-2000).]

Capital One, a medium-sized credit card issuer, introduced a dollar-based plan, and I think that this sort of plan really does not correspond with the type of usage heavy travelers represent.

Their plan essentially counted points for purchases on an internal scale independent of a the published airline award charts. The Capital One awards would be redeemable for low-end awards at any airline on a similar scale to the standard airline 25,000 domestic coach awards, but the Capital One chart asked for (I think) 100,000 points for a domestic first ticket! No option for international J or F or for international upgrades. Those are the awards that people who are high-yield travelers tend to like to redeem, because they are the scarcest type of benefits even for elite-level travelers. And they have the highest cost-per-mile redemption value. (Anyone can get from Boston to Dallas for $300 in coach, but to get from Boston to Tokyo in business might cost $6000 -- yet the award chart difference is not a factor of 20)