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New site to use your miles
MilePoint.com to Launch Online Shopping Venture Using Frequent Flyer Miles
Delta, Northwest, Continental, US Airways, TWA, America West and Hilton Lead Participants You've Got Money!(SM) MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- MilePoint.com today announced the first program that allows frequent flyers to convert their miles and points into a new online currency, MilePoint Money(SM), which can be used toward the purchase of goods and services from more than 100 online merchants. Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, America West and TWA are the initial airlines that have committed to participate in the program, along with Hilton HHonors Worldwide. Membership in these loyalty programs totals more than 45 million unique individuals who have accrued an estimated 1.6 trillion miles and points. MilePoint is working in association with the web's largest e-tailer, Amazon.com, which will allow MilePoint Money to be used to purchase Amazon gift certificates on the MilePoint site, and SkyMall with over 100 retailers including Sharper Image, Orvis, The Wine Enthusiast, Hammacher Schlemmer and Frontgate. MilePoint is in discussions with numerous major online merchants that are anticipated to sign on before launch. To capitalize on the holiday 2000 buying season, the site will be available for online transactions by the end of October. Currently the website -- www.milepoint.com -- is accessible to frequent flyers who want to find out more about becoming a MilePoint member and to online retailers who want to determine what is required to become a MilePoint merchant. "Airlines and hotels have been looking for new ways to create more value for their customers' accumulated miles. By turning miles and points into online money, we will literally release billions of dollars of purchasing power into the online marketplace," said Bob Crandall, chairman of MilePoint's board of advisors, and former chairman and CEO of American Airlines. Crandall added, "This is the natural and logical evolution of the current frequent flyer programs." MilePoint converts each mile into MilePoint Money at a two cent per mile rate, which equates to more than $32 billion in online purchasing power from the current audience of over 45 million individuals. MilePoint's proprietary and patent pending operating system, Cambio Technology(SM), manages the conversion of miles into online currency. Mark Lacek, chief executive officer of MilePoint, said that we will deliver "the largest and most demographically desirable audience the Internet's online merchants have ever seen. Based on an average frequent flyers' accumulated miles, many members will have hundreds of dollars just waiting to be spent online. Some members will literally have thousands of dollars." Lacek said that frequent flyer demographics show over 74% have access to the Internet, 88% shop online and have a median household income of $74,000. Using MilePoint will be very easy. Frequent flyers register their airline and hotel account numbers in a secure environment at the MilePoint.com website and shop at the MilePoint Mall(SM). When transacting at a MilePoint merchant, the member can apply their MilePoint Money as partial payment toward their purchase during the check-out process. MilePoint forecasts that an average of 10% and up to 25% or more of a member's purchase can be paid for by converting their miles. MilePoint.com was co-founded in October of 1999 by Mark Lacek, Bill Jansen and Bruce Samuel. Lacek is a respected loyalty marketing industry veteran who helped establish the very successful Northwest Airlines WorldPerks program. He left in 1991 to start The Lacek Group, a Minneapolis-based loyalty marketing firm that grew to over $40 million in billings. The company was recently acquired by advertising holding company WPP and its Ogilvy One division. Other industry leaders in executive or senior advisory roles at MilePoint include A.B. "Sky" Magary, former president of the Shuttle by United, Bob Coggin, former executive vice president of marketing at Delta Air Lines, Bob Briggs, former president of National Car Rental, Randy Petersen, renowned loyalty expert and publisher and editor of industry trade publication "Inside Flyer," Bill Jansen, MilePoint's chief technology officer and architect of the Cambio Technology, and Bruce Samuel, MilePoint's chief financial officer and previously chief financial officer of The Lacek Group. The company is based in Minneapolis. SOURCE MilePoint.com /NOTE TO EDITORS: Additional information, background and visuals are available at the www.milepoint.com website in the Press Room area, or contact David Hakensen at 952-886-7412./ /CONTACT: David Hakensen of MilePoint.com, 952-886-7412, or 612-872-3716/ /Web site: http://www.milepoint.com/ |
I just tried to view the site but it says I'm not aauthorized. Not a very promising start!
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The site is working now. The brief delay gave me time to read the whole press release. Looks like this is for real, with Bob Crandall and Randy involved.
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I perused the site, and it looks like a good concept, but the examples they had seemed to limit the mileage use to 10% of the purchase price....
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10%, big deal. The only way I would use this site is if the prices are rock bottom to start with. If the airlines have anything to do with this, the product prices will probably be 20% higher then what I can find now.
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Yep, I was actually starting to believe the 2 cent fallacy until I saw the limit on how many you can redeem. Obviously these guys aren't giving away free (or 2 cent) lunches.
That's about as appetizing as the "Buy a flower bouquet for $75 and get 500 FREQUENT FLYER MILES!" or buying overpriced crap from the inflight catalog because you get EXTRA FREQUENT FLYER MILES! Gimme a break. Look at the vendors - this is not about saving customers any money: SkyMall with over 100 retailers including Sharper Image, Orvis, The Wine Enthusiast, Hammacher Schlemmer and Frontgate. It's interesting, though, to see that Randy Peterson is in bed with Crandall on this. |
What the heck does this mean?
--- MilePoint forecasts that an average of 10% and up to 25% or more of a member's purchase can be paid for by converting their miles. --- Whether I use this or not will depend on what "or more" means... |
I had a similar reaction. I have some 5K "stranded" TWA miles which I might someday convert to Hilton Honors. At 2c per mile, I would immediately use it for a $100 purchase at retailers like Amazon or Barnes&Noble. But as Tino points out, there is no free lunch ....
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No, if you are "capped" at 10% of the total then you have to use your 5K miles for a 10% off coupon on A $1,000 PURCHASE! You still have to cough up $900 to use them up!
Yippee! What a deal! If the "cash value" of miles are worth a cent (the value at which you can convert miles to $$$, not on fictionally priced Intl FC tix), and arguably 5K miles in an account are worth zero, then what you are getting from buying incredibly overpriced knicknacks is a 5% discount, something you can get from all of these places if you look long enough/buy gift certificates/find web specials/etc if you really wanted to spend the $$$. [This message has been edited by Tino (edited 08-29-2000).] |
In the actual launch, there are no restrictions on the price of what you are buying....it could be something for only $15...certainly not having to buy $1,000, etc. The real approach is to shop just as you would normally do, with the ability to turn some of your miles into money at the checkout counter.
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We'll have to wait to see the prices of items before deciding if this is a good deal or not.
They don't specially say you can only use miles for 10% of the purchase, unless I missed it. They seem to quote the 10% as an estimate. This may in fact be a nice deal for orphan miles. |
Originally posted by Randy Petersen: In the actual launch, there are no restrictions on the price of what you are buying....it could be something for only $15...certainly not having to buy $1,000, etc. The real approach is to shop just as you would normally do, with the ability to turn some of your miles into money at the checkout counter. |
The press release seemed to imply that you could miles to pay for between 10% to 25% of the price, depending on the merchant.
This doesn't impress me. If I could use points for 50% or more of the purchase, I'd be much more inclined to use this site. Right now, as advertised(of course it isnt up and running yet, so lets be fair and wait for the details) I think its a big yawn. |
No, Randy, the question was "how do I use up 5,000 miles?"
If there is a 10% cap on the miles that you may use, those 5,000 miles convert to $100, but to use them up, you have to buy $1,000 worth of merchandise. This calculation is the same as the one given on the website. My guess is that the companies that offer the highest caps will be the most obscenely priced goods (i.e., the $75 flower basket). |
No use getting worked up over it. The site is not up and running yet, just in the info stage. Once it goes "on-line" we will know what beholds us. It is a will wait and see situation for now.
Randy knows very well what we are looking for. Question is, is he still on our side or has he sold us out. If he is Irish, he found middle ground. |
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