Marketing 101
 

OK, Kids....let's start at square one. (kinda long...but bear with me)

The first rule is: "Give the customer a reason to purchase from you rather than your competitor." Second rule: "Don't ever let them forget that reason".

So, just what can Independence give as a reason for purchase vis-a-vis UA or any other major. Any alliance tie-in just emphasizes the miniscule nature of any Independence award vs. MileagePlus. With no F seats, lots of CRJ's and a lousy reputation, the questions become: "Why should a business traveller fly us rather than Brand X???" and "Why should a leisure traveller fly us rather than Brand Y???"

If the answer to either question is the FF program, then you have BIG shoes to fill. It had better be the greatest thing since both sliced bread and the two hour lunch. OTOH, if it is merely the icing on the cake, then you have a different situation to work with.

Personally, my suggestions would be:

Mileage or segments. Not $$. Dollars caters to those on full expense accounts without a lot of controls. Those flyers are dwindling, as the Big6 are finding out (just ask DL and CO about their EQM situation). As for miles or segments, look at your route structure. If you have most flights going the same/equivalent distance, go with segments. Easier to administer. If you have a wide disparity in stage lengths, make it miles. You shouldn't get the same credit for IAD-PIT as you would for IAD-SFO. Not if you want to keep the SFO pax.

Elite levels. Absolutely. Go back to rule 1.

Elite benefits. If you have no F, then the best seats in the house go to your elites. And you keep the adjoining seat empty to the last minute. And the gate agents can not be allowed to be lazy and just fill the plane from the front since it's the first screen that pops up on the computer. Priority at security is also important.

Awards. A lot of the ideas presented in this thread are good. But again, you HAVE to make it something to get people away from the Big6. Otherwise, you're just a gnat that they will either ignore or swat away. WN came up with the Companion Pass. Not necessarily for everyone, but something that no one else had. It made them stand out. Have a range of awards that can matter to the once a week flier and the once a quarter flyer. And make them obtainable. Don't have such restrictive capacity controls that you can't use them. Think about this....what you really want is to have so many awards to issue that you're running into trouble filling them. Why? Because the source of that "problem" is that lots of people flew your airline in the first place!!!! Don't complain about the commissions you are paying your top salesman. He's bringing in the business!!!!

Program Rules. Make them simple. Make them understandable by both the flyer and the staff that has to administer them. Ask DL and CO about that.

Finally, recognize that no matter how great an FF program may be, if the flights are late or cancelled, if the GA's are rude and not helpful, and if the FA's make your time aloft a miserable experience - you won't keep passengers, and you won't get any from referrals either. FF is part of an overall customer relations strategy, not the solution.

Beyond all that, my consulting rates are reasonable.... :D

Good luck.

I'm going to have to be on their side on this one. While it's not as generous as any other program out there, I don't think that's their point. It's just a program to reward those buying the last minute higher fare tickets more than the "cockroach" crowd. When I can pay $330 for a ticket and get 37K miles in my account (not a mileage run -- this was a standard vacation trip I planned 6 months ago and some bonuses came up since then), the airline is asking for trouble. Having a revenue based model more accurately reflects the awards based on the revenue someone has given to the airline. I get the same thing on my rewards points at the grocery store -- it's not how long I sit in the store or which brands of cereal I buy, just the amount of money I spend.

For your average person, that's very easy to understand. We might all be experts in going to the Great Circle Mapper and figuring out the exact mileage for our routing to ensure we hit whatever goal we're looking for, but face it -- we're severely in the minority. They want something easy for your everyday traveler to understand. I didn't see if they did, but family pooling of points would get them even more family leisure travelers, so that's definately something they should do.

The 12 month limitation is probably a message from their finance and accounting group. I get the same thing from mine if I have any outstanding liabilities that are going to be hanging out there for too long -- they want to make sure these will be cleared off the books within 12 months whether used or not. There's nothing too restrictive about it -- someone flying enough (since they don't have any other partners at the moment to get points another way) to get a free ticket is flying enough to use it. It makes perfect sense in this program to use your awards as soon as you get them (or as soon as you get two if you want long-haul when that comes available).

I know it's not like the other programs we run into, but that doesn't necessarily make it evil. People will take less benefit to have something they can understand. I think we've all seen that when trying to explain to people why they should sign up for whatever program they'll be flying with, and they just complain that it's too hard.