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Accor launches anniversary loyalty offers
Accor’s A Club loyalty scheme is celebrating its second anniversary, and to celebrate the hotel group is offering double miles, sign-up bonuses and the chance to win points worth €2,000.
Accor says it now has nearly five million members of A Club, a scheme which launched in 2008 (see online news September 12, 2008). Members can earn points at Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, All Seasons, Thalassa Sea & Spa and Adagio properties, as well as 12 airlines, and Shell petrol stations are soon to join the scheme.
The second anniversary offers include double points for existing members between September 13 and 19, and 1,000 bonus points (credited after one initial stay) for new members signing up to A Club before September 19.
Finally Accor will be holding a prize draw for participating members in mid-October, with prizes including upgrades to Silver, Gold or Platinum cards for 12 months, double airline miles, A Club bonus points, stays in hotels around the world, and up to 100,000 A Club points (worth €2,000 in rewards vouchers).
Visit www.accorhotels.com.
Visit www.a-club.com.
Air Berlin to join Oneworld
Germany’s second largest carrier has announced it is to join the Oneworld airline alliance in early 2012.
In a statement Oneworld said:
“Air Berlin has accepted an invitation to join the Oneworld global alliance - and is to develop co-operative agreements with group members American Airlines and Finnair.”
A briefing was held earlier this week to confirm the announcement, hosted by Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold, British Airways’ Willie Walsh, American Airlines president Tom Horton, Finnair CEO Mika Vehvilainen, and Oneworld managing partner John McCulloch.
Often viewed as a low-cost carrier, Air Berlin offers free snacks and drinks on flights, as well as complimentary newspapers, assigned seating, and a frequent flyer loyalty scheme. Rival German carrier Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance.
A webcast of the briefing can be viewed at airberlin.com/pressconference_oneworld. More details are also available in the comments section of this article.
Visit www.oneworld.com.
Visit www.airberlin.com.
Budget joins Miles and More
Members of the Lufthansa-led Miles and More scheme can earn points on rentals with Budget Rent-a-Car from August 1, and to celebrate the car hire firm is offering double miles and the chance to win a year’s free rental.
Members will earn a minimum of 500 miles per rental, with double miles on offer for bookings made in August and September (for rentals picking up before December 31).
In addition members can enter a prize draw to win a year’s free car rental with Budget (valid on car groups A and B) by visiting miles-and-more.com before September 30.
Commenting on the new partnership, Olivier van Marcke, general manager, Budget Rent-a-Car EMEA said:
“We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Miles and More, and look forward to offering not just award miles to members but outstanding value, and great quality car rental. Our extensive worldwide network – including over 800 major airports – will allow us to serve the needs of Miles and More’s growing membership across the globe.”
The Miles and More programme now counts nine member airlines - Adria, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lux Air, Lufthansa and Swiss. Car hire partners include Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt.
Visit www.miles-and-more.com.
Visit www.budget.co.uk.
Lufthansa extends Miles and More benefits on Bmi flights
From August 1 Miles and More members flying with Lufthansa subsidiary Bmi can earn HON Circle Miles and Executive Bonus benefits.
The accrual of HON Circle Miles (enabling members to reach HON Circle status, with exclusive benefits) is usually reserved for members flying on fully integrated Miles and More partner airlines, but this has now been extended to those travelling on Bmi flights.
In addition Frequent Traveller status members and above will now be able to earn the 25 per cent Executive Bonus on award, status and HON Circle miles when travelling on Bmi flights. Note that miles cannot be earned on flights operated by Bmibaby.
Lufthansa took control of Bmi in 2009, but the carrier continues to operate its own Diamond Club loyalty scheme. However there has been speculation that Lufthansa may look to merge Diamond Club into the Miles and More scheme, which now has a total of nine member airlines.
Visit www.flybmi.com.
Visit www.miles-and-more.com.
Hilton HHonors offers premium members free internet access
All Gold and Diamond HHonors members can now enjoy free internet access when staying at Hilton properties worldwide.
Previously premium members could choose from several “My Way” benefits, including bonus points, space available upgrades, or free internet access (when staying at Hilton, Conrad and Doubletree properties).
This last option will now become a standard benefit for Gold and Diamond members staying at all Hilton Worldwide properties from September 1, with members then able to choose one of the other My Way benefits in addition (note that these benefits differ depending on which Hilton brand the guest is staying in).
Gold and Diamond members have been emailed with details of the new benefit, and the announcement is currently being discussed on our forum.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts introduced free internet access for Platinum members of its SPG loyalty scheme (click here for more details on our forum), and Best Western launched free access at its UK properties earlier this year (see online news February 24).
Rezidor’s Radisson Blu brand has offered free internet access to all guests across its portfolio for several years.
Visit www.hilton.com.
Topguest offers Priority Club points for virtual check ins
Members of IHG’s Priority Club loyalty scheme can now earn points simply by “checking in” to the group’s properties using location-based-services (LBS) such as Foursquare and Gowalla.
LBS applications enable smartphone users to virtually “check in” to locations across the globe ranging from airports to coffee shops and hotels using GPS technology, allowing them to leave advice, pick up “badges” and benefits such as discounts at restaurants, etc.
But this new partnership with Topguest and Intercontninental Hotels Group will be of interest to many business travellers, as it incentivises the user to check in at any of IHG’s 4,400 properties worldwide, in return for 50 Priority Club points.
Users must first register with Topguest, and link their Priority Club account with the scheme. They will then receive 50 points each time they check-in at an IHG hote using a LBS app, although note that only one "geo check-in" per day will be eligible for the points. Points will be credited to the member’s account within six weeks of checking in.
As an added incentive members can earn a bonus of 500 points by inviting five friends to join the Topguest programme. Topguest says it will be adding more partners to the scheme every week.
For more information visit topguest.com. Business Traveller has recently created its own Foursquare page which can be viewed here. It’s early days and we welcome readers’ comments on how the technology might be used going forward.
Visit www.topguest.com.
Visit www.ihg.com.
Virgin extends FFP privileges across sister carriers
Passengers with Virgin Atlantic and its sister airlines Virgin America, V Australia and Virgin Blue can now earn frequent flyer points under a new reciprocal agreement.
From today members of Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club loyalty scheme can earn miles and status points when flying with any of Virgin’s sister-branded airlines, with the same being the case for Virgin America’s Elevate and V Australia / Virgin Blue’s Velocity members.
The agreement also means that Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and V Australia / Virgin Blue Velocity members can now also redeem miles of each other’s flights. Reciprocal redemptions for Velocity and Elevate members will be possible in the fourth quarter of 2010, and for Flying Club and Elevate members from the second quarter of 2011.
The new partnership extends previous FFP agreements between V Australia and Virgin America, and between Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue, giving fully reciprocal earning opportunities between all the carriers.
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America have also signed an interline agreement allowing passengers to book single tickets and check bags through when travelling on flights with both carriers. The partnership is valid for bookings and travel beginning in September 2010, for flights booked through Virgin Atlantic.
The four Virgin carriers are celebrating the new agreement by offering frequent flyer members the chance to win a week’s holiday on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island. To be in with a chance to win, members must fly with at least two of the four Virgin branded airlines between now and December 31, 2010.
Visit www.virginatlantic.com.
Visit www.virginamerica.com.
Visit www.vaustralia.com.
Visit www.virginblue.com.
Korean Air enhances Skypass loyalty scheme
Korean Air has made several changes to its frequent flyer programme, including extending the expiry date for earned miles to ten years, and allowing miles to be redeemed against lounge passes and excess baggage.
Under the new terms mileage earned after July 1, 2008 will be valid for ten years (up from the current five years), and any mileage earned before this date now has lifetime validity.
In addition the carrier has increased the number of seats available for award travel, and a new online system has been introduced allowing Skypass to check the availability of award seats at koreanair.com.
The airline says it will also gradually add new ways of redeeming miles, on services including excess baggage allowance, airport lounge access, and KAL limousine transport., and will increase the selection of redemption travel, accommodation and tour packages available.
Korean Air is also enhancing its Skypass Family Plan, allowing miles to be shared with wider family members including siblings, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law.
Finally the carrier is increasing the validity of award tickets to one year (up from the current six months), and will also allow members to earn miles of additional seats purchased for musical instruments or for convenience reasons.
Korean Air says the changes will gradually become effective as system updates are completed.
Visit www.koreanair.com.
Marriott and Starwood offer free nights
The Marriott and Starwood hotel groups are running worldwide promotions, which require online registration to qualify for them.
Marriott's MegaBonus Rewards entitles members of the hotel chain's Marriott Rewards scheme to one free night for every two stays paid for with their Visa card. Only one room per hotel is counted as one stay, regardless of how many rooms the guest may be occupying at one time. They can choose between single or double occupancy in a Standard room.
• To qualify for the offer, guests have to stay in any of the brands belonging to Marriott between September 15, 2010 and January 15 of next year, and register online by October 31, 2010.
• Redemption is valid until May 31 of next year at any of the participating Marriott brands: JW Marriott, Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Renaissance, Autograph, Fairfield Inn and Suites, Springhill Suites, Residence Inn and Towne Place.
Starwood’s Aloft and Element chains are offering members of the group's SPG programme a three-night stay with one night free in any of their respective hotels.
Qualifying stays should have taken place between August 9 and September 30, 2010, and guests need to register online by September 30, 2010. Redemption must be done by December 19 of this year.
Both hotel groups have eliminated black-out dates so the rewards can be claimed during any day of the week.
Visit www.spg.com/aloftelementfreenights.
Visit www.marriott.com/rewards/rewards-program.mi.
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