The Power of Loyalty

9/3/2009 4:34:32 PM

Stretch your travel dollars by making rewards programs work for you today!

Between uncertain gas prices, the ongoing drama in the banking industry, and a general feeling that a bit (OK, a lot) of belt tightening is in order, spending money on travel may make some members of the family feel a wee bit antsy. But don’t put the brakes on family vacations just yet. Because there’s a way to make your dollars go (and take you) further that a lot of travelers don’t take full advantage of. And that’s to put airline, hotel, and car rental loyalty programs to work for your future plans. “If there is a group of people who are active players in the Hilton HHonors program, it’s actually very easy for them to structure small group travel around using the points as a currency,” says Adam Burke, Hilton Hotels’ senior vice president for customer loyalty.

To really make the plans work for you, it’s best to do some serious advance planning and to get the other members of your family onboard right from the get-go. Start today, and your trip next year could cost a whole lot less. “In these economic times, it seems even more important to customers to clam onto a program or club like this, where they feel like they’re getting more bang for their buck,” says Gus Vonderheide, Hyatt Hotels’ vice president of group sales, North America. “It certainly is important that they stay [with the same chain] so they can build those equity points.” Here are some tips that will really make your points add up:

Planning ahead pays off. It’s time to pull out a calendar and get your family to agree on some dates and preferred locations for future trips. Don’t just look a year out—try to put together plans for the next three years. That way you can figure out which airlines and hotel properties service that area and focus your points-gathering efforts on those brands.

Share your plans with family members. If you’ve already decided on the location—and hotel chain—you’re going to use for a trip, spread the word. If family members are going to book their reservations on their own, they may need time to transfer points between programs. For example, while American Express transfers points in about three business days, Marriott requires as much as six weeks to send points to its airline partners.

Consolidate for maximum benefits. Encourage your family members to focus their points-gathering efforts on the brands that service your future locations. The more points your family earns, the faster they’ll climb up in the loyalty plan ranks—and higher tiers usually mean more points earned per dollar spent. At Hyatt, platinum-level members get a 15 percent points bonus and diamond-level members gather up 30 percent more points. In an extreme (but possible) example, Hilton’s Burke says a diamond VIP member who uses a co-branded credit card to pay for a hotel stay and who chooses to earn all hotel points (instead of part hotel points, part airline miles) can walk away with 25 points for every dollar spent.

Get to know the partners. Don’t lose out on points. For instance, if you’re trying to boost your Hyatt points, you’ll be glad to hear that renting a car from Avis adds 300 Hyatt points to your total—without even staying at the hotel. If you don’t do the research to find out which programs partner with each other, you’ll be losing out.

Check on the latest promotions. Most hotels run both short- and long-term programs that can really bulk up your point totals. Visit their Web sites frequently and sign up for e-mail newsletters to get the latest promotion information. Hyatt, for one, recently ran a promotion that gave Gold Passport members a free night after every two stays worldwide. And members who paid for their stay with a MasterCard also received a tidy 2,000 points for every two stays.

Encourage your family to sign up for loyalty programs. Send members of the family the URLs of relevant Web sites so they can sign-up online, and point out other ways, besides travel, that they can earn points. Many programs, especially American Express, make it easy to earn points for everyday purchases. And hotel programs, including Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors, have online shopping malls where you can earn points by making purchases through nationally known brands.

Know your programs. Yes, the fine print seems to get smaller every day. But the key to your family’s sanity is often buried in those little lines. Make sure you know if there are any blackout dates on your program of choice or if there is a limit on the number of rewards rooms allowed at a given location. “For any traveler to get the most value out of their hotel program, they really need to understand the asterisks,” says Burke. A bit of good news on that front: Marriott International just announced that it will eliminate blackout dates from its loyalty program starting January 15, 2009.

Watch the calendar. While points, for the most part, used to last forever, some airlines have thrown an expiration-date monkey wrench into their fine print. To keep points from spoiling, plan participants usually have to earn more or redeem some within a certain period of time. Luckily, hotels and car rental companies have not followed suit.

Jenna Schuner

Group Travel Planet

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