Frequent Travelers Get Big Bonuses

A recent search through my wallet revealed no thick wad of cash or credit cards, but the wallet was bulging. I carried a lot of plastic cards: Advantage, Mileage Plus, Honored Guest, Gold Passport, Vista, Plus, SET, as well as the gold, silver, red, white and green cards of virtually every frequent-travel program in the country.

Unless you have a specially programmed computer, it’s become almost impossible to keep track of all the airline and hotel bonus programs.

Want to fly to Europe free? Stay eight nights at selected Inter-Continental, Ritz Carlton and Fairmont hotels.

How about a free trip to Hawaii? Stay just seven nights at any Omni hotel.

Does a free ride on the famed Venice-Simplon Orient Express excite you? It’s one of the rewards offered by the newest airline entrant in the frequent-flyer madness, People Express.

People Express? It seems that everyone is now in the battle to lure the business traveler.

Overseas, Holiday Inns has something called Club Europe, a frequent-travel program for business travelers.

Name an airline or hotel chain that doesn’t have a bonus program, and chances are you’re naming a company that’s about to start one.

Dozens of Entrants

In recent weeks there have been dozens of new entrants in the frequent-travel game.

To introduce its new property in Denver, Stouffer hotels offered a frequent-stay program worth $500 in awards to anyone who would stay there at least six times.

With one stay at the hotel, guests would get a 30% discount on their rooms and a 10% reduction on the price of Hertz rental cars. Stay No. 2 earned a free dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. No. 3: an upgrade to first-class on Continental Airlines. Stays four through six earned U.S. savings bonds as well as complimentary weekends at any Stouffer hotel.

Even the smaller Red Lion Inn chain has a frequent-flyer bonus program in conjunction with Alaska Airlines.

To stay competitive, existing frequent-travel programs have been enhanced. Alaska Airlines wants your business so much that it has introduced the Gold Coast Travel mileage incentive plan, offering travel awards to destinations such as Hawaii, Europe and Asia, routes the airline doesn’t even fly. (Free trips to Hawaii can be earned after only 35,000 miles.)

‘Distasteful’ Gimmick

Not everyone is a fan of these programs. “We understand what they’re doing and why,” says Victor Emery, director of the Savoy group (owners of the Savoy, Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Barclay in London), “but it’s a come-on we find distasteful. The important thing in a hotel is value, not gimmickry. We get our repeat customers by providing good service. We’ve endured six generations of satisfied travelers,” he says, “who just want to be treated properly.”

“We don’t like these programs,” agrees James Nassikas, president of the Stanford Court hotel in San Francisco, “because everybody and his brother now has a gimmick, a device or a giveaway. And in many cases, that’s all they have. They’ve forgotten the one thing a hotel should have, and that’s to offer good service.

“What I’m really miffed about,” Nassikas says, “is that these programs leave the little guy out in the cold. If we are to compete at all with these frequent-traveler programs, it can only be with service.”

And, occasionally, price. In some cases the upscale Stanford Court hotel is cheaper than a room at other supposedly less expensive hotels.

Stay and Pay

Many frequent-hotel-stay-programs give awards only to guests who pay the full or rack rate for their rooms. This can get quite expensive. “What we’ve found,” says one hotelier, “is that a guy traveling on company business will willingly pay that rack rate to earn his bonus points or a free airline ticket. But if he’s on his own, he won’t even consider it. What does that say about developing product loyalty? Also, what does it say about the true cost of the room?”

Although no hotel chain will comment on precise figures, some industry estimates place the cost of some of these programs at $48 per person per room per night.

What this means is that a lot of American businesses are buying their employees perks on the installment plan, and paying more than they should for hotel rooms.

Still, the travel award programs march on.

Even some travel agents have gotten into the awards game. Premier Travel in San Diego has its own frequent-flyer program. It is over and above any other airline program to which its clients may already belong.

Build Product Loyalty

“The business has become so competitive,” says owner Eric Fuller, “that as the airlines try to build product loyalty for their service, we’re doing the same as travel agents. No matter what airline you fly, we want you to book your tickets through us.”

Premier’s program rewards its frequent travelers with free airline tickets. “And, like many of the airline programs,” Fuller says, “we track your progress for you.”

The latest hotel frequent-traveler program will be started June 1 by Sheraton. It’s called Sheraton Club International and could be the most comprehensive worldwide guest-recognition program in the lodging industry.

The Sheraton program will have fewer restrictions as well as a wider selection of awards and gifts, plus virtually unlimited travel options with almost any major airline or rental car company.

The program also rewards travelers with top-quality merchandise ranging from racquetball racquets to videotape recorders.

Point Accumulation

Like other programs, Sheraton’s is based on a point-accumulation system. Guests earn four points for every dollar spent at any Sheraton property, and that goes way beyond the room rate to include money spent on food and beverages, local and long-distance phone charges, valet, laundry and in-room pay-per-view movies.

Unlike other hotel programs, you don’t have to pay the top room rate to accumulate points, and you don’t have to be a compulsive traveler to earn goodies.

It also costs $25 a year to join the program, but Sheraton will throw in 500 points when you sign up.

Guests begin earning rewards at the 2,500 point level (a racquetball racquet, clock radio or discounted travel).

For example, a two-night stay at the St. Regis Sheraton in New York would earn a guest 2,720 points.

Club travel members can receive free or discounted travel or their points for dollar value. (5,000 points equals $50.)

Reward Infrequent Flyer

“We want to reward the infrequent traveler for his loyalty, too,” says Dianne Duffin, Sheraton’s director of corporate public relations.

“We researched this program thoroughly. Travelers have become more sophisticated, more discerning, and we want to address that sophistication,” Duffin says.

The program is also quite flexible: Guests can trade in their points for awards with other airline programs. You can earn 30,000 miles in the American Airlines mileage program by trading in 40,000 Sheraton points.

“If our research told us anything,” Duffin says, “it was that people have been confused by other guest award programs. At the very least, we wanted to make ours as simple and as flexible as possible.”