Travel Loyalty News

Airlines reinvented their loyalty programs in 2015. They're doing damage control in 2016.

United's making more friends within its loyalty ranks by giving away upgraded status.

Wyndham's tongue-in-cheek, thoughtful approach to marketing economy brands and building loyalty is refreshing in a space where so many other brands try to use the latest gimmicks to appeal to consumers with considerably bigger wallets.

Wyndham Rewards is now the latest hotel loyalty program to jump on the "experiences" and "membership levels" bandwagon. But will these new additions, especially the member levels, threaten to disrupt the program's more egalitarian approach to hotel loyalty? Probably not, as long as Wyndham sticks to keeping this program as simple and easy to understand as it has been since it launched last year.

With the leaders so close, which program is best is such a personal issue — if loyalty matters at all to consumers.

Although most of the rankings fall in line with what you'd normally expect, there were a few surprises. It's also clear hotels have some work to do when it comes to their food quality, amenities, and loyalty programs.

Out of all the awards for loyalty and passenger or guest experience that we've seen in the travel industry, the Freddies are the one that seem to have the balance consistently right.

Perhaps elite status, after all, is not completely dead.

Virgin America's loyalty program just got a lot better for frequent flyers -- especially if they're from JetBlue. They just need to be fine understanding that with the acquisition things will change.

United's apology tour just extended to its former frequent flyers.