Travel Loyalty News

The trends are clear as consolidation takes hold in the U.S. and global alliances become all-powerful. Fewer, more stable airlines, maybe, but it's not necessarily advantageous for passengers trying to get from here to there with a reasonable fare.

Award seats are harder to find than ever due to schedule cuts causing fewer flights and higher fares. This means mileage holders are fighting for a seat months before their travel dates.

Although the brand is likely over-estimating the number of users who will come calling with their credit cards and enough cool cachet, it deserves credit for launching a travel product that it expects people to happily pay for.

This event for really, really frequent fliers serves as a reminder of how passionate people are about flying and airlines when they're treated just a little better than we've become accustomed to.

This two-day seminar in LA is for anyone has ever wanted to learn mileage collection and redemption tricks, but didn't want to actually hunker down and study sites like thepointsguy.com.

Cruise lines have learned from the airlines that travelers are willing to pay for the perks that loyal customers earn, which is fine as long as they don't start charging regular customers for checked luggage.

Don't spend all your time flying back and forth when you can get premier status for a fraction of the cost.

Travel managers can provide certain perks, but smart independent travelers can get similar deals and keep all the loyalty rewards for themselves -- one reason more business travelers are going rogue.

Online travel agencies playing by American Airlines' rules are becoming the haves and the others are becoming the have nots. And, with Preferred Seats, casual travelers who don't turn to Priceline will be relegated to positions toward the rear of the plane.

Starwood will wisely continue to pour money into Starwood Preferred Guests and its most loyal members because they are driving profits. Too bad online travel agencies don't actually operate hotels -- they'd then have better luck at discovering the loyalty gene.