Virgin Elevates Elevate Reward Program
Virgin America launched this week a critical part of their loyalty program Elevate; namely the ability to redeem points you earn from flying with the airline (kind of an important part of the overall program, right?)
Just like pretty much everything else Virginesque, this program boasts a number of enhancements from run-of-the-mill airline award programs. First and foremost, they’ve made every seat available for potential redemption. So it’s just as easy to find and book an award seat as a regular one. Even more importantly, they have designed the program so that earning and burning points ties directly into the real monetary value of those points. For instance, members earn more points relative to the more expensive tickets they purchase (at a rate of five points earned for every dollar spent). So unlike traditional loyalty programs where the accumulation of miles is dependent on the miles flown, Virgin bases those earnings off the true cost of a ticket.
High fives to the brainiacs at Virgin (Kevin, was this your idea?) who clearly understand the value proposition behind miles. Open up the inventory, make redemption transparent, and tie the value of miles or points into a real currency so people get it. This is brilliant. This approach is particularly interesting to me because we are doing much the same thing at Travelfli. We believe people need to think about their mileage portfolios in much the same way as they perceive their financial portfolios - like real currencies that need to be managed appropriately and ‘spent’ wisely. Virgin is the first airline that is marching to the same beat of the drum as Travelfli and we commend them for doing so.
