The trend is most obvious at carriers like Delta and United. Each airline has changed its mileage program over the last year to cater to high-spend business travelers, not only altering the way that passengers earn miles but also how they accrue status.
Delta is even updating its cabins to woo business passengers, skewing benefits towards First Class and Economy Comfort + passengers and pulling perks away from those who booked basic economy fares.
It’s not a bad strategy. Budget travelers have proven over and over again that they will buy the absolute cheapest airfare irrespective of the airline or product, so it makes sense to market to the more selective and lucrative business market.
American Airlines, however, can’t quite follow suit. With their focus on wrapping up their merger with US Airways they’ve elected to not make any large changes to their joint mileage program, so while United and Delta pivot, American’s still dogpaddling through their legacy system.
To compete, however, they’ve cooked up a plan to keep business travelers engaged. Starting next year, the airline is offering lucrative bonus miles on all paid premium cabin travel, with scaling rewards based on elite status. At the low end on short-haul travel, the awards start at 250 miles per segment, but for Executive Platinum members purchasing long haul (including transcontinental) first class tickets, the bonus can get as high as 12,000 miles. This means that some passengers flying in first class between San Francisco or Los Angeles and New York will earn 24,000 miles round trip — almost enough for another free domestic mileage ticket.
Read more: Skift
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
