Randy Petersen says frequent fliers often recognize him when he travels and want to talk miles and points, though he says lately it's a ...
Up in the air, but it's not the movies
Q&A: Expert Randy Petersen takes a look at the changing frequent-flier world
Houston Chronicle
June 19, 2010, 12:44AM
Nick de la Torre : Chronicle
Randy Petersen says frequent fliers often recognize him when he travels and want to talk miles and points, though he says lately it's a bit more of a challenge to pick him out because he's had his trademark longer hair shorn.
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EXPIRING MILES POLICIES
Continental and United haven't spelled out what frequent-flier changes are ahead if their merger clears the regulatory process. Here are their current policies on expiration of miles:
• Continental: OnePass miles don't expire.
• United: Miles expire after 18 months if there is no activity in a flier's MileagePlus account.
Frequent-flier authority Randy Petersen has been keeping tabs on travel rewards trends for nearly three decades. He sensed early on consumers' need for guidance through the byzantine world of travel miles and points, and responded by founding InsideFlyer magazine and later, the FlyerTalk online forum.
Petersen, who has been keenly interested in the evolution of rewards programs as they allow earning and spending in areas beyond travel, is on the road as a spokesman promoting Capital One Bank's Million Miles Sweepstakes, in which those who open personal or small-business rewards checking accounts during June are entered in its contest.
He talked with the Chronicle's Bill Montgomery recently. Excerpts follow.
Q: Once the Continental and United frequent-flier programs merge, what will that look like?
A: Not much more than it looks like now. The biggest difference — there's no doubt in my mind, that if they merge they'll go with United's policy of having expiring miles. Continental doesn't have expiring miles. They're pretty customer-friendly. Elite programs, relatively the same; most of the miles-earning basics, the same. The United mall is much more robust in terms of the merchants. Continental's got their OnePass auction site, but I don't know how many more people need Houston Astros tickets to bid their miles on - just a joke! United doesn't have a big, very aggressive auction thing, so we'll have to see where that goes. Chase is the bank for both.
Expiring miles is about the only thing. I just don't know what that means for Continental because people have been very, very spoiled. They've never had to really worry about it.
Q: For Houston people, do you have any frequent-flier advice?
A: In terms of Continental, I think life's pretty good. The rest of the year, you've got some new things coming on with elite benefits with United in the next couple of months. Continental's got a couple of new credit cards that they just introduced, which actually are pretty cool, the idea that cardholders get upgrades rather than just the free bags.
Anything about Southwest has to wait for their new frequent-flier program. It's a technology issue with them. Their new frequent-flier program's been ready for the last year, year and a half. It looks like this fall is iffy right now and might even bleed into the start of 2011.
I think Southwest will continue to do what they've done - make their passengers happy, make their frequent fliers happy, and enjoy the idea that they've got one of the best reward redemption records in history. At the end of the day, that's what people want. Once Southwest rolls out their new frequent-flier program, then it's a whole new ballgame.
For the average member, the leisure traveler, it's going to be some different pains for them because it's a very simple program. They're very, very engrossed in studying another frequent-flier program, and that is the Velocity program out of Australia that's very revenue-based. I think that's the key to all the things Southwest is looking to do.
Q: Do you think airlines have become a victim of making miles a currency that's well-accepted?
A: I think they're a victim of their own success. I don't care how bright Bob Crandall thought he was, or all the other people at American and United. I don't think any of them thought they'd have 74 million people in a single frequent-flier program back in 1981.
Frequent-flier programs are how airlines make money these days. Every one is a profit center. But yet that profit doesn't stay within the frequent-flier program. That profit is siphoned off to keep the airline actually flying, because if the airline doesn't fly, you don't have a frequent-flier program. When you look at Continental and United, it's no secret that one of the first things that's going to happen is that United will spin off the new frequent-flier program if the merger gets approved.
Q: Up in the Air shed some light on what to some people must be a very strange world. What did you think overall?
A: I think every frequent flier I know that saw the movie loved the idea that it legitimized their little fantasy world of collecting miles because there are still a lot of people out there who are closet mileage junkies - their co-workers or family or relatives just don't get the idea of circuitous routing or different types of things. So I think that was a boon.
The other part I'm still not a fan of - it glamorizes a bit about loneliness on the road, the idea of the pickup scenes in the bars. Most heavy-duty fliers over the years that I've known have been married four or five times, and not because they're bad people. I think they're good people.
When you're out there 200 days on the road, home life just becomes a different world than if you have a 9-to-5 job and come home. So I'm not real big on that still, only because it's a sad part of being a road warrior.
Q: Are there any scenes that you could relate to especially?
A: Yeah, that I don't live in George Clooney's world. I've got a lot of miles and I have probably more frequent-flier miles than George Clooney, but I don't get treated like George Clooney. I think the priceless moments are the ability to make TSA look so easy.
Q: Do people recognize you when you travel and ask for advice?
A: I am Dear Abby and Ann Landers rolled into one. I'd say in the last five years, on 500 different flights, or something like that, I'd say on less than 10 of them I didn't run into somebody who wasn't a reader or a FlyerTalker, or something like that. I'm a lucky guy.
While I'm always answering those questions, I'm also trying to figure out, why they did they ask those questions? So I'm a listener too. I'm thinking, when they're trying to figure out how to use their awards, why are they doing that? Is it because they don't spend enough time as an informed consumer to figure out those things? Is there a business idea in that, and why do people need help on certain items?
About writing a check for rent and a mortgage: That stumped me for many, many years. Years ago, I could tell people, well, go buy travelers checks and then pay your rent or mortgage in travelers checks. That's why when I came across the Capital One bank's Rewards Checking, I go, now I finally have an answer for that.
OK, what other unanswered questions out there haunt me? Because at the end of the day Dear Abby and Ann Landers are supposed to know every answer for every question, and I hate to let down that legacy.
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