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Miles - The Frequent Flyer Program

In today's non-stop competition for passengers, airline executives are aware that the more they know about their passengers, the more powerful they become in the marketplace allowing deeper market penetration. Airlines have taken multiple approaches to gather knowledge and to also improving their relationship with their passengers.

One thing is certain, a strong frequent flyer program is key to promoting a high level of customer loyalty and providing critical information for ongoing marketing analysis.

The frequent flyer program "Miles" enables airlines to maintain customer loyalty by offering recognition awards and incentives. It automatically tracks frequent flyer accounts including accumulation, reporting and redemption. The frequent flyer program is one hundred percent self administered in that the airline's participation is not required in the operation of the frequent flyer applications.

The following features and functions are provided:

  • Frequent flyer point accumulation and redemption are automatically tracked and a running balance maintained.
  • Advanced customer service features create a high level of customer satisfaction.
  • Advanced fraud protection protects the airline and the passenger against misuse of the frequent flyer program.
  • A new approach to redemption of the accrued balance provides greater user satisfaction.
  • Earned miles can be used to pay for fares, excess baggage charges, upgrades, reservation changes and charges for cancellation or no-shows. Passengers can even award their miles to a charity.
  • No airline participation is required.
  • Redemption by passenger, travel agent, corporate clients, other airlines.
  • No redemption rules, no required mileage charts, no seat limitations, no blackouts.
  • The application is stand-alone and will work with any airline.
  • Miles is one hundred percent IATA/ICAO/ATPCO/ISO compliant.
  • Miles is written in Java which means it will run on any operating system.
  • Miles is included the the secure private cloud that is established if you installed an eRES product. This means you can install miles in just a few minuets if you decide to use it.

The following chart compares the Miles frequent flyer application to the existing frequent flyer applications currently available:

Function Miles Other
Millage Accumulation Automatic Automatic
Redemption Automatic Manual
User Reporting Automatic Manual In Most Cases
Published Rules None Yes
Award Mileage Requirements None Yes
Flight Black-Outs None Yes
User Reporting Automatic Manual In Most Cases
Seat Limitations None Yes


The frequent flyer program uses earned mileage as a basis for accruing credits and also distributing awards.

The frequent flyer application is stand-alone can be interfaced to any airline reservation, frequent flyer, check-in or boarding application.

Connection to other airlines reservation, check-in, boarding and frequent flyer applications is provided using the IATA/ICAO standardized set of interline messages, specifically designed for airlines and reservation systems to be able to communicate between each other:

  • PNR (Passenger Name Record)
  • PNL (Passenger Name List)
  • ADL (Add/Delete Passengers)
  • PRL (Total Passengers Loaded At This Station)
  • RQL (Request the latest PNL)

    PNR, PNL and ADL provide complete booking information and passenger manifest data.

    The frequent flyer program automatically captures the frequent flyer passenger information, maintains the accrued mileage for each passenger, allows passengers, travel agents, corporate customers or internal airline agents to view their frequent flyer account status and to make redemptions for their customers. The access requires the passenger's frequent flyer identification limiting access to who the customer wishes to see their account.

    Since passengers need to know their frequent flyer status an on-line application is provided that allows passengers to view their current mileage and also their past usage of the mileage earned.

    Automatic generated and emailed monthly reports for the passengers is provided or not depending on the marketing practices of the airline.

    The frequent flyer application allow the passengers, travel/tour agents, corporate customers and the airlines to review the frequent flyer accounts. Security is maintained as the requesting party must be registered with the airline's eRES system and also have the passenger's frequent flyer number.

    Setup and tracking for bonus and special award programs is provided.

    A new payment method called "miles" is added to the reservation system so that everyone (Airline Agents, Travel/Tour Agents, Corporate Customers and Passengers) can book flights based on the passenger's or organization's earned mileage. The redemption process allows the user to determine how many miles should be used.

    Split payment allows booking using earned mileage plus other forms of payments to make up the difference.

    When the Frequent Flyer program is part of eRES the airline can determine how many seats are made available for each flight. The frequent flyer seat count is part of the total defined seat count and compete with normal bookings for seat availability

    Frequent flyer bookings can be wait-listed if there are no seats available.

    Configuration allows the mileage to expire in a defined time frame or to remain in place until it is used.

    Mileage can be earned by passenger participating in outside events such as:

    • Hotels
    • Car Rental Companies
    • Retail Organization's Cash Sales
    • Credit Card Usage
    • Packaged Tours/Trips
    • Cruise Lines
    • Railroads
    • Bus Lines

    Management Reports:

    • Earned mileage
    • Used Millage

    The reports are configurable and provide detailed or summary reports by: airline, station or passenger and by time and date range. The reports are exportable to spread sheets by just selecting export as the output option.

    Accounting for frequent flyer mileage usage applies the defined cost, mileage based, to the booked revenue report and to the reports that show earned and un-earned revenue (gross, unearned and earned) in a manner standard with the rest of eRES's accounting. Reports are provided for each of these categories.

    Configurability provides the following to allow the airline to configure the frequent flyer program as desired:

    • Mileage requirements
    • Split payment for awards
    • Award levels required
    • Logo
    • Frequent Flyer program rules
    • Presentation, on-line, for the frequent flyer program
      • Definition
      • Rules
      • User interface
      • Reservations using accrued mileage or accrued millage a plus alternative payment methods
    • Classes of passenger service supported by the frequent flyer program

    The ability to automatically print frequent flyer cards on plastic or card board stock is provided.

    Frequent Flyer Registration

    An application is provided that allows the passengers to sign-up for the frequent flyer application.

    Tracking

    As the passenger flies the mileage for each segment is placed into the passengers data base table. The flight information and mileage is retain.

    If the passenger does not belong to the frequent flyer program no data concerning the frequent flyer program is maintained.

    On multiple passenger itineraries the accrued mileage can be applied to the individual passengers or to the person booking the itinerary.

    Redemption

    The passengers, at their digression, can accumulate the needed mileage to pay for a reservation or reservations. The passenger can apply the accumulated miles when they make a reservation. This may not be enough to pay for the reservation so split payment is evoked to allow the passenger to select the payment method they desire to cover the shortage on this reservation.

    This process gives the passenger complete control over their frequent flyer program.

    Installation

    The frequent flyer program is part of eRES and is installed when eRES is installed.

    If you are an airline that already has a reservation system installed we will integrate the frequent flyer program into you reservations system.

    How to order Miles the frequent flyer application

    If you want to order or talk about Miles let us know via email Flight Data Management, Inc. and we will respond to you via email or telephone within 2 hours. Of course you can just telephone me.

    Dr. Jim Monroe
    President
    Flight Data Management, Inc.
    Telephone: +561 459-5402, USA EDT (UTC/GMT -4 hours)

    Copyright 2011, Flight Data Management, Inc.