The Mileage Company
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The Mileage Company www.themileagecompany.com launches on Tuesday 14 April 2009
Tuesday 14 April 2009 - Airmiles, the UK's leading reward scheme, with 20 years experience and expertise in the travel and leisure arena, today launches 'The Mileage Company', a specialist provider that can help companies develop and manage existing or new loyalty programmes.
A wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, The Mileage Company will run Airmiles and also take responsibility for maximising the commercial success globally of British Airways' own reward currency BA Miles, which frequent flyers collect as members of BA's Executive Club. The Mileage Company will also market its expertise to run other frequent flyer and leisure reward programmes for UK and world-wide airlines and brands.
Led by Airmiles' managing director, Andrew Swaffield, The Mileage Company can develop every aspect of a loyalty programme, from set-up to management of rewards, enabling clients to engage customers by rewarding loyalty and in turn drive profit and growth.
In-depth expertise provided by The Mileage Company includes research and loyalty analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) and loyalty marketing and accounting skills associated with loyalty schemes. The Mileage Company also has a large UK Customer Contact Centre and IT development expertise.
Andrew Swaffield said: "The Mileage Company launch comes at a time when brands most need compelling customer reward programmes to weather the economic storm and safeguard their customer base. As consumers look to cut spending by shopping around for the best deals, brand loyalty comes under threat. Reward programmes satisfy consumers' desire to get a real return on their money thereby making them want to stay loyal to the brand.
"With two decades of experience analysing customer behaviour and building brand loyalty, The Mileage Company team is able to get new programmes up and running quickly and seamlessly, or take over the management of existing programmes, allowing businesses to focus on their core operations."
The British Airways subsidiary is chaired by the airline's director of strategy and business units, Robert Boyle. Mr Boyle said: "The Mileage Company gives an airline like BA the opportunity to maximise the financial return from our frequent flyer programme whilst ensuring world leading customer benefits and rewards. Mileage sales are a growth opportunity for carriers particularly when seat revenues are depressed and there are more empty seats to fill."
Being owned by British Airways gives The Mileage Company a critical differentiator in the loyalty market – unique access to BA's stock of unsold airline seats giving The Mileage Company's existing partners and scheme members outstanding value on flights. This in turn leads to exciting rewards to attract new customers and create long-term loyalty.
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The Mileage Company www.themileagecompany.com
The Mileage Company is the UK expert in running reward schemes. In the last year alone, four million people have collected or redeemed miles with one of The Mileage Company's schemes, from the global BA Miles currency to UK-based Airmiles.
The Mileage Company works with over 200 brands through the UK's largest travel and leisure reward schemes.
Building long-standing partnerships, the business adds value and enables our partners to drive customer engagement and loyalty with compelling rewards.
Airmiles www.airmiles.co.uk
The UK's longest running and most rewarding scheme of its kind, Airmiles members collect and use Airmiles for travel and leisure rewards.
A pioneering scheme, it is synonymous with offering value – for members and collection partners.
Airmiles' collection partners include Lloyds TSB, Tesco, Shell and over 200 popular online brands when accessed via airmiles.co.uk eStore – including johnlewis.com, debenhams.com, Apple store, eBay.co.uk, Comet, Currys, Boden, hmv.com and Waterstone's.
Millions of members collect Airmiles on their everyday spending and use them for completely free flights including all airline taxes and surcharges, Eurostar journeys, hotel accommodation, tour operator holidays, car hire, travel insurance and special days out including LegoLand, Alton Towers and English Heritage Annual Passes.
British Airways Executive Club and BA Miles www.ba.com
The currency of the British Airways Executive Club, BA Miles was set up in October 2000 as part of the reward strategy for the airline's global customers.
The Executive Club is a global frequent flyer scheme, with most miles collected by flying with British Airways or oneworld® alliance and partner airlines on selected fares. However, scheme members can also top up their miles by purchasing them or collecting on everyday spending and travel.
By collecting BA Miles, members can get 'reward flights' to any destination in British Airways' worldwide network - and with partner and oneworld® alliance airlines like American Airlines, Cathay, Qantas and Iberia.
BA Miles can also be used for cabin upgrades to World Traveller Plus, Club Europe, Club World and First. The British Airways Executive Club features a tier system - with members moving between tiers depending on the frequency, cabin class and distance they fly with British Airways.
Members can collect miles by staying at selected hotels, using BA Miles' car rental partners, shopping online with over 120 retailers at the BA Miles eStore, exchanging Tesco Clubcard Vouchers, even using a British Airways American Express Credit Card.
For further information, images or to arrange interviews please contact:
Susan Barber
Head of PR
The Mileage Company
Tel: 01293 722 252
Mobile: 07810 798119
Email: susan_barber at themileagecompany dot com
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December 2009
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August 2009
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