US Airways brings back frequent-flier perks
— -- US Airways is restoring key frequent-flier perks that it was blasted for eliminating earlier this year.
The Tempe-based airline today will announce the return of bonus miles and minimum mileage for its top frequent fliers, benefits that fatten members' accounts and spur loyalty.
The changes will be retroactive.
Andrew Nocella, US Airways' senior vice president of marketing and planning, said the decision was prompted by customer feedback and competition.
Despite the industry's pack mentality on everything from fares to food, no one followed US Airways' decision in June to eliminate bonus mileage. For travelers in the top tier of its Dividend Miles program — those who log at least 100,000 miles a year — the move effectively cut their mileage balance in half.
US Airways was also the first airline, in February, to stop offering a minimum of 500 miles for short flights. It initially had company on that front, but most big rivals ultimately exempted their elite frequent-flier members from the change.
"We did not want to be an outlier on this," Nocella said in an interview. "We value our frequent-flier members as much as every other program. Some people may have questioned that after we made those changes."
US Airways was criticized from the start for the moves.
Internet message boards such as FlyerTalk.com are still filled with posts from US Airways customers who say they are or have jumped ship to Continental, Southwest, United and others.
Frequent-flier guru Randy Petersen, who started FlyerTalk and publishes InsideFlyer magazine, started a "Save Dividend Miles" online campaign in late July to pressure the company to change its mind. He called it a bad business move that made it uncompetitive and would cost the airline customers.
Nocella, echoing earlier comments by other US Airways executives, said there is no evidence the frequent-flier-program changes cost the airline business.
He is new to the position and said one of the first things he did was ask staffers to "crunch the data every which way to show me how our members' behavior was changing."
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