Airlines drop bonuses for Web booking
Mileage bonuses for booking tickets at airlines' Web sites are on the verge of becoming a perk of the past.
American Airlines is now the last of the nation's traditional carriers to reward customers with bonus miles for booking on its Web site.
Once taken for granted by frequent fliers as a way to pad their mileage totals, the bonuses have been on the wane for more than a year, mainly because they've achieved their purpose of driving consumers to the sales channel that's cheapest for the airlines. It beats telephone sales and travel agencies, whether online or bricks-and-mortar.
United Airlines is the latest big carrier to end its bonus, pulling the plug on Thursday. Two other big carriers - Continental Airlines and US Airways - ended their online booking bonuses late last year. Not long before that, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines ended theirs.
Even American's bonus has dwindled, having dropped in late 2006 to just 250 miles per round-trip coach-class ticket. Earlier this decade, American's online bonus had been what was once an industry standard: 1,000 miles for each round-trip ticket booked on the airline's Web site.
"Airlines are ending the bonuses because they've bought the behavior" they had been seeking, says Henry Harteveldt, analyst for Forrester Research.
Most travel in the United States is now purchased online, according to consulting firm PhoCusWright. But that's not to say airlines sell most of their tickets at their own sites. US Airways, for example, now sells 23 percent at usairways.com
Airlines have been selling tickets via the Internet since the mid-1990s. They first began using the bonuses to entice customers to use their own Web sites instead of online travel agencies such as Travelocity.
But as the percentage of customers booking on the airlines' Web sites has risen over the past years - and as online travel agents have added booking fees - most airlines now say online mileage bonuses are no longer needed to draw customers to their Web sites.
As for American, it's noncommittal on how long its bonus will be around. Says spokeswoman Marcy Letourneau, "We are the only major carrier still offering the bonus, and we do currently promote it."
It's not only traditional carriers that have cut back on their online bonuses. Discount giant Southwest at one time had one of the most generous bonuses, offering double credit for every flight booked on its Web site. Unlike most other big airlines, Southwest credits travelers for their trips, not their miles. Now, eight round trips within two years earns a free ticket.
Before its long-running bonus promotion ended in 2005, though, frequent fliers could earn a free trip with five round trips plus a one-way trip. And earlier in Southwest's bonus promotion, just four round trips would earn a free ticket. Those trips, however, had to be within a 12-month period.
Some airlines are bucking the trend, however. New York-based discounter JetBlue, for example, continues to offer double points for flights booked at jetblue.com.
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