What do you want from your airline mile award program?
How about a two-hour flight simulator experience for two people in Toronto (Air Canada) or how about 25 million points towards becoming an astronaut on Virgin Galatic?
As air travel has escalated, so have various airline programs encouraging more flying.
Many of those rewards have gone well beyond traditional free or reduced hotels stays. As illustrated by a new study by IdeaWorks, an airline consulting firm that studied more than 150 airline rewards programs. They came up with some of the weirdest, including:
–A regular supply of socks.
–A leather vest autographed by actor George Clooney.
–A dog-sled adventure from Latvian national airline AirBaltic in return for accumulating 13,754 points.
"Consumers expect more from their frequent flier programs and airlines seem to be stepping up to the challenge," the report concluded.
By David Wilkening
