Earn Airline Rewards With Credit Cards
You may have heard of frequent flyer programs, where participants earn points which award free airfares and benefits not available otherwise. But did you know that you do not have to actually fly in an airplane to earn these rewards?
There are many credit card companies today which offer customers the benefit of frequent flyer points. These credit cards have a special partnership with designated airline companies, awarding points to consumers based on certain types of purchases, cash advances, or other transactions. By making regular, everyday purchases, cardholders receive additional points. Different cards will offer different benefits or incentives. Participating cardholders commonly earn one or two free airline tickets every year.
Airline frequent flyer rewards credit cards come in two distinctive types. The first type of card is issued through an affiliated airline carrier, and is a good option for those who travel often. These cards are also wonderful for those who fly regularly for business purposes. If you have a tendency to use different airlines, or if you do not travel often, then you would be wise to choose the second type of card, which awards all-inclusive points. With this type of card, you will be allowed to use your frequent flyer points for travel on any airline, rather than being obligated to any one particular airline company.
Most major credit card companies offer frequent flyer incentive programs. For example, American Express offers a credit card with no expiration date on corresponding airline points, with double rewards for dining, travel, leisure, or entertainment purchases. A card through Bank of America offers no black out dates and rewards for all types of purchases. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards also have numerous cards through various companies, many of which also offer frequent flyer incentives.
If you are a frequent traveler, and tend to use credit cards during your excursions, then it makes logical sense to transfer your balances to a credit card which offers miles rewards. You will earn free travel incentives as a reward for what you are already doing, using your credit card! Airline credit cards also tend to offer exceptional interest rates, quality customer service, and amazing travel opportunities. Most cards also have no restrictions or blackout dates when it comes to using the accrued frequent flyer points.
Airline rewards credit cards are the most popular type of plastics, according to recent cardholder polls. Naturally so, since these cards were the original companies to offer rewards. In order to earn the very best incentives, there are a few tips and tricks to follow. Make sure to pay your bills in full every month. Choose a card with flexible reward schemes. Do you homework to discover the various benefit packages, such as special purchase incentive, redemption policies, or promotions.
Regardless of which frequent flyer airline rewards credit card that you choose, always remember that these cards have credit fees and a corresponding APR rate, just as any other card does. Keep careful records of your purchases and related point earnings, so that you always know where you stand. Pay close attention to the conditions and terms of the card, so that your hard earned rewards are not in vain!
Learn more about frequent flyer programs and airline rewards at www.AirlineRewards.com
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The Southwest Airlines Way
- ISBN13: 9780071458276
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
“If you look at Southwest Airlines, and I admire what they do, they’ve been the most successful airline in the industry.” –Gerard Arpey, CEO, American Airlines “Through extensive research Jody Hoffer Gittell gets to the bottom of what has sustained Southwest Airlines’ positive employee relations and high performance through good and bad times.” –Thomas A. Kochan, professor, MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Global Airline Industry Program In an industry with losses in the bil
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(out of 26 reviews)
List Price: $ 16.95
Price: $ 8.97
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Review by Robert Morris for The Southwest Airlines Way
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Why can’t other companies (not only airlines) become as highly admired as well as profitable as Southwest Airlines? Here is an excerpt from Herb Kelleher’s presentation at the Risk Management Association’s annual conference: “Maintaining excellent customer survives involves a process of getting people to understand the importance of it to them in their daily lives as well as in others’. We were a little concerned as we got bigger that maybe some of our early culture might be lost so we set up a culture committee whose only purpose is to keep the Southwest Airlines culture alive. Before people knew how to make fire, there was a fire watcher. Cave dwellers may have found a tree hit by lightning and brought fire back to the cave. Somebody had to make sure it kept going because if it went out, there was was the most important person in the tribe. I said to our culture committee, ‘You are our fire watchers, who make sure the fire does not go out. I think you are the most important committee at Southwest Airlines.’ I really do believe that to be the case. We have people come in from all over the world who are interested in our culture because they see it in the customer service aspect of it.” Kelleher then notes that “Southwest Airlines had 162 companies at our last corporate day [open house], which we have twice a year. We started them off that day with the Macarena and they were all wondering, ‘Hmmmm….I was looking for E=mc2 and I’m getting the Macarena.’ But a fellow from Swiss Air was interviewed when he left and was asked, ‘What’s the most important message you’re taking back to Swiss Air?’ And he said ‘For everybody to learn to do the Macarena.’ Everybody’s looking for a single Big Answer, an easy answer such as ‘We’ll communicate for six months, then get on with something else that’s more important.’ I keep telling them that the intangibles are far more important than the tangibles in the competitive world because, obviously, you can replicate the tangibles. You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn’t something you can do overnight and it isn’t something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection.”I cannot think of a better introduction to Gittell’s book, nor to my comments on her book. Although she identifies “Ten Southwest Practices” and devotes a chapter to explaining each in Part 2, her key point (and Kelleher’s) is that high performance relations are the key to Southwest’s success. Gittell includes these comments by a Southwest ramp manager:”One thing we cannot teach is attitude toward peers or other groups. There’s a code, a way to respond to every individual who works for Southwest. The easiest way to get in trouble is to offend another employee. We need people to respond favorably. It promotes good working relationships….You find an individual with an upbeat and positive attitude — and you’ll find that everything that needs to be done, will get done. It’s very contagious.” I have been a Southwest frequent flier since 1976. Not once, even once, have I ever had a less-than-pleasant experience with anyone within the Southwest organization. Kelleher is appropriately praised for his vision, charm, business acumen, inspiration, passion, determination, wit, etc. He should also be praised for the leadership he has encouraged and supported at all levels of Southwest. In my opinion, that is his single greatest contribution. As Jim Collins describes it in Good to Great, “getting the right people on the bus.” In Part 3, Gittell explains how the “Ten Southwest Practices” reinforce (or undermine) each other; she then suggests what can be learned from Southwest, briefly discussing efforts by competitor airlines; next, she examines how Southwest responds to pressure and manages crises (e.g. September 11); finally, Gittell offers a number of suggestions as to how other organizations can implement high performance relationships. There is nothing wrong with any of those suggestions. However, obviously, listing the “Ten Southwest Practices” is far, far easier than convincing or inspiring most (if not all) people in another organization to follow them all day, every day, year after year. And it is even more difficult to create such buy-in when an organization is undergoing extensive growth and sustains it profitably as Southwest has. Especially in the ferociously competitive airline industry, the Yoda’s admonition is correct: “Do or do not. There is no try.”
Review by Libby Sartain for The Southwest Airlines Way
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Much has been written about the legendary company, Southwest Airlines. As a former insider, I often wondered why other organizations couldn’t duplicate Southwest’s business model. There really weren’t any secrets, but while other airlines and companies tried, few succeeded. In many ways Southwest defies conventional business thinking. Based on extensive research, Jody Hoffer Gittell’s The Southwest Way is filled with actual examples of business process at Southwest as compared to other airlines. The reader can easily see how basic practices based on internal values at Southwest, such as, investing in leadership development and people have made such a big difference. In fact, the findings from eight years of research of the airline industry reveal that Southwest’s success is due to building high performance relationships with their people, customers, unions, vendors and suppliers, and the public in general. Dr.Gitell includes real-life inspiring stories from insiders, which makes the book a more entertaining read versus your typical analytical reference text written by an academic. But, this is not a touchy feely book based on anecdotes, it is academic and the ideas presented are fact-based. The reader gets a glimpse into day to day practices and people who run the company and work on the frontlines, but also Gittell has compared and contrasted these practices and people to those of competitor airlines and other industries. This is where the reader can easily see why Southwest’s basic values have given the airline a significant competitive advantage. And, this is where readers can see Gittel’s theoretical premise in action.The Southwest Way is a book that will most certainly appeal to general business audiences, to airline leaders, and to any business person who is engaged in efforts to build a legendary organization and organizational culture. Human resources professionals will identify secrets to creating value in organizations through people practices, leadership development, conflict resolution, work-life balance initiatives, performance management, and building a culture that fosters productivity, innovation and organizational success.
Review by for The Southwest Airlines Way
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Several books and countless articles have been written about Southwest Airlines. They highlight its structure, its culture, its CEO, its low fares and other reasons as to why it is the bright spot in an otherwise dismally performing industry. None, however, have completely captured the real explanation of why Southwest succeeds.In this book, Dr. Gittell has managed to identify and even quantify the powerful formula of Southwest’s success. Simply stated, it is the company’s ability to achieve high performance relationships by sharing goals and information in a climate of mutual respect. This allows the coordination and communication necessary to attain efficiency and customer service in the complex and multi-functional environment of an airline.Lest this appear too simple or ‘soft’, Dr. Gittell provides detailed analysis of Southwest’s approach. She identifies ten specific practices used by the people of Southwest to achieve their incredibly consistent performance. These practices range from those that might be expected in a successful company such as credibility of leadership, emphasis on hiring and training, and positive relationships with unions and suppliers, to those that are contrary to today’s accepted wisdom such as increasing frontline leadership positions and creating human ‘boundry-spanners’ as opposed to relying on electronic interfaces.The good news is that Dr. Gittell clearly identifies and explains each of these elements in a highly readable way that is also backed with data. The hard part is that these are not quick fixes and that the evidence indicates that most, if not all, of the practices must be adapted/adopted if another organization is to duplicate the success of Southwest. Nevertheless, thanks to the author, the lessons are revealed for all to benefit.I would recommend that the value of this book not be limited to the airline industry. These concepts and practices are applicable to any organization or industry that is striving for quality, efficiency and customer service in a complex, competitive environment.
Review by for The Southwest Airlines Way
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My goodness, I sat down and opened this book at about 7:30 pm and before I knew it, wow, it was 10:30!!What makes this fact so very unusual is that I never read books pertaining to business! I’m normally a fiction reader with a few biographies thrown in.
The writing had a very nice flow. Good content means nothing to me if the flow is not there. The author uses various words and sentence structures to keep the book moving. She does not stay on one topic forever and thus bore a reader to tears. It moves. The author presents many facts to back up what she states.
You will learn some about the philosophy of how Southwest Airlines runs their business and thus you’ll learn some reasons why it has become so very successful. She takes some elements within the philosophy of the company and gives some details pertaining to those elements. In some cases she will give an example of an element and show you how that element works within the philosophy.
One of the ideas that I gathered from this book that I so very much appreciated was the fact that a core belief within their philosophy is that those who work for Southwest Airlines become family and the individual families at home of those who work for the company are also viewed as a part of the total Southwest Airlines family. The management actually cares for the people who work there and their individual families in their homes. What a concept!! As long as it doesn’t hamper them getting their jobs done they are encouraged to be themselves at work. There’s much more. Their philosophy has resulted in developing an airline that is over thirty years old now and has never-EVER-had one layoff!! Not One!! They protect their people as much as they can. The author will show that the philosophy works.For a great read that will leave you encouraged that a business can be both successful and protect their people you need to read this one.
Review by John A. Troland for The Southwest Airlines Way
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Many business owners often ask the question: How can my business become more successful, more profitable like some specific business they may know of or have read about in a business periodical. There are numerous books published in the “how to” area; Jody Hoffer Gittell’s book, The Southwest Airlines Way, is, in my opinion, THE book for any manager in any type of business to not only read but to implement any number of the suggestions made in the book to face competitive challenges faced in their own business. After reading the book I was particularly impressed with the amount of and time spent gathering research for this impressive business book. The author explains very well many practices that Southwest utilizes in it’s business that has sustained it’s success of 30 years of growth and profitability.
As I read the book, and unlike many books that one reads a few pages at a time, I could hardly wait to turn the page to continue reading about the superior theory of relational coordination as developed by the author. I suppose the author could have chosen some other type of industry and company to research and write about but in a time that many many airlinesare bleeding “red ink”, going out of business or filing for bankruptcy, the author writes about perhaps the most successful airline ever in the USA. In the book the author writes: “However, the Southwest model is still not well understood.” I can understand why: not enough managers have read this exceptional book! Therefore my conclusion can be stated as: Memo to Managers: If you “Don’t Get It”-Get It! -this book. As the Executive Producer and host of the highly acclaimed business tv show, “Business Beat Live” on which Jody Hoffer Gittell was a guest, I have read hundreds of business books and interviewed their authors; in my opinion this book ranks a “10″. Read it and you’ll see why.