One of the most advertised cellphone plan gimmicks is rollover minutes. Which simply means that that AT&T customers who don’t need all their minutes in a given month, can keep them as a “credit” for the next month.
Now Marriott Rewards is applying that same strategy to hotel stays. With “Elite Rollover Nights” Marriott will allow guests who stay more nights than they need to achieve Elite status,to roll the extra nights over to 2010. The current levels are Silver (10 nights a year), Gold (50 nights) and Platinum (75) nights, so there are potentially a lot of extra rollover nights involved. Especially for clients who just miss the Gold level.
The hotel industry is fond of copycat programs and services, for example, the Westin “Heavenly Beds” that have now been emulated by many other chains, albeit with different names – Hyatt “Grand Beds, Sheraton “Sweet Sleeper Beds,” etc. So if the response to Marriott’s rollover plan is good, look for other chains to come up with some version of their own.
And that brings up a larger potential rollover marketing ploy: airline miles. As it stands now, airlines have set levels for elite status, on United, it’s 25,000 for Premier, 50,000 for Premier Executive, and 100,000 for 1k. But a Premier Executive who flies say, 85,000 thousand miles one year, and 45,000 the next, will fall short of requalifying, even though the two year total is certainly high enough.
In fact, I have had a number of women business clients run the problem of “losing status” when they take maternity leave, which generally elicits no sympathy from the airlines. But there are all sorts of reasons why a regular flier might have a year with limited travel – a sabbatical, a job change, or an illness.
Delta Air Lines actually recently initiated a rollover program of its own for clients who are at least Silver level status. It will allow extra 2009 miles to be rolled over towards qualifying in 2010. But no other carrier has followed it. Which is surprising, considering the airlines will match things like $10 holiday surcharges often within 24 hours.
The idea seems like a relatively easy way to earn good press, not to mention gratitude from travelers who are facing a tough economy, and hate the thought of losing perks that make flying, especially in coach, a little easier. Of course, the real benefit, rolling over 2009 miles, won’t really be felt until late 2010, when those miles help travelers become Elite in 2011.
Stay tuned.
photo by subpopstar/creative commons/flickr.com
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Delta is already advertising rollover miles… Anything above what you need for your tier this year gets rolled over to next year.
This program has already resulted in my booking 2 Marriott Branded hotels for upcoming trips, because I am in that silver-gold gap with 33 nights this year. Now I know I will be at least silver then AND am starting to work on gold for 2010 with at 23+ night head start…
I would love to see the same for miles, by end of year I will have about 10 ‘wasted’ segments on USAir, which would give me a nice start on 2011 status..
One secondary thought on the Airline Miles though, there is a possible downside there. With more elite frequent fliers and presumably more with higher status, getting upgrades, etc will be even more difficult.
Thanks Drew, I updated the post to include Delta’s offer.
“It will allow extra 2009 miles to be rolled over towards qualifying in 2010. But no other carrier has followed it. Which is surprising, considering the airlines will match things like $10 holiday surcharges often within 24 hours.”
It is not suprising at all that other airlines have not copied this. This would mean lost revenue to them. But of course when something involves a surcharge, that’s money in the airline’s pockets.
At least for select elite customer also Starwood Preferred Guest currently has a promotion allowing participants to earn either double nights this year or transferring an identical number of nights as stayed most of the rest of 2009 as qualifying nights for 2010.
I was very hopeful that United would follow suit on this. And not just because I’d already have 2011 1k status wrapped up in addition to 2010. I am a self-employed technology consultant and I must take sabbatical to retool my skills every third or fourth year. Dropped all the way from Global Services to Premier during the last cycle. And sometimes good consulting gigs come up in my own home town – I jump all over those. United and other airlines would do well to accommodate folks such as myself. As it stands, the field is pretty wide open when I get back to traveling again (I always do) and next time I might just be making the jump to Delta on the strength of this new benefit alone…