AIRMILES, the UK’s leading reward scheme, with 20 years experience and expertise in the travel and leisure arena, today launches ‘The Mileage Company’, a specialist provider that can help companies develop and manage existing or new loyalty programmes.
 
A wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, The Mileage Company will run AIRMILES and also take responsibility for maximising the commercial success globally of British Airways’ own reward currency BA Miles, which frequent flyers collect as members of BA's Executive Club.  The Mileage Company will also market its expertise to run other frequent flyer and leisure reward programmes for UK and world-wide airlines and brands.
 
Led by AIRMILES’ managing director, Andrew Swaffield, The Mileage Company can develop every aspect of a loyalty programme, from set-up to management of rewards, enabling clients to engage customers by rewarding loyalty and in turn drive profit and growth.
 
In-depth expertise provided by The Mileage Company includes research and loyalty analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) and loyalty marketing and accounting skills associated with loyalty schemes. The Mileage Company also has a large UK Customer Contact Centre and IT development expertise.
 
Andrew Swaffield said: “The Mileage Company launch comes at a time when brands most need compelling customer reward programmes to weather the economic storm and safeguard their customer base. As consumers look to cut spending by shopping around for the best deals, brand loyalty comes under threat. Reward programmes satisfy consumers’ desire to get a real return on their money thereby making them want to stay loyal to the brand.
 
“With two decades of experience analysing customer behaviour and building brand loyalty, The Mileage Company team is able to get new programmes up and running quickly and seamlessly, or take over the management of existing programmes, allowing businesses to focus on their core operations.”
 
The British Airways subsidiary is chaired by the airline’s director of strategy and business units, Robert Boyle. Mr Boyle said: “The Mileage Company gives an airline like BA the opportunity to maximise the financial return from our frequent flyer programme whilst ensuring world leading customer benefits and rewards. Mileage sales are a growth opportunity for carriers particularly when seat revenues are depressed and there are more empty seats to fill.”
 
Being owned by British Airways gives The Mileage Company a critical differentiator in the loyalty market - unique access to BA’s stock of unsold airline seats giving The Mileage Company’s existing partners and scheme members outstanding value on flights. This in turn leads to exciting rewards to attract new customers and create long-term loyalty.