Continental Targets Small Buyers

<B> Continental Targets Small Buyers</B>

By Jay Campbell

<I>Houston</I> - Continental Airlines last week announced a new program designed to reward companies with air volumes of under $40,000 for their business.

For every $1,000 spent on any ticket type other than Q--the highly restricted, lowest fares--enrolled companies earn RewardOne points, which can be accrued and redeemed quarterly or whenever the company chooses.

Fifteen points earn a bronze-level frequent flyer membership, 12 points earn a roundtrip domestic Q class ticket, four points earn a one-year airport club membership or a confirmed domestic upgrade, three earn a space available upgrade, two earn 10 one-day airport club passes and one point earns 20 drink coupons.

The airline has enrolled "a few" companies thus far, said Tracy Sweeney, senior director of specialty sales. She added that initially, 24 markets have been targeted, not including Continental's hubs in Cleveland, Guam, Houston and Newark. Some of the 24 cities are Austin, Chicago, Hartford, Miami, San Antonio and San Francisco. Enrollment involves simply giving Continental the employees' OnePass numbers. Employees then give their number when booking flights, as they would to earn miles. Both the miles and points are credited.

According to Sweeney, a key difference between RewardOne and other small business programs, such as those offered by American and United, is how it's tracked. "We use the traveler's OnePass number to track not only his mileage, but also the dollars spent by the company. The other programs require a whole new ticketing code and tracking is left up to the user," she said. "We didn't do it that way because feedback from the industry on that method wasn't good."

Indeed, travel managers at companies that are using the American and United programs have complained that tracking is difficult (BTN, Oct. 13, 1997).

Continental's vice president of national sales Dave Hilfman defined accounts under $5 million as small, $5-$15 million as midsize and over $15 million as large.