To mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of American AAdvantage last month, loyalty-marketing experts at http://www.WiseMarketer.com compiled an intriguing set of trivia on their Web site (a genuine gem, we might add. -Eds.).
Among their findings: According to American Airlines, the top five AAdvantage awards redeemed in 2005 were:
- Domestic Economy Class award (25,000 miles);
- Magazines for Miles;
- Domestic First/Business Class award;
- Caribbean Economy Class award;
- Domestic one-way upgrade from Discount Economy fare.
There are 50 million AAdvantage members, which is the same as: 88.7 times the population of Washington DC; 83.3 times the population of Boston; 67.9 times the population of San Francisco; and 6.25 times the population of New York City.
The program began in 1981 with fewer than 300,000 members, and has grown more than 16,000 percent since then.
American Airlines awarded 145 billion miles to AAdvantage program members in 2005 alone — which the airline says is enough miles for 788 round trips to the sun and back (92 million miles).
The number of Admirals Club members who have used miles to purchase memberships is 20 times the world population’s growth rate.
AAdvantage members view their account activity via the airline’s Web site a cumulative average of 4.5 million times per month.
AAdvantage members donated more than 100 million miles to the Disaster Relief Fund — which is enough miles to send 4,000 people around the Earth at the equator.
Finally, if all the AAdvantage membership cards issued were lined up end-to-end, they would stretch from New Delhi, India, to Manhattan an amazing 1,847 times. With the card weighing in at 0.2 oz., the 50 million cards in circulation would weigh about the same as 200 average cars.
