AT&T has partnered with Continental Airlines in an effort to attract new customers as well as increase customer loyalty by providing a new way to earn frequent-flier miles through the AT&T/OnePass program.
A campaign got under way this month with a direct mail component that began this week.
According to Mark Siegel, spokesman at AT&T, the fully integrated campaign will run throughout the end of the year. It includes direct mail and e-mail, messages contained in Continental ticket jackets, newspaper ads, Continental in-flight magazines and airport signage. Cities where Continental Airlines has a major presence include Houston, Cleveland, New York and Newark, NJ.
AT&T, Basking Ridge, NJ, will give its customers the opportunity to join the Continental OnePass program and provide users of certain AT&T qualifying services with five OnePass frequent-flier miles for every dollar spent on those services. The only service currently designated as a qualifying service is AT&T long distance. However, Siegel said users of the AT&T WorldNet service for Internet access will also receive OnePass miles during the next few months.
“In looking for what type of incentive consumers valued most, we found that frequent-flier miles and premium cable channels were the two they valued most,” Siegel said.
Beginning last week, AT&T customers either received a personalized letter outlining the benefits of the partnership between AT&T and Continental or an e-mail containing the same text as the direct mail piece along with a link to a newly created Web site, www.att.com/continental/news, where they could enroll in the program. A toll-free number also was provided for those interested in joining the program.
“We did not want to contact every one of our customers twice with a mail piece and then an e-mail,” Siegel said. “The majority of the people who received the e-mails are those who use our online billing system.”
Weekly ads promoting the partnership were run in USA Today last month.
