Last week, I spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, hanging out with Loyalty marketing professionals from around the world at the Loyalty 2010 conference. I met a number of very talented and interesting people, from airlines, hotels and even retails chain that are trying to drive loyalty.

Also part of the event was the Loyalty 2010 Awards for the Most Innovative Loyalty program. The judges had shortlisted the Top 3, and the audience voted for the best. Air Berlin came out tops, though I think each program was very unique. And I share with you here, what makes them so good!

1. Air Berlin’s MyRoute customers earn double miles on their frequently flown routes
Try to solve this problem. You need to get price sensitive customers to fly you on their most-flown routes, which are also the most competitive due to many airlines offering an undifferentiated product on those routes. You know you got to think out of the box when solving this one. And Air Berlin’s Johannes Ganser and Sophie Wennekers, along with their Loyalty Marketing team, did just that.

In April 2009, the airline launched MyRoute where members select …

Alaska Air and Southwest bagged the most prizes at this year’s Freddies. Ideally, all airlines should be like Alaska Air: substantial award choices, good bonus promotions, an easy-to-use Web site and some of the best customer care representatives in the industry. But not all can be right up there.

We went through the full list of award winners and picked the creamiest from the cream of the crop. So here are some of the Top 10 most innovative features from the top loyalty programs in the world.

Amazing discount bookings. Jet Airways’ Jet Privilege program, where in celebration of new routes between India and the U.S. and Canada, members could redeem economy award tickets at a 50 percent discount if they were Platinum or Gold members and at a 25 percent discount if they were Silver or other.
Family Plan. Korean Air’s Skypass Family Plan allowed you …