Supersonic Swan

Flying PAs October 20, 2010

There’s that old saying in back my country that if man is the head in a relationship then woman is the neck – it keeps the head turning.  This has been validated in business – bosses are male, PAs are female and it is the latter who keep the dairies and arrange for things to happen. BINGO!

Many a customer relationship building exercise has evolved around secretaries. They make the decision so let’s make them happy, why not? Now, there are PA clubs everywhere – for SPAs, restaurants, hotels, you name it.

And there is one in the air, too.

There might be more of them, what’s surprising though is that Aerolineas Argentinas actually do let PAs know about it on the main screen of their corporate website. If other airlines run similar programs they are missing the point keeping it secret.

The idea is very simple indeed. To subscribe you need to:

1. be a PA

2. have your boss (up to 3 of them!) subscribed to AR’s FFP

3. fill out a short form on-line

and then you can start collecting your points. Just like that.

The points you get do depend on the mileage and flying class of course which gives you a total of 8 different options to get you between 1 and 10 points. These are transferred into your PA Club account every time your boss boards the flight you booked using his FFP card.

Now, what’s in it for you? The program runs in 3-month cycles and you need at least 40 points in your account to qualify for a bonus – but obviously you never really know how much you need to get the first prize. The prize range itself is quite interesting – for the July to September period there were free regional and domestic flights, hotel stays, SPA sessions, tango classes, etc. All the nice stuff you need to pamper yourself.

It is a smart little program, this. It hits right where you want it – the person who normally books the flight. It is nicely tied with the FFP – PAs need to have their bosses subscribed. It gives extras away – the rewards within the scheme are on top of what is gained by the boss on their FFP card and PAs benefit directly. Importantly however, it does not say “you will get something for every X flights booked”; what it says is “you need at least 40 points to qualify plus you need to outdo the competition”. 40 points translate into anything between 40 flights in domestic economy to 4 in long-haul business, every three months. So that’s the absolute minimum AR might count on from a dedicated PA. Pretty good, me thinks.

It would be interesting to find out how many are subscribed and what amount of points is likely to get you a prize. Now, that’s confidential. I have that sneaky feeling however, the PA Club is doing allright  – we, women do like the glittering extras!

Do you think AR’s PA Club is the way forward? Do you know about other airlines running similar schemes? Are you a PA yourself and would you like to join a club like that? What’s better – to keep PA schemes top-secret adding to their exclusiveness or to make them (& the winners) into a top story?