Club Avanti

[island]

Agreed. The airlines offer loyalty schemes which are aimed firmly at business travellers. The idea of course is that work pays for the ticket and the traveller gets the perks - although the revenue obviously has an opinion on that...

Yes, they do have an opinion on that, and the opinion is that it's absolutely fine and no tax is due.

 

[Facing Back]

Yes, they do have an opinion on that, and the opinion is that it's absolutely fine and no tax is due.

That's interesting and good news. A very small number of clients who try to get their staff to use airmiles for company use will have to take note. Do you happen to know how much change the 26th June update made to the previously published document?

 

[island]

That's interesting and good news. A very small number of clients who try to get their staff to use airmiles for company use will have to take note.

I don't think the post I linked precludes a business from operating a policy that frequent travel points earned through business travel are to be used to offset the cost of future business travel. (Such a policy would be hard to enforce and, I expect, put potential employees off taking jobs there, but that's a different matter.)

Do you happen to know how much change the 26th June update made to the previously published document?

I looked it up in 2011 when I got a job involving regular business travel and it was the same or substantially the same back then.

 

[Huntergreed]

Out of curiosity - does anyone know if the Club Avanti awards are cumulative?

What I mean by this is, after reaching platinum tier (but not redeeming any rewards), do you get:

(a) A 10% discount, a standard premium return, AND a first class return,

or

(b) Just a first class return journey?

I presume the answer is (b).

This also introduces the dilemma, if the standard premium return is redeemed and then one reaches platinum tier, is this a way to claim both rewards?

 

[Wolfie]

I find it surprising just how many loyalty experts we have on the forum.

I think it is pretty clear that Avanti aren't actually trying to appeal to business travellers, instead it is positioned for the leisure market. There is no huge incentive for Avanti to be offering discounts to business travellers who are likely travelling anyway - they may as well stand outside Euston handing out £10 notes if that is the case.

Club Avanti is appealing to those who travel for leisure to make rail a better option, and to encourage those who book elsewhere to book direct.

LNER perks is incredibly functional and I can't see someone deciding to take the train over the car because they'll get 2% cashback. Club Avanti is more aspirational and giving actual benefits when you use the train - much more akin to what airline loyalty schemes offer i.e. British Airways Executive Club.

There is a spectacular logic fail on your post. How in one breath can you say that Avanti are targeting the leisure market and in the next compare it to the BA Executive Club which absolutely targets business travellers.

 

[Jimini]

Out of curiosity - does anyone know if the Club Avanti awards are cumulative?

What I mean by this is, after reaching platinum tier (but not redeeming any rewards), do you get:

(a) A 10% discount, a standard premium return, AND a first class return,

or

(b) Just a first class return journey?

I presume the answer is (b).

This also introduces the dilemma, if the standard premium return is redeemed and then one reaches platinum tier, is this a way to claim both rewards?

I'm on the ongoing 10% discount and a SP return at the moment (cashed in a while ago). Not had the first class bonus reward yet!

 

[DMU180]

There is a spectacular logic fail on your post. How in one breath can you say that Avanti are targeting the leisure market and in the next compare it to the BA Executive Club which absolutely targets business travellers.

Yes British Airways do specifically target business travellers, and they have a completely separate proposition to do this - BA On Business.

 

[Jimini]

Just had the Platinum membership email / free first class return journey email land. I’ll take that!

 

[styles]

Agreed. The airlines offer loyalty schemes which are aimed firmly at business travellers. The idea of course is that work pays for the ticket and the traveller gets the perks - although the revenue obviously has an opinion on that...

My last employer actually had in our employee manual that airline miles, free hotel nights, etc all belonged to the employer.

Of course that was never enforced, and given not everything had to go through the travel procurement system (because it was ****), I can't imagine the benefit to the employer would be outweighed by the cost of administration keeping track of it all.

 

[andrewkeith5]

Yes British Airways do specifically target business travellers, and they have a completely separate proposition to do this - BA On Business.

BA On Business is a totally different scheme which is targeted not at business travellers, but at people booking business travel on behalf of business travellers. BA Executive Club is very much targeted at business travellers, targeted at the traveller themselves...they can both be used on the same booking, I think...

 

[Chrism20]

How long after your 21st journey do you have to wait for the free first class code?

 

[runaround]

Also made platinum but what comes next anyone? O

 

[raveon]

Nothing! You have to wait until the end of your 2nd year for the counter to reset. It really is a poorly thought out and implemented scheme.
Compared to an airline loyalty (or even LNER) scheme, it’s a joke; Typical Avanti / First Group.

 

[footprints]

Nothing! You have to wait until the end of your 2nd year for the counter to reset. It really is a poorly thought out and implemented scheme.
Compared to an airline loyalty (or even LNER) scheme, it’s a joke; Typical Avanti / First Group.

I've just come to the end of the first twelve months with Club Avanti and received an email saying:

Now you’re entering a new Platinum membership year, your qualifying journeyc ount automatically resets to zero. From now on, all the qualifying journeys youb ook online or through the app over the next 12 months will count toward theser reward levels.

Thresholds listed for the second year are the same as the first. Nine qualifying journeys is a free standard premium return and 21 qualifying journeys is a free first class return.

 

[styles]

Garbage implementation.

I booked two journeys last week. Funnily enough, I was split ticketing, and because each of the split sections were 75mi+, this counts as 6 qualifying journeys.

But from the email it seems to suggest those would have counted towards last year's count, and now that count has been set to zero, despite them only being booked a week ago. What kind of nonsense is that? If it were anything like air miles or hotel rewards, the journeys would count towards the tally for 12 months.

Also given that I haven't actually made the journeys yet, it seems wild to me that I won't get any rewards for them, yet if I'd waited a week to book them, I'd be 6 journeys up.

It might even be worth the money booking new and applying for a refund minus admin fees.

 

[island]

Many loyalty programs work on a fixed 12 month period rather than a rolling one.

 

[trentvalley]

So best thing is once you hit the free 1st class tickets, start a new account

 

[Misici]

Out of interest how long after you met the criteria for the free standard premium journey, did the e-mail come through please? Holding fire on booking something in early September at present.

 

[Russel]

Just booked an Avanti advance and signed up to Club Avanti, how do I go about claiming the free hot drink?

 

[lanc]

My experience with Avanti Club:
- Registered, got an email with a bar code for a free drink, that worked.
- Made about 10 trips, got an email for a free return ticket (actually, two advance back-forth tickets) in standard premium, used that without any problems on the Avanti line Lancaster-Edinburgh.

This is where the problems start:
- I made about a dozen more trips, got nothing.
- Emailed the support, who responded "you have completed 18 trips at the moment", which sounded strange. Then I asked them to list which exact trips they counted towards the scheme. Their response was, "oh, you actually made 32 trips, the code will be sent out shortly". The code does not arrive, I email again, they respond "as soon as the booking has been cancelled, I will forward the new code over". I have no idea what they are talking about (I had no active bookings at the moment, and certainly none that had to be cancelled), and I doubt that the person responding to these emails has either.

It's a very poorly designed scheme and it's ran even more poorly. To date I haven't received the code for the first class return ticket and there's no one to talk to. Calling Avanti doesn't work as "the Club is a separate entity, please email them at...". Anyone had similar experience?

Cheers

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

But surely this is the ultimate marketing triumph, ie to take something that passengers ... er ... don't always much enjoy (travel on AWC) and reshape it as a desirable perk that comes once suffer days of travel on their trains? Brilliant plan! (Actually, to be fair, a lot is now coming right with AWC but the experience over the past 18 months has been poor.)

 

[williamn]

Anyone else having the issue of constantly being asked if you'd like to join, always saying yes, but getting that invite on screen again and again? I've had the welcome email already.

 

[Birkonian]

Anyone else having the issue of constantly being asked if you'd like to join, always saying yes, but getting that invite on screen again and again? I've had the welcome email already.

I keep getting the repeated invites also. Furthermore, I've completed 12 single trips since joining and not received any free ticket codes.

 

[Scotrail314209]

I can’t sign up for it at all, I follow the instructions but when I go to the ‘Preferences’ page, the box appears then disappears after it loads fully. It’s annoying.

EDIT: Oops. Turned out I signed up already.

 

[RAPC]

Might be worth contacting them to ask why.

One thing to flag (as I fell foul of it earlier on) is that all tickets have to be Avanti only to be valid. So if you have a connection on to Northern or another operator, that makes the journey ineligible.

 

[trentvalley]

I've got a Club Avanti gold reward so the free standard premium return but not used it yet.

I'm nearing platinum membership so will be due the free first class return.

Does anyone know if I need to use the first reward before reaching platinum or can I have both free tickets to use in the future?

Also can I upgrade the standard premium to first class?

 

[Chrism20]

No both codes are separate and one doesn’t need to be used before the other. I used my 1st one before the SP

 

[trentvalley]

No both codes are separate and one doesn’t need to be used before the other. I used my 1st one before the SP

That's great thanks for the info

 

[Birkonian]

I complained that I'd completed numerous journeys and not received any codes. I received a reply saying that I had completed 22 journeys and had reached Platinum level. The e-mail continued saying that I hadn't ticked the preferences boxes allowing notifications. This is not true and I checked my account to confirm. I've complained again and am awaiting a further reply.

 

[The Prisoner]

Bumping this - is Club Avanti still a thing?

I last had an email in early November telling me that I was on eight journeys - nothing since, and have made numerous trips directly from Chester to London (direct and booked with them on website - whether the services ran is another thing).

Is there a way of checking membership status? I am definitely enrolled