The completion of a year-long online overhaul through the Syzygy consultancy enables Air Miles to offer real-time booking and tailor-made itineraries, including hotels and car hire. The revamped site will be backed by a £1m promotional campaign over the next month. Cheekily, ads were set to run on rival lastminute.com. However, lastminute decided to pull them at the 11th hour.
An 18-city UK road show, beginning this week, will aim to sign up 500,000 unique users, which would make Air Miles one of the biggest online travel agencies.
It is the latest decision by the British Airways-owned company to transform itself from a loyalty scheme into a broader travel brand. "We no longer simply shift inventory for BA. We are seen as a profit centre in our own right," said Drew Thomson, Air Miles' managing director.
Air Miles offers flights on five other airlines and is heavily promoting its policy of guaranteeing the lowest price package holidays for anyone with a minimum of 100 Air Miles, but is also opening up its entire inventory to non-collectors.
"Our aim is to compete directly with lastminute," said Thomson. "People often regard us as a flight-only operation, but we now offer every travel option, backed by a lowest price guarantee."
Air Miles' decision to focus on its travel heritage was partly prompted by the launch of rival loyalty scheme Nectar.
Thomson is keeping Air Miles' ad agency, TBWA\London, on its toes by hiring Grey Worldwide to handle the tour. Grey's chief executive, Garry Lace, previously worked on Air Miles' business at TBWA. Incumbent media agency Initiative Media London is arranging sponsorship and buying media.
The site offers holidays from more than 50 tour operators, including the UK's 'big four' - MyTravel Airtours, TUI Thomson, Thomas Cook and First Choice.
It provides access to 500 hotels and Thomson says an extra 15,000 currently available via its call centre will be added soon.
"Air Miles collectors still get a better deal but we are proving that we are a unique type of travel company," said Thomson.
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