Gay Nagle Myers
MLT Vacations took a look at its travel agent rewards program and decided to replace it rather than just tweak it here and there.
The result is a new Diamond program for its top-producing agent partners, which replaces the operator’s previous STAR program.
“The new program is more robust, dynamic and is based on recommendations from travel agency feedback and surveys, competitive analysis and internal focus groups,” said John Caldwell, president.
He said that tweaking the previous STAR program would not have sufficed.
“The new program reflects our ongoing appreciation of and commitment to our top-producing agents,” he said.
The Diamond program is another step toward MLT Vacations’ closer alignment with parent company Delta Airlines.
The new program leverages airline resources to offer more meaningful rewards to MLT’s agent partners.
Benefits that accrue to agents who achieve Diamond-level status include exclusive discounts and savings that can be passed along to clients, personal travel benefits such as hotel discounts and complimentary air, listings on the travel agency locators on Delta Vacations’ consumer website and notifications of training opportunities, including MLT University.
“The STAR program only had two levels. The Diamond program has three: Diamond, Diamond Preferred and Diamond Elite. Each level has a threshold based in part on annual revenue and year-over-year growth,” Caldwell said.
Having a third category enables MLT to better reward top accounts and offers more engagement with entry-level and growth-level accounts, according to Caldwell.
Along with Delta, MLT’s strategic partners include Air France, Alitalia and Aeromexico.
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