Partners in perks: businesses will benefit from joint FFPs

Lufthansa and United Airlines have teamed up to offer small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) more benefits from a combined corporate incentives programme.

The enhanced PerksPlus programme rewards SMEs in the US that spend a minimum of $20,000 during any 12 month period on the two airlines’ services plus those of United Express, a group of several regional airlines operating feeder flights for United.

Dependeing on which class is flown, one, two or four points can be earned for every dollar spent, and all members are then eligible to receive joint Lufthansa/United award travel and upgrades - participants can browse and request them online at perkspluspartners.com, as well as viewing their travel activities and points.

PerksPlus works in addition to United’s Mileage Plus and Lufthansa’s Miles & More frequent flier programmes, meaning individuals and businesses can earn benefits on journeys.

Listen up

United passengers can now connect iPods and iPhones to their in-flight entertainment system on some services, allowing them to view videos, pictures and other personal content on the 15.4” (39cm) screens.

The first aircraft offering this connectivity flew from Washington to Zurich yesterday (16 June) and will operate primarily transatlantic routes. United’s entire widebody fleet will be reconfigured to enable the service in First and Business class in the next two years.

“Our guests may now watch or listen to what they want, when they want with programming they choose,” said United executive vice president Graham Atkinson.

Apple vice president of iPod and iPhone product marketing added: “We think United customers are going to love being able to listen or watch personal music and video content [from their devices] via the in-flight entertainment system.”

The iPod and iPhone will charge while they are connected.