Allegiant Air credit card targets ‘infrequent traveler’

Allegiant Air on Thursday will launch its first credit card geared toward enticing the low-cost carrier’s target group of leisure travelers.

The Allegiant World MasterCard allows users to collect points that can be redeemed for flights, hotel visits and car rentals with no black-out dates on the airline’s website.

The Las Vegas-based budget airline’s tactic runs counter to larger air carriers with credit cards that offer flight-based miles as a way to attract business travelers and frequent fliers.

Instead, Allegiant is looking to its base of “infrequent fliers” to sign up for the card, issued by Bank of America.

The carrier’s business strategy has hinged on concentrating service at airports in small and midsize cities.

“Our customer is the family in the Midwest who takes a vacation once a year, so we wanted to build a program that specifically caters to them,” Brian Davis, Allegiant’s vice president of marketing, said.

“We wanted to go to a program for the travelers who don’t fly very often,” Davis said. “This allows them to earn points on day-to-day purchases, and we’re very excited about that.”

Cardholders can buy airfares at two-for-one prices if they also book a four-night hotel stay or rental car at allegiant.com, Davis said. Priority boarding and one free beverage are offered to those who show their credit cards aboard Allegiant flights.

Three points are earned for every dollar spent on Allegiant purchases, two points per dollar at qualifying restaurants and one point per dollar on everything else.

“Our research found that our customers don’t like confusing programs, and a lot of these rewards have become complicated transactions with other companies,” Davis said. “We wanted to make sure we built a program that’s as simple and transparent as possible, with no gimmicks or tricks.”

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.