And all things being equal, they covet those miles, so they usually go with us. Business travelers tend to have higher income levels than the average Countrywide customer, resulting in average loan balances that are 30 percent to 35 percent higher than the company's national average loan amounts for other marketing campaigns. Typically, United members borrow a little more than American's, but that's probably attributable to the fact that United has more hubs in more expensive markets than it's rival. But it's not as popular as the frequent flyer programs. They are among the strongest affinities around.
People are really rabid about frequent flyer miles.
For more articles by Lew Sichelman, please press here . Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate from his home base in the Nation's Capital for more than 30 years. He writes a weekly consumer column that is distributed to newspapers throughout the country by United Media. He also is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing finance industry publications. Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.