Southwest Announces the First Bonus Mileage Incentive for 2010

Remember how good business travelers (those that were still flying, that is) had it in 2009? The falloff in business travel brought dogfights to the skies as airlines showered travelers with miles to try and stimulate business and steal market share.

American, United and Continental all offered double status points for not just one period during 2009 but for two separate multi-month periods.

Delta offered double miles to on all flights for American Express card holders and American offered double miles to everyone living in the New York area.

Delta offered 50,000 miles flights to London and the list goes on...

Southwest has fired the first shot in 2010 by offering Colorado residents a free ticket for every ticket purchased. Yes, you have to buy one of the more expensive (for Southwest, anyway) Business Select tickets but then you earn a free one anywhere they fly.

Look for United to match with something similar in the Denver market shortly. And we bet Frontier, not wanting to be left out in the 3-way Denver fight will also offer an incentive as well.

So far, only Colorado residents are benefiting from the continued slump in business travel but we bet more incentives are on the way soon....