Virgin America is the hip, new airline with cool in-seat displays complete with TV shows, games, and the ability to order food. So it only makes sense that they’ve tapped Califonia-based startup MOGL to power their Elevate frequent flyer dining rewards program.
MOGL is a loyalty rewards app that serves restaurants by using gamification and a bit of charity to increase engagement and repeat visits. Users earn 10 percent cash back on meals purchased at MOGL partner locations, and have the chance to win a cash jackpot by being a loyal customer to their favorite spots. Plus, MOGL gives back by donating a meal to Feed America for every $20 spent on the platform.
Since its launch in April of 2011, MOGL has partnered with 2,000 restaurants across California, including 300 in SF alone, and its members have earned nearly $2 million in cash back rewards to date. The company has raised a total of $14.5 million in VC funding.
We spoke with MOGL founder Jon Carder about the partnership, and he said a union between the two California-based companies just made sense. “Virgin is a great brand and a great way to kick off our partnerships, but we’ll have many more of these partnerships with brands in the future,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
Virgin Elevate members are asked to sign up here to earn 10 percent cash back on every bill from one of MOGL’s partner restaurants, which will then be converted to Elevate points (at a rate of 30 points per $1).
Elevate points are redeemable for miles, upgrades, food, and any other services Virgin offers.
From now until the end of February, Virgin and MOGL are offering double the Elevate points per $1 spent to kickstart the venture.
When asked if MOGL would start moving toward a more partnership-focused private label model, Carder responded with a resounding no. “We’ll always be a destination site and a brand,” he said. “These partnerships help us acquire more users, but we’ll never go to the point where we’re only working with private labels. We’re trying to build the MOGL brand.”
He also explained that while Virgin will let MOGL users convert their rewards to Elevate points, cash back will always remain an option for MOGL users, who are some of the first to ever enjoy cold hard cash as opposed to discounts from a rewards platform.
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