Blue Chip membership is currently at 140,000, with a distribution of 84.5% USA, 14% Canada, 1.5% International. We are seeing new enrollments between 900 and 1000 per week, and expect that to increase as we get closer to summer. 74% of all Blue Chip applications are received via thrifty.com, with the remaining 26% coming via fax and postal mail.
21% of all members list a corporate discount number on their profile, and 66% list a frequent flyer or GoldPoints number.
There were 45,859 Blue Chip Reservations during the first quarter, 40% of these included a CD number. 39% of all Blue Chip reservations came through the 800#, 31% through GDS and 30% through the Internet. Reservations for 1st Quarter 2002 are tracking just slightly above 1st Quarter 2001. 32,040 of these bookings resulted in Blue Chip rentals, generating nearly $3.5 million in T&M for the 1st Quarter compared to $2.85 million in 2001.
We have seen some increase in the average length of rental since January, with March topping out with an average LOR of 4 days. There has also been an increase in average rate to $33.50 per day for Blue Chip rentals.
In April we mailed out our first Auto-Enrollment solicitation of 2002. Over 8,000 letters were sent to US and Canadian customers that had rented 2-3 or more times since January . To date, we have had over 800 customers accept this offer and activate their membership. This has been one of our best responses and we hope is reflective of the overall trends of improvement in our industry.
We are currently working with Thrifty New Zealand to convert their current member program to Blue Chip. They are in the process of this implementation, including the issue of member cards. They hope to roll-out Blue Chip by mid-June this year and anticipate ending the year with just under 1,000 members and doubling that number in 2003.