Cash Is King

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on all

Cash Is King– July 2024

I and many others have written about the subject of broken travel loyalty programs for years now. My upcoming trip to Norway turns out to be the epitome of the change. By booking an airline other than where I am a lifetime gold / million miler, I gave up all the remaining perks the airline still gives me, but cash simply replaced them.

I’m far from the only person explaining that the pot of gold my airline promised me would be the at the end of a million miles turned out to be a decades long lie. The upgrades and other promised rewards never materialized. I despise them every time I fly. So, when the airfare I need to purchase jumps from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, there are any number of airlines that are willing to give me all the missing perks along with the price of a ticket.

This has been one of the most misunderstood aspects of loyalty in US airline boardrooms for a while now. Somehow these firms don’t realize that how they treat me on the least expensive fares affects my decisions of how I purchase on my most expensive ones. When a client needs me and says they’re reimbursing the airfare whatever it is, do I pick a less convenient routing with a connection in order to enjoy my free checked bags, early boarding, preferred seats, etc., or instead, do I remember my spot in the bottom thirty of the upgrade list for the last dozen trips and the revoked promises of rewards for a million miler? Trust me, it’s the latter. I can fly a non-stop flight on another airline for a price equivalent to the one where I have lifetime status, and suddenly the baggage, the priority boarding and the preferred seating are part of the ticket. Sure, I don’t get any useable reward miles, but they’re mostly a meaningless trickle now anyway.

What we have in our nation’s largest businesses right now (not just airlines) is a new pandemic. It is the pandemic of short-sightedness and greed. All they want to know is how to scratch-out the most cash today, regardless of what promises they may be breaking or what the long-term effect of such decisions are. A record number of CEOs and other executives are retiring now rather than be in place to have to deal with the fallout that surely will come.

Close your eyes and think about your primary airline for a minute. Were they happy thoughts or miserable thoughts? That proves my point. If you’re still giving them your loyalty for any reason you’re making a mistake.

Also, p

With the insane global meltdown airlines and other firms experienced last week, Southwest kept flying. This story explains the reason for that – they are still using the 1992 version of Windows (3.1) I’m struggling to figure out if relying on a thirty-two year old operating system is funny or sad…

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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