David J. Danto
Some thoughts in my
own, personal opinion
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A New
Year Of Travel Loyalty
The end of
January heralds the start of a new year of travel loyalty programs (which typically
kick-in February 1st.) Every year at about this time frequent business
travelers receive their new card and documents and find out what privileges
their status level will bring. In the
past these have included such things as upgrade certificates, free drink
coupons, priority luggage tags, and details of such perks as early boarding,
priority lines, better access to rewards and more – all things to let the
frequent traveler know their patronage is appreciated and their loyalty is
appreciated and reciprocated.
When you look at it closely, loyalty is an interesting
concept. We generally take it for
granted that people should be nice to each other. That’s our human nature. But when a person, a company, heck even a pet
realizes that someone is going beyond the norm and dedicating efforts in
support of them, loyalty and its inherent reciprocation is usually the
result. We want to be extra nice to
people or organizations that are being extra nice to us. This manifested itself in the airline
industry as Frequent Flyer programs.
According to Wikipedia, “American
Airlines' AAdvantage program launched in 1981 as a
modification of a never-realized concept from 1979 that would have given
special fares to frequent customers. It
was quickly followed later that year by programs from United Airlines (Mileage
Plus) and Delta Air Lines (SkyMiles), and in 1982
from British Airways (Executive Club). Since then, frequent-flyer programs have
grown enormously. As of January 2005, a total of 14 trillion frequent-flyer
points had been accumulated by people worldwide, which corresponds to a total
value of 700 billion US dollars.“
When loyalty goes wrong however, it turns into
something ugly. The dedication of an
individual to an entity that is abusing him or her – in the hopes of someday
getting some promised reciprocation in return – well, that’s machoism that borders
on “battered-person-syndrome.” ‘Maybe if I do this next nice thing then
he/she/it will finally be nice to me instead of further beating me up.’ That’s the current state of airline loyalty
programs. They are a scheme to make
battered customers believe that if they buy enough products then the abuse will
stop. Reciprocation – in the form of
perks and benefits – is long gone. The commercial
airline industry now generally (and
some believe intentionally) makes the flying experience miserable for all
travelers, with the perks offered merely to remove some (but not all) of the misery. Why reciprocate loyalty with actual benefits (they
have surmised) when it’s far less expensive to take benefits away from all
travelers and then just give back a few and call them rewards.
That’s what my loyalty package looks
like this year with my local airline - where I am both a million-miler with
lifetime benefits and have given them
enough business in the last year to also be one step below their top tier of
their status.
· I am entitled to select seats that have the legroom
that all airline seats used to have. The
legroom has been removed for most customers, but not for loyal people like me.
· I am entitled to be considered for upgrades into the
first class section. When I get to the
airport I’ll be able to see my name on the upgrade list. I won’t get the upgrade, but passengers that
aren’t loyal don’t get to see their name on the list.
· I am entitled to board the aircraft earlier than
typical passengers. No, not first like their
elite and lifetime passengers used to be, but along with the group of people that
have their co-branded credit card, because they consider any idiot that opens a
credit card as deserving of special treatment as their loyal customers.
· I am entitled
to check a couple of bags for free. That
used to be standard for all passengers, but it was removed for most customers –
except for loyal people like me…oh, yeah, and this again is a perk of their co-branded
credit card, because they consider any idiot that opens a credit card as
deserving of special treatment as their loyal customers.
· My next to the top status of loyalty entitles me to
two “confirmable” upgrade certificates that somewhere along the line became as
worthless as the upgrade consideration above, because their confirmability is
now subject to far stricter revenue management policies that prevent their use
on any desirable coast-to-coast route.
· Oh, I almost forgot – I get a card. It’s about the size of a credit card and says
I’m important. If the card didn’t come
in the mail then I can go on-line or look at my smartphone and see a picture of
what the card would look like – so I know I’m important.
When one looks at the list above one can
clearly see that this situation is unsustainable. Lifelong frequent travelers are saying “screw-you airline/hotel/auto
loyalty program” we’re no longer going to give you unreturned loyalty. Travel
experts that used to advise filling out the form to join a frequent traveler
program because ‘you had nothing to lose’ are now saying it’s not worth the time. The dearth of actual benefits that are being
offered are actually working against the airlines and hotels offering them, as
frequent travelers have completed a total 180 and now will go out of their way
to avoid the company that
upset them, as opposed to going out of their way to stay loyal to the company offering
them extra benefits. Articles that used
to describe how to get the most out of travel often now devote their space to how little of the loyalty BS
is even believable.
Today, in this new world of alternative
facts, it’s hard to tell if travel company executives know they’re lying,
or if they actually believe their BS about loyalty. My prediction though, in either case, is that this
is the year these programs begin to go away.
They are surely hurting the travel companies more than they are helping
them, and the banks offering credit cards (and any other co-conspirators in the
schemes) will soon realize that.
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.