David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

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

When Marketing Reminds Me Why I Left August 2026

Companies spend enormous amounts of money trying to keep their brands in front of customers. They send emails, postcards, catalogs, app notifications, loyalty offers, limited-time promotions, and increasingly desperate reminders that some supposedly irresistible opportunity is about to disappear.

The theory is simple: keep reminding customers how wonderful you are, and eventually they will purchase something.

There is just one flaw in that strategy. Sometimes the customer already knows exactly who you are.

When a company has disappointed me, broken a promise, refused to take responsibility, or hidden behind fine print, its marketing does not erase the experience. It refreshes my memory of it. Every new sales pitch becomes another reminder of why I no longer want to do business with that company.

United Airlines emails me at least four times a week. There is always another mileage promotion, credit card offer, vacation package, seat upgrade, shopping portal, dining program, or elaborate game that promises to reward me for behaving exactly as United would like me to behave.

The offers frequently amount to something like this: register for a promotion, purchase nine overpriced things within three months, carefully follow several pages of rules, and receive 4,000 bonus miles.

You want me to do what, for what?

Perhaps someone at United believes these promotions create loyalty. They may create activity among less savvy customers who enjoy chasing offers or who have not done the math. But they do not create loyalty in me. They remind me that airline miles have become a largely imaginary currency whose value, availability, and redemption rules can be changed whenever the airline chooses.

I spent many years going out of my way to remain loyal to their airline. I booked less convenient flights, accepted connections, paid higher fares, and arranged travel around loyalty programs because I believed the relationship had value. The airlines gradually taught me otherwise, and brought the final hammer down when the million-miler program was intentionally crippled.

Now, every email asking me to jump through another series of hoops for a handful of miles reinforces the lesson. I am never again going significantly out of my way to book an airline merely to earn points that the airline can devalue after I earn them.

United believes it is reminding me to purchase. It is actually reminding me not to care.

Holland America is providing a similar service.

I recently wrote about a terrible experience on a Holland America cruise involving an excursion that was nothing like it had been presented. Holland America marketed the excursion, sold it to us, charged us for it, and delivered us to the third-party operator. When we asked the cruise line to take some responsibility for what had happened, its response was essentially that the fine print protected it and the excursion had been operated by someone else.

That may be a defensible contractual position. It is an awful customer relationship position.

Since then, Holland America has continued sending me promotional emails every few days. Come aboard another cruise. Receive a complimentary room upgrade. Get free drinks. Get free dining. Get free casino money. Book quickly because this remarkable offer will supposedly disappear at midnight, presumably just before an almost identical offer appears the next morning.

I doubt anyone at Holland America understands what those emails accomplish.

They do not make me picture a beautiful ship sailing through Alaska. They make me remember the excursion. More importantly, they make me remember the company’s refusal to stand behind something it sold.

The original problem was disappointing. The response was the part that damaged the brand.

That distinction seems to be lost on many companies. Mistakes happen. Products fail. Flights are delayed. Hotel rooms are not ready. Excursions disappoint. Restaurants serve bad meals. Orders arrive damaged. Customers generally understand that no company can deliver perfection every time.

What customers remember is what happens next.

Does the company listen? Does it acknowledge the problem? Does it attempt to make the customer whole? Does someone use judgment and say, “Regardless of what the fine print allows us to do, this is not how we want a customer to feel about our company”?

Or does it send a form letter, cite a policy, blame a contractor, and then return the customer’s email address to the marketing department so the next promotion can arrive on schedule?

Companies appear willing to spend endlessly to acquire customers while treating the cost of preserving an existing relationship as an intolerable expense. They will pay for advertisements, marketing automation, loyalty platforms, customer data systems, direct mail, promotional discounts, social media campaigns, and armies of consultants studying brand perception.

But when an actual customer asks them to stand behind what they sold, suddenly every dollar matters. There is seemingly no communication nor linkage between these customer support interactions and the companies’ marketing activities.

That is backward.

A company should spend less time reminding me that it exists and more time giving me a reason to be glad that it does.

Marketing cannot repair a relationship that customer service has abandoned. A discount does not restore trust. Bonus points do not create loyalty. A “free” beverage package does not make a company accountable. Sending the same customer more messages does not make the previous experience disappear.

In fact, the more frequently the messages arrive, the more frequently the customer is invited to reconsider the brand.

Sometimes that works exactly as intended. Sometimes the customer remembers a pleasant experience and books again.

But sometimes the email arrives and the customer thinks, “Oh yes. Those are the people who burned me.”

That is the risk companies seem unwilling to recognize. Brand awareness is not automatically positive. Staying at the top of a customer’s inbox is not useful when the company also occupies the top of that customer’s list of organizations to avoid.

A brand is not what appears in the advertisement. It’s what the customer remembers when the advertisement arrives.

United Airlines can send me four emails tomorrow. Holland America can offer me another “free” cruise package. Other companies can continue stuffing my mailbox and filling my inbox with carefully targeted reminders.

But when the last meaningful interaction involved disappointment followed by indifference, the targeting works in reverse.

They are not reminding me to come back.

They are reminding me why I left and would never trust them again.

After decades of candid travel commentary – from loyalty program “magic tricks” to hotel check-in roulette – I’ve decided to turn some of that honesty into apparel. These aren’t novelty shirts; they’re the exact truths every road warrior wishes they could say out loud. Whether you’re quietly muttering “My loyalty points devalued while you read this shirt” or admitting “If delays build character then I’m the whole movie’s cast” you’ll find plenty of familiar sentiments… and more. Everything is produced by a reputable outfit, with black tees that work under a sport jacket plus hoodies and wicking travel gear for life on the road. The site also has my honest and snarky takes on technology trade shows. Take a look at Tinyurl.com/TechAndTravelWear. Even if you’re not buying they’re fun to read and commiserate – and if you do buy something, maybe I’ll break even. If you want a style you don’t see, just email me and I’ll add it.

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.

Copyright 2026 David Danto

++++++++

As always, feel free to write and comment, question or disagree. Hearing from the traveling community is always a highlight for me. Thanks!