Here’s an easy question: What’s the difference between a restaurant’s “loyalty” program and any major airline’s “frequent flyer” program?
See? I told you it’s an easy one: Restaurants actually seem glad to see their frequent diners. They realize that loyalty programs (English translation: customer greed programs) bring back people who tend to frequent their place of business more often than they would otherwise.
Airlines? They sneer at “those people” who want to clutter up their planes by flying without paying more money for the privilege. So they paid originally to get those miles? So what? That’s history.
Who hasn’t had this experience? You pile up airline miles. You use a car rental company you don’t like, because that adds miles. You use a credit card that treats you like pond scum, because that adds miles.
Then you try to book a flight to Maui or Singapore or maybe that exotic port of call, Paducah. Lots of luck.
Airlines complain that about 8% of the people on board are using miles, not cash. That eats into revenue. They say it costs them billions of dollars, because those passengers otherwise would be paying for their seats.
Huh?
Hold it right there, American and Continental (worst offender) and Delta and Northwest and what’s left of US Airways and all your partner/affiliates. We did pay for our seats, and that’s how we compiled those miles. And the miles we bought or accumulated from credit cards and car rentals and whatever? You sold those miles, and that certainly contributed to your revenue stream.
Loyalty today not only isn’t a two-way street; it isn’t even a one-way street, because both sides of a loyalty program are in it for me, not because of the once-genuine nature of loyalty. That’s why a benighted traveler flies one of the traditional airlines instead of a bright upstart such as JetBlue. Airlines, if you damage the value of frequent flyer miles you damage your principal competitive edge with the low-cost carriers.
Delta’s mileage requirement for a coach ticket to Hawaii was 30,000 miles. Oops: Delta raised it to 35,000 miles. Business class to Central America used to be 50,000 miles. Now it’s 60,000. To southern countries in South America? Was 75,000 miles, now 90,000. You get the idea.
Why do I pick away at Continental, an airline I really do love to fly in its comfortable “Business/First”? Because, trapped down here in a Delta ghetto, the only way I could achieve “Elite” status with Continental was by switching from my expensive American Express Platinum Card to an outrageously expensive American Express Black Card. Huh? The connection is peculiar, but as frequent flyer programs go it’s no greater an artifice than any of us are used to.
It’s a defensive move, and every frequent flyer has the right — no, the obligation — to resent it. Continental Airlines makes it extremely difficult for peons like me to qualify for a mileage award trip. If you aren’t an Elite flyer you may as well stay home. We’re like dogs rifling through the garbage can behind a restaurant: In the old days we had to wait until three months or less, and by that time the only vacant seats seem to be in the toilets. Even that is gone. Get this example:
Continental used to require 80,000 miles for a round-trip business-first ticket between the United States and Europe. But now, specific awards are printed with instructions to click on the desired award — either Standard or Easy-Pass. The Standard category requires only one-half the miles of the Easy-Pass award. It used to be designed for those flyers who could and would plan ahead. Those were kinder, gentler times. Now, cunningly, Continental prints “not available” opposite every Standard award mileage requirement — and that includes trying 331 days ahead of travel date — supposedly the earliest they will accept a booking. And they now list their mileage requirements per one-way ticket, not round trip.
So the same travel award to Europe that used to require 80,000 miles for a round-trip ticket, business-first, now requires an unbelievable 200,000 miles — 100,000 each way. Some jump! Yeah, if you happen to be one of the favored Elite members you’re directed to your special online booking area, but even accessing this hallowed site is forbidden to proletarians. They can’t even pry open the garbage can.
Frequent flyers have an elite status, all right. See how selective the system is? Just quadruple the miles and get rid of the chaff.
Let’s not slight other airlines. Want to book your frequent flyer flight with Air Canada? Oops: There’s a $25 surcharge. And Delta not only keeps raising the ante; it flies that sardine-can Delta Express, which eliminates preferred boarding for Elite members. So it’s a crap game to find an overhead bin somebody else hasn’t already usurped.
A fellow named Matthew Bennett has established an online newsletter called “First Class Flyer,” solely to guide annoyed holders of frequent flyer miles through the maze. Kind of sad, isn’t it, that we need outside help to use the miles we’ve so tortuously accumulated?
One logical suggestion is to start a movement to travel to unwanted destinations. Once others get wind of this, they’ll want to go there, and seats will open up to the places we really do want to go.
I figure that’s as good a solution as we’re about to see. And if we keep at it, we should be able to use 500,000 miles and actually get a first-class seat to Paris or London by, say, the year 2054. So hang in there.
HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS is the principal of Lewis Enterprises in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He consults with and writes direct response copy for clients worldwide. Among his 27 books are “On the Art of Writing Copy” (third edition), “Marketing Mayhem” and “Effective E-mail Marketing.”
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