Airline Loyalty Keeps Degrading: I’m a Free Agent and You Should Be Too
Photo Credit: A Delta Air Lines Boeing 777 lands at Shanghai's Pudong airport. Flickr / hans-johnson
Skift Take
When it comes to airline loyalty, if everyone is "elite" no one is. As Delta rebalances its loyalty program, customers need to remember it is a business in the service of shareholders. I'm surprised it has taken this long for programs to arrive at this revenue-driven conclusion.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.I typically refrain from commenting on ebbs and flows of loyalty and frequent flyer programs. Why? It's somewhat uninteresting. My perspective is there will be a never-ending shift towards optimization, goosing revenue, and a focus on quarterly results by travel companies.
Business travelers have lived under something of an illusion for a while, with free upgrades, generous lounge access, and other creature comforts to ease the rigors of the road. In exchange for accumulating "butt-in-seat" mileage, they've had a favorable arrangement.
Seeing the direction loyalty is heading, I make an effort to be a free agent: I fly various airlines around the world and select the best product, team, and ground experience based on my itinerary. I think this will be the future for others, as well.
A few months ago, as I boarded a
