Yes, that’s what I said – loyalty isn’t dead, but it is evolving. If I could fit enough characters in the title I would have added you aren’t guaranteed to love it. A couple of posts between fellow BoardingArea bloggers caught my eye at the Sky Club tonight. Stories about crying grandmothers do that. Specifically, I was reading posts and comments from The Gate and Renéspoints.
You can read those posts for the complete 411, but the gist is this. René “clear as day” thinks Delta Comfort+ isn’t worth it at any price, and Brian from The Gate agrees that he wouldn’t buy it either. Brian goes one step further to note:
“….Comfort + is great as a free benefit to Medallion elite status level members of the SkyMiles frequent flier loyalty program; but I would not pay a SkyMile or a penny extra for it.
The problem is that there are people who would — and apparently do — pay for it. You know that the point these days is for Delta Air Lines to make as much money as possible while offering as little as possible in terms of amenities and benefits. As long as passengers still think that their front-line employees are better than any other domestic airline, they will keep choosing Delta Air Lines as their preferred airline — no matter what else is done to decimate the perceived “loyalty” to the airline…
…but the Delta Air Lines of today is not the Delta Air Lines of old years ago where blind loyalty was appreciated — let alone rewarded. It is not that Southern airline in which customers are part of the family. You will not see a chief executive officer take in a stranded passenger into his home like C.E. Woolman had purportedly done.
Nope. Today, the airlines are about the almighty dollar; and Delta Air Lines is gambling on you paying extra for their product and service — and apparently it is working; because if no one did pay extra, Delta Air Lines would no longer charge extra.
It is as simple as that.”
And René responded: “…..Gosh when I re-read your comment I want to cry!”
Not much I can add to that, but I’ll try anyway. Stop being emotional about loyalty. The airlines have turned transportation into nothing more than a business transaction, and I’m OK with that. As Brian noted, if no one was willing to pay for Comfort+ (or reasonable first class fares for that matter), Delta (and every other airline) would stop offering to sell it.
If you live somewhere that a particular airline offers the most nonstop flights and reasonable fares, you should be “loyal” to that airline. IROPS support, access to decent phone agents, priority boarding, and the occasional upgrade do matter. But the world has changed. If you aren’t that frequent of a flyer, you can buy those things now when you really need them. Perhaps that’s temporary, perhaps it isn’t. But crying isn’t going to fix it. Just make the best of it, and make rational economic decisions. Those kinds of decisions may be a change for many of us. And those kinds of decisions may include a different travel provider.
-MJ, March 10, 2016
I think what you and Cohen are saying is really “stop being loyal” more so than “stop being emotional about loyalty.” I don’t know how you can be loyal to anything (school, pet, spouse, country, etc.) without being emotional about it. Loyalty breeds emotion. The airlines cultivate emotion with their proclamations about core values of honesty, integrity and respect, “we’ve got your back,” and others. Those who are emotionless about ff programs think that when customers hear those statements we should understand that the airline is actually saying “we’ve got you back pocket” instead and reject the good feelings about… Read more »
John, Always happy to hear from you. This comment should be it’s own blog post, seriously. One little thing – I want to be clear the I’ve never thought or suggested that flyer’s should not respond or do anything to changes in frequent flyer programs. In fact, I think one should respond. I did so by not being “loyal” to one airline. It cost me some things – I miss the phone support and service charge waived award redeposits of higher tier Medallion status, but I’ve benefited by paying less for travel overall. I’m fortunate in the respect of having… Read more »
Amen. Very well said. Total Free Agent on Hotels. Mostly with Delta for flying but for IROPS and a steady schedule. Going on over 500 segments without being stranded overnight. Knock on wood.