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 the company that these statements are designed to engender.
Another reason for being emotional about loyalty or ff programs is the feeling of being cheated or ripped off. That seems to be only a natural emotion when a company makes promises about future benefits that will accrue if someone provides consideration (handing over money to purchase a ticket) today. When those benefits disappear after I provide the money that the company said entitled me to them, that evokes emotion. That is fundamentally unfair no matter what the ff terms and conditions say. When people believe they are being treated unfairly, there is going to be emotion about it. You can bet people will be emotional if their social security benefits disappear.
The airline industry seems to be unusual in that the best customers, business travelers who buy high-priced tickets, don’t spend their own money. Any ff benefits these people get are just gravy. They didn’t give up any of their own money for them. For these people, I think it is easier to be without emotion. They really don’t have much skin in the game like those of us who shell out our own hard-earned dough.
The biggest problem that I have with the position that people should not react emotionally or react at all to the changes in the airline industry and ff programs is that it just sounds like a victim mentality. We can’t do anything about it, so just accept it. Like one of your readers who took exception to my taking exception to huge bonuses that some airline executives made. His position was: the board approved it, so the amounts must be justified and not subject to any criticism.
Unfortunately, many of the problems that plague or nation have arisen because too many of us have not been emotional enough and just accept things as inevitable or unchangeable. Campaign finance that corrupts our government and caters to special interests, the racket on Wall Street that almost destroyed our economy and will almost certainly do so again in time, businesses that solicit tax breaks and other perks from government at the expense of taxpayers and then outsource jobs to other countries, just to name a few. Some have no problem with these things and of course, they will be unemotional about them. Those who do object will certainly not affect them if they act dispassionately. I don’t view these items as political but just what is fair and unfair.
I am unapologetic about the fact that I am in some ways emotional about the race to the bottom in ff programs. I’m not going around tearing my hair out, but there is emotion there. If that offends some, so be it. But that is the way I feel.
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 access to more than one or two airlines as long as I’m willing to change planes vs fly nonstop sometimes for significant $$ savings. I know not everyone can say that.
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.