Analysis
Frequent flyer loyalty schemes are losing their value, but whose points are they anyway, asks David Churchill – the company’s or the traveller’s?
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WHEN GEORGE CLOONEY PLAYED the role, at the turn of the decade, of a jet-setting corporate traveller in search of the ultimate goal of 10 million reward miles, it seemed to exemplify everything the frequent- flyer razzmatazz of the past 30-odd years had been aspiring to. The urbane Clooney represented the way airlines – and hotels – have for decades sought to lure travellers with ‘free’ flights and other status rewards. Who wouldn’t want to be like Clooney in the film Up in the Air, always flying at the front of the plane and even being able to donate 500,000 reward points to his impoverished sister on her wedding?
However, back in the competitive airline world of 2014, the reality isn’t quite so breezily glamorous – it is, in fact, a bit more down to earth. From February, two of the world’s biggest airlines – Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – are not only hiking the costs of obtaining reward flights but also focusing on transatlantic premium cabin passengers, most likely to be flying on business. Frequent flyers have been quick to note that, although the points needed for basic reward flights in economy from the US to Europe on United, for example, are mainly unchanged, at
in the air
least an additional 15,000 points (to 115,000) are required for round-trip business flights and 25,000 more for first class (to 160,000). At the same time, the number of mileage points needed for flights on Delta and United’s alliance partners (Skyteam and Star Alliance respectively) is also being raised – by about 40 per cent for United’s business class flights from the US to Europe and up to 63 per cent in first class cabins – while rewards are effectively being reduced. To be fair, there seems some justification in the airlines’ claims that the changes are partly catching up with rising costs (all those flat-
Photo: cDreamworks / Everett / REX JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
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