Ties That Bind

The shrinking advantages of airline loyalty programs

- Lark Gould

TRAVEL-BRANDED LOYALTY rewards are all about the perks of free trips and upgrades. Airlines and hotels offer these rewards to anyone who books a flight or stays in a hotel, and the desire to earn them grows. However, frequent-flyer programs are the secret cash cow of the airline industry. One airline noted as having a market cap of $6 billion owned and operated a loyalty program that was valued at $25.5 billion at the time, according to a prominent industry watchdog.

Airlines have found that selling miles to attract flyers, keeping them in the family, and selling more miles and trips to them over time has been a successful ploy for more than four decades. However, points are not worth what they once were as time passes and may not get the user very far. Airlines continue to go through resets, making it harder to use miles to upgrade or cruise, or have any hope of reaching coveted elite status.