Airlines used to treat award travel customers better than customers on paid tickets. After all, passengers traveling on points had shown a lot of loyalty to get there. It was their reward, and the trip was something to be celebrated!
That’s not really true anymore, but until now only Delta has been willing to say so explicitly. When redeeming Delta SkyMiles the cheapest award tickets get the worst treatment in the cabin. They book into basic economy. That means you don’t even get an advance seat assignment.
In the past, other airlines looked at Delta executives and assumed they were smarter and knew what they were doing. Nobody in the industry got fired for copying Delta. So I always worried that other airlines would follow their lead just because following Delta was largely in vogue. So far, with punishing an airline’s frequent flyers for using their points, that hasn’t happened.
Until now. JetBlue has started offering basic economy redemptions, as flagged by Dan’s Deals.
- It’s not as bad at JetBlue as it would be elsewhere because their redemption program is low value, with award prices roughly fixed to the cost of a ticket. They’re just giving the option to spend fewer points for the less expensive fare category.
- The bigger worry is that now that a second airline has done it, it becomes something closer to a ‘standard’ for the herd mentality in the industry to copy. There are very few true loyalty marketing professionals in loyalty anymore and far more spreadsheet analysts.
Basic economy here means a fee to cancel and redeposit your points, no free seat selection, and board last (so you will probably be forced to gate check your bags). How’s that for rewarding loyalty? It appears that even JetBlue elites do not receive free seat selection when booking basic economy on points, but they will receive their standard boarding and checked bag benefits.
If we did see United or American copy, it wouldn’t actually mean offering cheaper awards. It would mean booking the cheapest awards into basic economy, and making customers spend extra miles to avoid those restrictions. It would be viewed internally as a merchandising opportunity while being framed as giving customers choice.
Gary this like Delta is aimed at the folks that took 5 years to get 25k and then complain loudly that their miles can’t be used. If a Mosaic 4 did this they would be insane.
Well, if they also lower the points required for an award booking, then that’s fine; but if they just inflate everything, then that’s not so cool. Would having their $99 fee card or Mosaic supersede any of the Basic restrictions, or are all treated the same, regardless of status/card membership?
Since it’s a jetBlue post, gotta throw in some shade on their ridiculous new $499 premium card that offers basically nothing at all. Actually open lounges (JFK T5) before you toss this at us!
Mint is still great though, especially the new a321neos on the transatlantic routes and rows 2 and 4 in the older transcontinental/Caribbean routes. Best food on any US carrier, too.
This is so shockingly naive – Gary, I know you don’t really believe it – but some really naive people do.
Airlines are for-profit and seek to deliver returns to shareholders. Doing so involves spreadsheet analyses (only as the final step – prep work for the Big Data should be done on proper computing infra and reproducible R, Python or similar code). If selling Basic Economy awards is a way to deliver returns to shareholders, then that is what airlines ought to be doing.
“Loyalty marketing” has proven to deliver poor returns especially in our transactional capitalist milieu whereby we as consumers are seeking the highest value for ourselves. Hey, did you know those aforementioned shareholders are, at the end of the day, you and me?
Airlines should really get rid of points entirely. Airline “loyalty programs” beginning with AAdvantage were conceived of in a time when people weren’t flying and needed an incentive to fly. Times have changed, to say the least, and now we need no incentive to fly.
Does DL exempt elites or a certain level of elites to the restrictions? I’d hate to think that when a high spend Diamond Medallions redeem miles for a good award they’re treated like chicken coop on the way to being slaughtered class.
@Dick — Short-sighted as usual.
I suppose you support my theory that ‘shareholders,’ not passengers or hotel guests, are the actual customers of these mega-corporations these days–Now, I don’t prefer that reality, as a frequent flier and hotel guest, but at least I’m not blind to this corruption (of expectations).
When we feel mistreated, or ‘screwed over,’ by these loyalty programs, as individuals we really have little recourse (what are you gonna ‘sue’ them for ‘subverting expectations?’), other than to choose not bring that particular entity any future business, which in the aggregate may hurt the underlying business and shareholders, but that method is so attenuated in terms of affecting any real change for us, namely because the biggest players have achieved degrees of regulatory capture and monopolization in certain markets–simply put, they’ve become ‘too big to care.’
Meanwhile, our government, which is supposed to prevent this and actually protect consumers through anti-trust enforcement, is doing the opposite–de-regulating, abolishing, and privatizing. You’d have to be ignorant or a corporate shill to not recognize what’s coming, and we’re all about to become poorer so that the richest get richer (I’m upset with oligarchs and billionaires, not mere multi-millionaires, so calm down).
All said, jetBlue is not the biggest player in airlines; I’d direct more ire towards Marriott within the travel industry; and other industries entirely, like health insurance, deserve most of the hate.
And, @Dick, I presume you’re same fella with the relationship issues (I recall ‘Hinge’ was mentioned) from the other recent post at VFTW (on the ‘car rides’ by airlines). Again, wishing you the best with all that. Feel better, my dude. Maybe focus a little less on raw profits, and a little more on treatin’ people better. Or not, you do you.
@Dick — Your idea of ‘airlines getting out of the point entirely’ is a horrible business idea for them. Man, you must be trolling. The airlines have made incredible profits off those programs, so much so that the money raised there helps keep them afloat during the down cycles. Wow, you may just be be contrarian. Again, not sure which ‘Dick’ you are, but yikes. Beware of Dicks!
LOL – the other post on the board is another blogger saying how good a development this is and frankly he has the better argument. Since the value of a point is pretty much consistent and just tied to price of a ticket – allowing redemptions for your choice of ticket is pretty much a positive unless the completely reconfigure how they price awards.
@David — You said it right there: “unless the completely reconfigure how they price awards”–Which they will probably do, so no, not necessarily a ‘good’ development, or a ‘better argument,’ because we don’t know yet–but we kind do ‘know’ don’t we? Sure, maybe B6 will be one of the few ‘honorable’ companies to not devalue its program. *holding my breath*
lol gary this is poor and lazy research on your part. B6 didnt allow for basic fares on points until now…blue fares are always tied to general economy. Clickbait/slanderous headline and just a shot to your credibility
@Tom – did you read what I wrote? JetBlue has a revenue-based redemption model, so they’re “giving the option to spend fewer points for the less expensive fare category” but this is a big deal because to get the cheapest redemptions you get the worst experience, and that’s a shift from how award tickets have been thought of – and it adds a second airline doing this after Delta.
“The bigger worry is that now that a second airline has done it, it becomes something closer to a ‘standard’ for the herd mentality in the industry to copy. There are very few true loyalty marketing professionals in loyalty anymore and far more spreadsheet analysts.”
“If we did see United or American copy, it wouldn’t actually mean offering cheaper awards. It would mean booking the cheapest awards into basic economy, and making customers spend extra miles to avoid those restrictions.”
This is very very shabby on the part of JetBlue.
Ghetto jetBlue strikes again!
I know Gary likes to spin this as a negative, but the difference in Basic Blue and Blue fares, and therefore the difference between the cost of Basic Blue and Blue redemptions, can be meaningful. If you are trying to fly a bunch of people from JFK to FLL or something, you may be able to squeeze an extra ticket out of your points. I was always confused when looking at JetBlue fairs and noticing that Basic Blue were not available for redemptions (even though I have never bought any kind of basic economy fare). I think it is unrealistic to expect JetBlue to allow for Basic Blue redemptions while giving Blue benefits given their fare structure.
So I dissent – I view this as a positive more than a negative. A lot of customers like basic economy, most of those customers have no status, and basic economy redemptions allow them to stretch their miles more.
There is *nothing* “disloyal” about this change. It favors the customer willing to accept these restrictions. It does not increase the prices for customers who prefer the current flexibility.
I will have to see how this works. Maybe basic on points and then select a seat for extra cash. I have flown basic a number of times, adding on a checked bag and a selected seat each way, both for extra cash. At the time that was the most economical way of flying. Basic does not come with a carry-on allowance, just a personal item. That ends up reducing the number of bags overhead which means that checking carry-on bags near the end of boarding is not always necessary.
Gary, Id agree with you if Basic was the only way a person could get an award tkt, sort of like a restaurant where you can choose ala carte or a Dinner where you get everything. That said I jumped at a Basic redemption since for an hour+ flight I dont care if Im in a middle seat, since say a JFK-LAX I wouldnt want a middle seat so I would pay up and get a Blue Award
I think B6 was right in restricting what Elites could get if they chose Basic, if you want the works then pay up and it doesnt seem like thus far they uped the amount you have to pay for Blue or more
Interesting, I hadn’t thought about this from a loyalty perspective. As pointed out there are certain types of travellers with whom this would really benefit. Me for example: I never fly Jetblue and have staggering 800 points and would otherwise be unable to use them, at least in the example picture shown. If it’s a short flight and I bring just bring my usual backpack I think that’s a big win. But to the point of rewarding loyalty, why reward me who never flies.
On a macro level, if this eventually leads to a devolution of points for economy and above under the guise of the illusion of choice that’s pretty lame.
One thing I definitely disagree with is charging a fee if you cancel a basic economy fee you booked with points. As a reward for loyalty and having earned those points, that should be waived.