This Could Be A Loyalty Program’s Undoing

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • This could be a loyalty program’s future undoing. This seems like an obvious point but loyalty programs don’t think about it enough. Credit card companies need to get a card in the hands of new customers as quickly as possible, so digital cards are really important – customers are excited about their new approval but excitement wanes and people get distracted by other things in life. (Initial spend bonuses help the card company here, to incentivize early and reputed use.) Ideally they’d have consumers transition their ‘set it and forget it’ purchase settings like Netflix and Uber immediately because that’s when a customer would be most willing to do it.

    Airline frequent flyer programs have the same challenge that speed to first engagement after joining is an indicator of lifetime engagement in the program. Some programs offer new member bonuses for joining and transacting with partners quickly. But the biggest programs usually don’t. They may be far too complacent, fat and happy with credit card cash and not doing enough to feed the program’s future success, one member at a time.

  • How do I not remember seeing this when it happened several years ago? Amazeballs.

  • Pay more money, get less service just after the annual card fee went up we learn that American Express is eliminating e-mail service from its concierge benefit on the Platinum card.

  • Frontier calls cops on passengers accused of trafficking her… sister because they’re an interracial family. Oops.

  • Air Canada Aeroplan has added Eurowings Discover as an airline partner. It’s owned by Lufthansa Group but isn’t part of Star Alliance. This is their ‘premium leisure’ brand with meals and lie flat business class.

  • Queensland, Australia is rolling out a new campaign to encourage tourism which of course you cannot do because borders are closed.

  • Or the “Allegiant MD80 Variant”

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. That Shakira video is cute! I cant figure out if the music was playing or added later but it’s great.

  3. I know if you have a fraud alert on your credit file, it is impossible to get thru to Chase Fraud Svcs for approval on a new card. They must literally have 2 ppl working that dpt for the whole company. I have waited 2-3 hrs (prerecorded message at front end of call says usually “over 50 min.”) & still not gotten thru. What a disaster. I will not apply for new cards with Chase until they can clean up their act. They do not proactively call like Citi etc to finish up the app.

  4. @Pam, BOA and Barclay call proactively too. I have a fraud alert and the one minute call took care of it in each case.

  5. I dropped the fraud alert and created a freeze instead. You can freeze and unfreeze online quickly and at no cost, but sometimes an unfreeze takes a few hours to actually happen.

  6. I applied for a Barclay card and after 3 weeks on 7/23 called to ask where it was. Was told that it was approved 7/9. I still do not have the card 7/27.
    When i added my sister to my Citi AA Executive card I had the card 2 DAYS later. . No wonder Barclay can not push for applications of the AA card.

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