Thursday, January 4, 2024

The New Frontier For Loyalty: Making Money

The future of flying is making money
The New Frontier For Loyalty: Making Money Large firms often use the latest buzzwords to make it sound like they know something about loyalty that you don’t. As a loyalty manager, the reality is that you most likely know more about loyalty, are more in tune with your member base, and have your pulse on what’s happening much more than anyone...

Status Match Would Be The Cover Photo of An Airlines Dating Profile

british airways
Lessons from online dating help show why a status match programme is the best way for airlines to acquire high-value passengers, fast. Consider online dating, and you might imagine gorgeous girls and hunky guys falling in love at first swipe. The reality is not so sweet, as robot profiles, matches that go nowhere and a sense that a better option...

Positioning Airline Loyalty Programs for New Value Creation

Let's Talk Loyalty
This is my favourite podcast so far in 2022. Let's Talk Loyalty host, Paula Thomas, has a powerful conversation with loyalty industry heavyweight Mark Ross-Smith. While Mark currently heads up StatusMatch.com, a global status management firm that works with some of the worlds largest airline brands, Mark remains one of the top industry thought-leaders and this podcast perfectly summarizes the...

Loyalty Programs Need More Control to Fuel Growth of Airline Industry Valuations

American Airlines
According to a recent SEC filing, American Airlines AAdvantage generated $1B cash in Q2 2022, representing a 73% gross margin for the loyalty business. American Airlines AAdvantage program has been valued at almost $30B, while at the time of the valuation, the entire airline group was valued by the market at less than $15B. Gary Leff notes that "none of the...

Airline Loyalty Predictions for 2022

loyalty predictions 2022
Each year I review past loyalty predictions and make new predictions for the upcoming 12 months. The report card for my 2021 predictions is 4 out of 5 transpired throughout the 2021 year. The big one which didn't happen - yet - 'a loyalty program will buy/acquire an airline' - is coming. Perhaps the call was a bit early - but...

Will airlines & hotels ever end the unlimited free elite status extensions?

frequent flyer status extension
Over the past two years -  airlines, hotels and travel companies extended complimentary status for elites because, Covid. These elite status extensions were mainly justified under the premise of 'goodwill' - the idea that elites couldn't requalify for status based on the published program criteria through no fault of their own. Often due to their employer not allowing travel, Government-mandated quarantines,...

Leadership Interview – Building Data Science Teams

Minding the Machines
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jeremy Adamson, who is the author of the recently launched publication, titled Minding the Machines - Building and Leading Data Science and Analytics Teams . Jeremy has a strong background in building and leading big data and analytics, teams, and it's no surprise that in his latest book - there are knowledge-gems...

The Magic of Loyalty

the magic of loyalty
The magic of loyalty is something we've all experienced in our lifetimes, and yet, few of us can articulate that powerful feeling while linking it back in a business context. The magic of loyalty cannot be explained with numbers. Like falling in love - the magic of loyalty is a moment in time that you won't know that you have reached...

Airlines – Wakeup and Smell the Money

Airline Loyalty Business
Some of the brightest people in the travel sector have hung up their boots and are beginning new careers in other industries - and good for them. It can take real courage to shift industries. These same travel companies are lining up for Government handouts. Lufthansa EUR 9B  SAS SEK 12.5B Finnair EUR 600M US carriers  USD 25B+  Qatar...

5 Predictions for Airline Loyalty in 2021

airbus
Each year I publish in advance my thoughts and insights as to where the travel loyalty industry is heading. While 2020 was a tough one to predict, there were direct target hits, the most notable being #5 prediction for 2020 "Airlines That Neglect Loyalty Will Suffer". It's now evident that loyalty programs are worth more than the airline group as a...

Leadership Interview: Loyalty Platform Insights

When was the last time a loyalty platform vendor said their technology would generate more revenue for your organisation than it costs to buy their product? Don't laugh. That is the number one question loyalty programs should be asking as part of the RFP process for a new loyalty platform. After all, in a marketplace that is increasingly commoditized, with long...

Love is the answer for the travel industry

Flying Love Joy Freedom
Something is absent from airline marketing messages in 2020. Something that airlines have spent the better part of the last century branding customers with. That something is love. Let's rewind back to 2019. You're about to jump on a plane to visit friends in Las Vegas for the weekend. Even though you're crammed into that middle seat on a 30-year-old MD-80, there's excitement, anticipation,...

The 4 Keys to Running a Future Successful Airline

airline fly over city
The airline industry is on its knees and at the mercy of Governments, Shareholders and cashed-up billionaire investors who've always wanted to be millionaires. With limited signs of recovery, and an 18-month outlook that looks at best, dire - many airlines will simply run out of cash and round upon the heap with the likes of Pan AM, Viva Macau...

Leadership Interview: Can Airlines Have Too Many Elite Members?

Can airlines and hotel loyalty programs have too many elite members? What happens to the core business when programs are top-heavy on elites? Does the core business generate more revenue, or is there a drop-off in status attractiveness? These are some of the questions I asked two of smartest minds in the airline loyalty industry on the Loyalty Summit Webcast.  The full...

Airline Loyalty is a C-Level Role

Airline Boardroom
In 2020 -  United Airlines announced a US $5B loan secured by MileagePlus, proving once again that the Loyalty Program is more valuable than the Airline. Last month, American Airlines President Robert Isom shared on a Wolfe Research call that the AAdvantage Loyalty Program is valued at US $18B - $31B. The Delta Air Lines Skymiles loyalty program is valued at...

Leadership Interview: Qatar Airways & Mastercard on Monetizing Data

Qatar Airways
Data monetization -- the new loyalty buzzword?! Earlier this week I spoke with top industry experts on loyalty data monetization,  Christian Hylander from Mastercard and Dianne Robillos from Qatar Airways. Airlines and their Loyalty Programs are facing renewed pressure to be the heroes of the airline comeback story -- and rightly so -- airline elite members spend more, buy more frequently,...

Loyalty Status Matching – What’s the Future?

Status Match
According to research by Loyalty Data Co, up to 60% of all Status Match submissions are fraudulent. With no way to know how many times a cardholder has requested matches with competing Loyalty Programs, and no way to verify the cardholders existing status is real - why do Loyalty Programs continue beating down the same dead path of manual processing? A...

Leadership Interview: Frontier Airlines Insights

Frontier Airlines
"MASSIVELY INSIGHTFUL - Something all airlines can learn from".  That is how Aviation Festival Americas organisers described the recent "What's the Status of Status" Airline Loyalty Discussion Webinar. If you missed the live online event, you can watch the entire 60-minute session via the Aviation Festival Americas website. The key themes discussed on the 1st Aviation Festival Americas Loyalty Discussion were: ...

Leadership Interview: Reinventing Loyalty Programs

reinvent loyalty
Industry veterans, Dave Canty and Phil Gunter join the Loyalty Summit WebCast to discuss reinventing loyalty programs. In the Loyalty Leaders Insights discussion series, we seek out the smartest minds in loyalty and dig deep to uncover their thoughts on the most relevant topics that can assist loyalty program managers. Following the live WebCast, I sat down with the guys to...

The Travel Industry Will Soar One Day Again Soon

The New Normal in Aviation
What is the new normal for the aviation industry? Are we destined for an eternity of wearing masks, social distancing, quarantine periods, Government restrictions? Is the aviation industry doomed? Will flight schedules be back to 1930s levels? How the heck does all of this happen? What can we do as a collective to overcome current events? The New Normal Throughout modern human history, we...

Leadership Interview: Balancing Member Value vs Program Profits

Balancing Loyalty Engagement
The Loyalty Summit continues to host regular weekly Loyalty Webinars with special industry expert guest speakers. In the Loyalty Leaders Insights discussion, we went all-out and hit our panellists with tough questions on Balancing Member Value vs Program Profits, to deep-dive into serious questions that the loyalty industry is addressing. While in the current environment, much of the world is on...

Leadership Interview: Managing Liability, Engagement & Redemptions

Loyalty Financial Managemnet
Some of the hot topics in the loyalty industry right now are Managing Liability, Member Redemptions & Member Engagement. How important is it for Loyalty Programs to strike the right balance between financial and non-financial objectives, and is there a greater purpose which can be served at this time? On this weeks Loyalty Leaders Insights Webinar, the panel of industry veterans...

Leadership Interview: Time For A Loyalty Reboot

The Aviation Festival Asia is hosting a series of leadership interviews with experts in their respective fields to discuss key airline challenges, insights and themes to aid the industry in a healthy recovery. Joining the Aviation Festival Asia Loyalty webinar are two of Asia's top airline loyalty experts, Nik Laming and Mark Ross-Smith. The key themes discussed on the 1st Aviation...

Leadership Interview: The Importance of Loyalty in a Time of Crisis

The Loyalty Summit hosted the first in a series of online webinar events, with the recent event titled The Importance of Loyalty in a Time of Crisis. The turn-out for the launch event was beyond our expectations, and the 60-minute dual-panellist interview format was a great success. The core theme for the webinar discussed aspects of airline and hotel loyalty program...

Loyalty Program Liability Management in the Age of COVID-19

liability management
A famous statistician once said, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." This could not be truer for loyalty program models in our current COVID-19 environment. These are unprecedented times and any model built on historical data is going to have a tough time predicting how things are going to emerge in the future. The models underlying loyalty program liabilities...
134FansLike
107FollowersFollow
1,200SubscribersSubscribe
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({ google_ad_client: "ca-pub-5929318086689691", enable_page_level_ads: true });