Author Archive

18 October 2018

The other day, I was confronted with the typical question of an investigative journalist. “What is new in the travel loyalty market?” But does that question make sense at all in the context of loyalty programs? Or should it make sense?

06 August 2018

We all know the theories of lifetime values of clients. While loyalty programs are supposed to translate these theories into concrete CRM measures, they often assume a different, less visible function though – working fundamentally against the theories.

18 June 2018

Loyalty programs are an equation of accrual and redemption. With the redemption side becoming more and more opaque, many members struggle to resolve that equation though – with a negative impact on their loyalty.

16 May 2018

Although some airlines might think about a children-adapted version of their loyalty programs, it seems that the industry has lost the ability to cultivate truly a culture geared towards the airline industry from the early age. A personal experience.

05 April 2018

Marketing agencies like to suggest the importance of branding issues. At least in the context of loyalty programs, this is certainly exaggerated – but loyalty managers need nevertheless to understand how to achieve a successful branding.

13 March 2018

On 01 June, Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program will change, quite radically, the redemption logic. It will introduce a city-pair specific pricing, coupled with a dynamic pricing. There is some logic to the system, but things won’t get simpler for customers.

21 February 2018

There is no doubt that data plays an increasingly big role in loyalty management. But can it really be reduced to that question in the travel industry? Or why we have decided to separate from FlightGlobal for running the annual Loyalty conference.

15 February 2018

Qatar Airways cut back on the benefits you get on upgrade tickets last week, raising the question why. It comes down to the basic point that if you decide to promise something to your customers, you should deliver it, too!

09 January 2018

Hilton has announced drastic changes to its Hilton Honors program. Frequent travellers will definitely get more out of the program, but the underlying message might be that Hilton has lost the distribution fight against OTAs.

29 November 2017

While Aeroplan is still bullish about its future in public, its reality is likely to be much closer to the situation of Air Berlin’s topbonus program. That’s why the folks in Montreal are well advised to watch closely what is happening in Berlin these weeks.