DELTA has revolutionised
the concept of frequent yer
programmes by announcing that,
from January 2015, travellers will
earn frequent yer points based on
the amount of money they spend
with the airline rather than the
number of miles they have travelled.
This move is to recognise and
reward higher paying customers.
Bargain hunters ying on cheap
ights will earn fewer points.
The traveller’s status on the airline
will also play a role in the accrual
of points. Fliers with no status will
earn ve miles per dollar spent
while Delta’s top-tier travellers –
those who travel 125 000 miles per
year – will earn 11 miles per
dollar spent. For ights
purchased in a currency
other than US dollars, the
currency will be converted
to USD on the Iata ve-day
currency exchange rate
at the time of ticketing.
Then the same ‘mileage
earn rates’ per USD will be
applied.
Jeff Robertson, Delta’s
vp of SkyMiles, says the
new model for earning
miles will better recognise
frequent business
travellers as well as those
less frequent leisure
customers who purchase
premium fares. He adds
that the move is consistent
with a trend in the travel
industry of rewarding
customer behaviour based
on price. “The travel
industry, including nearly
all hotel and credit card
programmes, has already
moved to a spend-based
model. Delta will become
the rst US global carrier
to make this transition to
better reward our most
loyal customers.”
Travel industry players in
South Africa say Delta’s
move is a predictable step
in the ongoing evolution
that sees airlines shifting
their focus to highspending
customers. They
predict airlines around the
world will be watching the
Delta initiative closely and,
if it appears to produce
the desired result, they will
follow suit.
Jim Weighell, corporate
manager of Sure Travel,
says: “Airlines have to
move away from outdated
marketing strategies that
focus on ‘bums in seats’
as the baseline objective.
They have demonstrated
over the last ve years that
they are aiming to extract
all possible revenue from
unbundled product offering,
cabin differentiation and
customer proling. This
move to make the loyalty
programme more rewarding
for high-revenue or highyield
customers seems to
be a predictable step in
this ongoing evolution.”
For companies, a
downside of the new loyalty
programme could be that
business travellers who
are able to use the miles
accumulated on business
trips for personal use may
be incentivised to ‘buy
up’. However, Jim adds: “I
doubt that we would see a
signicant shift in buying
trends in companies where
travel policy is clearly
dened and enforced.”
With the 2015 SkyMiles
programme, partnermarketed
ights that are
ticketed by Delta will earn
miles toward award travel
based on ticket price
instead of distance own.
So when you pay a higher
price, you will be rewarded
with more miles — up to
75 000 per ticket. Partnermarketed
ights that are
not ticketed by Delta will
continue to earn miles
based on a percentage
of distance own as
determined by the fare
class paid.
