Airline loyalty miles are losing their power, prompting travellers to chase perks over points. For South African leisure and corporate travellers, loyalty programmes still hold appeal, but more emphasis is now placed on climbing the tiers to access premium benefits rather than accumulating miles.
Frequent flyers: Tiers over miles
David van den Heever-Liebenberg, Director and Travel Specialist at Marmalade Toast, notes a resurgence of frequent travellers choosing higher fare tickets with airlines where they hold loyalty memberships, rather than opting for cheaper flights that would dilute their earned points across several carriers.
He explains that loyalty members are focusing more on increasing their loyalty status to higher tiers to gain benefits such as priority check in, excess baggage, and free pre-seating. He says it is part of a bigger trend where, due to the devaluation of points, the tier of loyalty status is more important than the points themselves.
“Where we see a devaluation in points is in the cost of the tickets when using the points to pay. Airline tickets have become very expensive ‘points-wise’, and this is where we see passengers using the loyalty programmes for the benefits rather than the points.”
He suggests airlines should boost mileage sale deals for clients and open more inventory of reward seats; for example, SAA’s Journey-Blitz award specials, where tickets were attainable at a fraction of the standard mileage requirement. “Some airlines offer very few seats for mileage purchase and it is often difficult to get seats even very far in advance because as soon as flight inventories are open, the seats get taken almost immediately.”
Corporates miss benefits
Corporate travellers are also experiencing the effects of airline mile devaluation.
Maureen Masuku, Rand Merchant Bank's head of Travel & Marketing Sourcing and GBTA SA Board Chairperson, says: “Hotel loyalty memberships are more valuable, especially domestically, as you can turn the points into rands and have free stays and it is easy to reach the required value to book. However, airline loyalty programmes are more challenging. Post-COVID, South Africa has a limited number of airlines, and fewer offering loyalty programmes.”
Masuku also notes that loyalty contracts between corporates and suppliers are becoming more restrictive.
“Suppliers should reconsider the loyalty programmes for businesses and offer travellers from those companies well-deserved benefits, such as upgrades based on availability. There are various suppliers that are unable to offer upfront discounts (corporate negotiated rates) and still don’t offer loyalty programme benefits, which I don’t think is a fair practice.
“While we understand that these suppliers also need to generate profit and revenue, it is important to offer beneficial partnerships and acknowledgement to clients who are loyal to your business,” she concludes.
