The House of Lies Team is Pitching for Frequent Flyer Program Business: Another Flawed Study About Miles

Terry Maxon gives coverage to a study Deloitte has been pitching about frequent flyer programs, claiming customers aren’t especially loyal so the programs are failing and they need to take a more tailored approach.

Consulting firm Deloitte and Touche surveyed frequent travelers to gather their thoughts on their airline loyalty programs. It concluded that the programs aren’t working as intended – to nail frequent fliers to one airline and one loyalty program.

“Our findings strongly suggest that the state of airline loyalty is less than what carriers would like it to be. More sobering is our finding that airline loyalty programs are far from effective in engendering that loyalty,” Deloitte executive Adam Weissenberg wrote in the foreword to the study.

“We conclude that airlines should approach any effort to improve loyalty programs as a customized exercise. Or, put differently, when it comes to airline loyalty programs, one size most certainly does not fit all,” stated Weissenberg, vice chairman and leader of Deloitte’s U.S. travel, hospitality, and leisure area.

Since I viewed the piece as just a sales pitch for Deloitte’s consulting work (guess who can show loyalty programs how to take this tailored approach recommended in the study…?) I wasn’t going to pay it much mind.

But Terry has many influential readers, so I decided to walk through the piece and explain why it doesn’t come close to showing what it purports to.

The full .pdf is available for anyone wanting to read through it, but here’s what they describe as their key findings in their media pitch:

Key findings from the survey include:

  • 72 percent of high-frequency business travelers participate in at least two programs, while one-third participate in four or more.
  • Two-thirds of overall respondents are receptive to the idea of switching to a competing loyalty program — even after achieving the highest status level with their current program.
  • Travelers overall ranked loyalty programs as only the 19th most important attribute when selecting an airline (out of 26 different attributes)

None of this surprises me, and it doesn’t say that much about airline loyalty.

Being a Member of Multiple Programs Doesn’t Mean Loyalty is Failing

The first claim – that 72% of “high frequency” business travelers participate in at least two programs — actually I’m surprised it’s that low. And I’d bet it’s a higher percentage than for the occasional traveler.

There is no cost or barrier to sign up with most programs (there are exceptions, of course – Australian residents pay AU$82.50 to join Qantas Frequent Flyer unless they sign up during a promotion).

Eventually you wind up flying an airline other than your primary one, you might as well join their frequent flyer program rather than getting nothing. Eventually you wind up staying at a hotel chain that isn’t your preferred one — perhaps you’re attending a conference and staying at the conference hotel, or maybe you’re loyal to Hyatt (about 500 properties) or Starwood (about 1000 properties) and travel somewhere that doesn’t have a hotel in your preferred chain. I like the Hyatt hotel program, but the only hotel in Portland they have is by the airport so last month I stayed at the Embassy Suites (Hilton) and on my previous trip there stayed at The Nines (Starwood).

The point is that claiming most regular business travelers are a member of more than one program says nothing whatsoever about their loyalty, whether they choose one brand or another when they can, whether they’re willing to pay a little more or choose a hotel that’s a little less convenient to stick with their preferred brand.

And we know that the most frequent travelers, even though a small percentage of total customers, contribute an outsized portion of revenue.

Answering a Survey That You’d Consider Switching Programs Once You Hit Top Tier Elite Doesn’t Mean Loyalty is Failing

Being “receptive to the idea of switching to a competing loyalty program — even after achieving the highest status level” says little. Airlines offer status matching opportunities to make it easy for competitors’ customers to make the move, they even market the opportunities. Hotels have similar options. And yet enrollment is relatively modest. The ranks of each elite program tend to be quite stable year-over-year. There isn’t actually rampant switching.

That said, once you’ve achieved the highest status level is precisely when many top elites consider doing some business elsewhere. They’ve already achieved what they can with one program so they consider whether it makes sense to ALSO have status with a second. Airlines have learned to combat this, though, with programs that offer additional rewards (like more miles and more upgrades) for elites who keep flying even after hitting top status. See, for example, this year’s “Elite Rewards” from American.

Frequent travelers may be loyal to one primary airline but may still fly another on occasion — not as a sign of disloyalty but because the other airline offers unique routes or direct flights the traveler needs. So they spread out their spending a little, even if giving the bulk of it to one carrier (or one hotel chain).

Deloitte’s Survey Data Doesn’t Say What They Think it Says

While “[t]ravelers overall” may rank loyalty programs as 19th “most important attribute” when selecting an airline, travelers overall aren’t a good metric for assessing whether those programs are driving loyalty and therefore purchasing decisions.

Responding to a survey of what’s important, customers are going to say safety matters most. But consumers aren’t differentiating most airlines on the basis of safety. What’s important is actually the factors that distinguish an airline and drive a purchasing decision, not what consumers say is “most important.” That’s just silly survey design if you’re trying to get at understanding what drives business.

And “high-frequency business travelers” actually show up in the survey as ranking loyalty programs as the number two most important attribute when picking an airline (ahead of safety). These are the elites airlines covets, and the Deloitte study seems to suggest that loyalty programs are doing a good enough job to be highly important to them.

Loyalty Programs Aren’t a Monolithic Entity and the Report Doesn’t Really Distinguish Them

Loyalty programs aren’t all alike and some do better jobs than others.

Loyalty programs aren’t the same thing to all customers, etiher. They encompass both (a) better treatment like upgrades for elite frequent flyers, and (b) points to be redeemed for all members of the program.

Someone might say “I don’t do this for the frequent flyer miles, I do it for the upgrades” — does that count against frequent flyer programs?

The programs may not be a motivator (based on survey responses, not behavior) for general members who don’t have elite status. But the programs are still quite profitable working with those members. They sell miles to the banks and make billions off the general membership. It may not drive purchase decisions for each and every one of, say, United’s 80+ million members but the program has been the most profitable part of the airline overall over the course of the past decade.

This Study Doesn’t Mean Airlines Need to Hire Deloitte’s Consulting Teams

Deloitte says programs need to “make rewards more personally meaningful.” They suggest tactics which harken back to instant win scratch offs, and suggest data analytics to understand customers and give them what they’ll value.

But the data in the study doesn’t suggest that loyalty programs are not working. They might not be, but the proof isn’t in their surveys.

But even if they are failing, the data doesn’t suggest that “making rewards more personally meaningful” will materially move the needle on the metrics in the report. All they do is lay out a problem and say they can do better, they offer suggested paths but without evidence for the efficacy of those paths.

Ultimately this is a sales pitch for frequent flyer programs to bring in Deloitte’s House of Lies team. There are lots of things programs can do better — for their customers and for their bottom lines — but this document doesn’t suggest that Deloitte has special insight into what those things are.


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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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  1. For what it’s worth, their study a year or two ago on hotel loyalty may have led to the Marriott / United and Starwood / Delta alliances, which were net positives.

  2. Deloitte is merely SELLING. Woe be to those airline execs who listen, as the study is terribly shallow and lacking. Wonder what the results would be if they included ONLY their high-value, massive travel consultants!

  3. It’s hard to imagine that any astute loyalty program manager could derive something of value out of this study. It’s smooth writing, but seems a bit naive on how these programs are viewed by both airlines and customers.

    Too bad they didn’t show more of the focus group comments, which can sometimes be very insightful sparks for real changes in the surveyed subject.

    By the way, if any airline wants to customize its loyalty program to me personally, what I want more than anything else is more personal space. I’m thinking of one of those swivel captain’s chairs you see in full-sized van conversion jobs. You can give the hot towels, free drinks, priority boarding, etc. to others. And I might even be willing to pay full Y for this seat (but not a penny more). I’ll be waiting but not holding my breath…

  4. Do you have a pointer to the hotel study they reference? That might be more interesting reading than this new business trolling piece.

  5. Agree, Gary- looks like a pretty lame attempt to drive some fees. I think though, you can refute the whole “study” just by looking at one of the basic premises: that loyalty programs are failures if they don’t discourage customers from using competitors. Loyalty programs are mostly intended to capture that marginal dollar- the flyer that pays $100 more for his transcon because he knows there is a decent chance his AA status would give him an upgrade- that wouldn’t be there otherwise. If the cost of the program to the airline is less than the marginal revenue it generates, it is successful.

    Deloitte seems to want us to think it’s some kind of constant struggle to try and tear flyers away from competitors and make them your own loyal customers (which programs obviously don’t do a good job of, because, for one, they aren’t intended to), but that completely misses the marginal revenue point.

  6. Consulting: If you can’t be part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

  7. I’m not sure the hotel-airline alliances are net positives. I suspect Marriott are losing very high frequency travelers and don’t compete as well in cities with lots of options like San Francisco. There is more competition for the traveller that brings in 5 or 6 figures of revenue. However when they make a change that modifies the program to reward anything other than butt in seat or bed loyalty, like spend or status in another program, don’t be surprised if we don’t jump through hoops to get that status. Starwood does seem to really get this.

  8. Very interesting; thanks for highlighting this!

    And just for fact sake: Deloitte & Touche (D&T) is NOT a consulting company, it’s the Audit and Advisory people; Deloitte Consulting is the consulting arm.

  9. Excellent review, Gary. Deloitte is clearly clueless about frequent flyer programs, even Terry Maxon’s article was clear to me on that score.

  10. @Gene “House of Lies” (linked the blog post to a Wikipedia article) is a reference to the television show.

  11. The problem with these things is that they are given to an associate who sits in a back room and doesn’t travel. The ones who travel are too busy with clients to be writing the studies. Ergo, the study is written by someone who has no first hand experience of the motivation factors behind the programs.

  12. As someone who works at a competitor firm, I can get on board with the whole Deloitte House of Lies thing, lol…

  13. Lets examine Gary’s claim: Answering a Survey That You’d Consider Switching Programs Once You Hit Top Tier Elite Doesn’t Mean Loyalty is Failing.

    1st Paragraph: “The ranks of each elite program tend to be quite stable year-over-year. There isn’t actually rampant switching.” Gary, I can see why you might draw that conclusion, but it doesnt mean there’s not switching. For example if DL and UA have, say, 4 million elite members each and I drop from 1K to Gold, while moving from DL Gold to Diamond, I have, in fact switched loyalty without affecting either company’s elite totals. Furthermore, unless you have access to rolls of elite names, the best conclusion you can come to is that the net EFFECT of switching on these companies is negligible as the total ammount of elites remain the same.

    2nd paragraph: “already achieved what they can with one program so they consider whether it makes sense to ALSO have status with a second.” That’s pretty much the definition of being disloyal. In other terms, it’s like having a wife and a mistress, and I don’t think anyone would consider that scenario loyal. “Airlines have learned to combat this…” What is “this”? Would you accept the fact that “this” is in fact a reference to disloyalty and that airlines are changing their FF programs to keep top tier elites on their airline? Rollover MQM and additional RDM/upgrade vouchers/SWU cost money, and with the way things are going, if they weren’t needed to drive home additional revenue (read: loyalty), the benefits would be slashed.

  14. I wish that you had focused more on Deloitte’s proposed solutions rather than focusing so much on how Deloitte came to the conclusion that a problem exists, both by analyzing Deloitte’s specific recommendations and perhaps using whatever special insight you have to come up with better ones to improve frequent flyer programs in a way that would increase loyalty.

  15. I don’t like how people equate loyalty to an airline or Hotel brand with loyalty to a spouse/partner. One is a business arrangement and there should be no implicit or any other expectation of exclusivity. If I decide to fly Southwest for a day it’s because their schedule works better for the constraints that I have on the day. I will still do around 75% of my flying on my primary airline, that is when constraints allow. Am I still a loyal customer? I think so. It’s not like having a mistress at all.

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