Airlines are being accused of gaming their loyalty programs in a bid to maximise revenue and make customer rewards seem more exclusive. Experts and lifelong loyalty members with various carriers have complained that “mere” loyalty is being devalued and that higher spending customers are reaping benefits that used to be more democratically available.
“Earning real value from airline loyalty programs is tougher than ever,” Kyle Olsen, a travel products editor at CNN Underscored, told CNN Travel, noting that widespread terms and conditions changes mean that customers must use up more points than ever when redeeming them against flights, and that rocketing spending requirements are making elite status more difficult to earn.
Witness SuzAnn Brantner, a Diamond Medallion Delta member reported in the New York Times, for whom the cost of maintaining her privileges has nearly doubled from a $15,000 annual spend to $28,000, and that to continue using Sky Club lounges she will now need to spend a colossal $75,000 per year.
Spend-based schemes
Delta became a “spend-based” scheme in 2023, meaning that simple loyalty to the brand is no longer enough to earn points. CEO Ed Bastian admitted they had gone too far when, as a result, over 100,000 Delta members chose to look elsewhere for tickets, according to Loyalty Status Co figures.
Likewise, British Airways caused so much anger when it devalued its Avios scheme, that it became the subject of over 140,000 threads on the Flyertalk online forum, where loyalty club cognoscenti share tips. Iberia and Qantas too are upping their schemes’ costs in 2025.
No longer elite enough?
The world of airline loyalty clubs and the convoluted decisions they require flyers to make may seem alien to the “ordinary” traveller who would usually choose the cheapest, most convenient journey on offer. Membership might make sense however, if one must travel frequently for work. Joining a scheme can mean gaining advantages from travel one has to do anyway, and it can make the voyage less arduous through access to a quiet and comfortable space.
But as more people over the years realised those benefits, that sense of exclusivity has diminshed. Delta’s Bastian has acknowledged that crowded club lounges, where the true elite had to mix with the hoi polloi, were part of the equation the airline weighed up when deciding to charge more for its scheme.
From customizable new bag tags to exclusive rewards and experiences, @Delta’s loyalty program continues to deliver value to Members.https://t.co/4aOgHcBGdu
— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) February 10, 2025
Reasons to rethink
What Delta failed to consider, perhaps, was how the world of travel has changed too. As Covid-19 restrictions, climate guilt, remote meeting technology, and cutbacks on employers’ travel budgets have kicked in, flyers are questioning whether spending their own money to receive so-called freebies is worth it. And with even the US government scrutinising whether airline privilege schemes are “transparent and fair,” it is no wonder that frequent flyers are rethinking where their loyalties lie.
Some airlines have tried to tempt those formerly faithful to other brands to switch over through trial periods and offers to honour points. One of the winners in that contest is Flying Blue, the Air France-KLM embrace, named best loyalty scheme in the world in a ranking by Point.Me in autumn 2024. (Air Canada’s Aeroplan and United’s MileagePlus came in second and third.) However, with even Flying Blue admitting it is considering a “revenue component”, it seems the world of elite flying is only set to get more elite as time goes on.
