Illustration by Ben Clarkson for The Globe and Mail
Loyalty is not always its own reward, despite a multibillion-dollar industry's increasingly enthusiastic attempts to convince us otherwise. But in Canada, we're better off than most.
According to a global study that judged availability of airline flights on points from June to October of this year, when it comes to getting a seat when you want without blackouts, restrictions or circuitous routings, Air Canada and Aeroplan rank behind only Southwest Air and Air Berlin among the 22 frequent-flier plans tested.
According to the study, conducted by U.S.-based consulting firm IdeaWorks, Aeroplan members were able to get the flight they wanted on points 93.6 per cent of the time. And though Air Berlin was 98.6 per cent and Southwest 99.3, neither of those has the international breadth of Air Canada and Aeroplan.The flip side of the study, however, pulls back the curtain on just how complicated these programs can be, and it's not just about the free flights. At the same time as airlines such as US Airways and Delta, which ranked at the bottom of the list (dead last and second last, respectively), are offering fewer seats, their partnership programs are increasing in significance, and decreasing the value of both points and the value of affiliation. And in this regard, not even Aeroplan does too well.
First, the flights.
US Airways was able to provide its customers their seat of choice only 10.7 per cent of the time. Delta was only 2 percentage points better, and even airline royalty such as Air France/KLM, SAS, British Airways and Cathay Pacific were able to offer their most valuable customers seats on flights of their choice less than 70 per cent of the time.
After heaping praise on Aeroplan and Air Canada, IdeaWorks president Jay Sorensen says, "The majority of airlines, however, operate on the basis of providing reward seats to a member only after they believe a particular flight is no longer going to sell any seats. What the members get is the leftovers."
Despite Aeroplan's performance, the study indicates just how much fact differs from perception when it comes to these loyalty programs, which are becoming a larger part of why customers choose the airlines, hotels and car rental agencies they do. We collect points on the assumption that they are exchangeable for seats at the rates advertised, and more or less whenever we want them, but increasingly, that's just not so.
"These programs have suffered from inflation," Sorensen says. "It could be argued that the value of a short-haul reward seat is no longer 25,000 miles, it's 50,000 miles. At 50,000 miles, you get what you want."
But it's not just about the flights.
As mileage programs have evolved over the decades, they have been sold increasingly not only on the value of the free flights, but the potential benefits of deals with affiliated hotels and rental cars. This is of particular importance to business travellers, for whom consistency is the soul of efficiency, and who tend to choose which brands they use based on what points plan they're enrolled in.
But try taking advantage of one of those partner deals advertised on the Aeroplan site, and you may be disappointed.
For example, Aeroplan members were recently offered a special deal online with Avis; the advertisement promised up to 25 per cent off. Following the links from the click-through button would have netted you a deal for a mid-size car for seven days for about $530. But, if you called Avis's 1-800 number, and didn't mention Aeroplan, you would get the same car for the same period for about $450.
Why are Aeroplan members, in this instance, actually being penalized for membership in a loyalty program?"I hate to be evasive," says David Houston, Aeroplan's vice-president of airline partnerships, "but it really depends on what type of promotion we're doing."
According to Houston, Aeroplan sometimes stipulates that its deals give members the best prices available - but not always.
"Ongoing offers are hard to manage that way," he says. "There are too many moving parts."
The general rule, he says, is that if there's a lot of promotional dollars behind a particular deal, you can be more or less sure it's the best you can get. If it's a little button on the Aeroplan site, as was the case with the Avis offer, then you may want to look around a bit more.
The only real lesson here is the oldest lesson in the consumer handbook: caveat emptor. The real surprise is that the buyer has to be wary of even those organizations set up to make her feel valued and safe.
Special to The Globe and Mail
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