roberino

I used to regularly fly to the US on VS so I had gold status for four years (and then some) with my butt in a Y seat every step of the way. Hard earned. One year I earned 70 tier points that way. I also had a long-held BD gold account that I earned solely through EU travel.

Then things changed. I had one bad year with my company and lost the VS gold status by a grand total of 2 tier points! I also lost my BD gold when BA bought BD and my account became BA gold, but since I hate BA with a passion (long story) I didn't fly a single flight with them.

My question is this. When a previously very loyal customer suddenly stops taking any flights with an airline are they not even slightly curious as to where they've gone? I mean, I didn't even get an "it's been a while since we've seen you" email. Are they not wondering what it was that made me not take a single further flight with them? Surely this is important information for their marketing group?

I appreciate that there are plenty of reasons why a customer might do this:

- Retirement? I'm 35...
- Change of job? Nope...
- Sudden crushing avatophobia? Hardly...
- Died? Well Bruce Willis isn't following me around...

Can anyone explain this?

Tchiowa

Gold status in Y seats is not on the top of the priority list for most airlines. Look what UA and DL have done with their mileage programs. Basically devaluing exactly the type of flyer you describe.

FWIW, I was Solitaire with SQ for 14 years, all in Business and First. When I quit flying them they also never bothered to ask why. (I quit because they cancelled the Lifetime Solitaire program and that was the reason I went out of my way to use them.)

Such is life in the world of air travel.

LondonElite

Sorry to break it to you, but you're just not that important to the airlines. During 2005-2009 I flew an average of 25-30 segments on BA per month (I'm now down to a more manageable 15-20) and a few more on *A (mostly LH). I also controlled all the expenditure of my business for the 12 or so travellers in my business. All in full-fare C/J, occasionally F. I once (in all that time) had a call from the Executive Club asking me if everything was OK after I went a whole month without a single flight (I spent four weeks at my holiday house and vowed not to travel).

Since then, not a peep. The concept of loyalty/perks is completely gone, and it's now down a ruthless application of passenger profitability. If you don't fit the profile, forget it. That should make it easier for you to decide where to spend your money!

onobond

It's all the same with Hotel programs. Many years ago before SPG emerged, I had an e-mail from my most frequent Sheraton, sadly noting I had no new points in my Sheraton Club account, and hoped to see me soon again.

Just as previously noted, those days are gone. Gold/Platinum/Kryptonite card holder for umpteen years and suddenly dropping out? Nobody cares.

roberino

I'm not asking for special treatment though. I just find it really hard to believe that airlines can be so blasé with regular customers who cost little to retain overall when accessing the reasons for the drop off is so simple. New customers cost a fortune to attract through advertising campaigns and ultimately most of that new business is won by being the cheapest carrier for a route. When I was flying with VS a lot I often wouldn't shop around, so they've lost a customer that's cheap to keep and will often pay more than the going rate for a ticket and they're not interested in why? Seems totally backward to me. I might have flown TATL ten times in one year - can they really replace me ten times over that easily?

The stupid thing is that people can leave an airline for little reasons that are easily fixed. I once spoke to a chap who refused to ever fly Swiss again because a FA spilled coffee on him on both legs of a trip to ZRH and he didn't get a reply to a letter to the airline asking for them to pay for the dry cleaning of his trousers. I don't know about you, but I don't think £6 is a lot to pay to keep a loyal customer happy, especially when you consider how much it can cost to have one business class passenger in the lounge for a few hours.

LondonElite

I don't disagree with you, but the airline business has gone towards a commodity business. High volume, low margin. The individual customer means nothing anymore, because the vast majority of people 'down the back' book on price alone, driven by sites such as Expedia and Kayak. Much traffic up front is brought in through corporate arrangements where, again, the individual means very little. The only really special treatment I've ever had on airlines was when I was friendly with board members (on BA and AC).

brendog

Deleted

HMPS

+1
Sounds like 20 % of the regulars provide 80 % of revenue ?

Do the aforementioned lucrative contracted companies get follow ups, hand holding , smooching... ?

rumbataz

If you had been flying First or Club World regularly, I'm sure that BA would have contacted you. I would guess that BA expends a minuscule amount of its customer services effort on Economy passengers. The rest is reserved for those spending big bucks in the premium cabins - those are the only customers BA really cares about (and most other airlines, for that matter).

It's simple economics at the end of the day.

teevee

ignoring you surprises you? the very same companies that will treat you like dog crap and attempt to squeeze every last cent out of even their "best customers" even when you are flying them every other day?

hahaha. sorry man. we pax are nothing more than navel lint to airlines.

State of Trance

Exactly, F/J passengers are far more profitable (and valuable) than Y passengers for any airline. Your average business traveller could easily spend more on a single last minute F/J ticket than a 100k+ miles/year Y passenger might spend all year. Hence why UA/AA/DL all now have revenue-based "secret" top tier elites.

writerguyfl

Same concept applied when I worked in hotels. Despite what FTers might believe, the best customer is not the individual traveler who has top-tier elite status. A hotel's best customer is the local corporation who requires all visiting employees to stay at that hotel.

It all comes down to numbers. At best, a single traveler can only provide 365/366 room nights each year. Of course, that's theoretical since virtually no one lives in a single hotel. A local company can easily provide hundreds to thousands of room nights for a single hotel.

mtdd

Well I have been finding the opposite approach with the Middle Eastern airlines. I don't fly nearly as often as most of you guys, but I did fly a few times with Qatar in F and J and then stopped for purely unrelated reasons. Pretty quickly I was getting messages from QR encouraging me to fly with them again. Of course I realised that these were automated, but I do think someone had taken the trouble to write an algorithm to contact a "missing" customer. I get the same from Etihad and Emirates, with whom I have travelled infrequently.

tartempion

They don't care really.

I used to fly QR 50%Y and 50% J, stopped flying them mainly for a status issue. Never heard from QR.
I then flew 7 years EY mainly J (80%) holding gold and had a 300 euro weight surcharge issue on an upgraded ticket (7kgs too much). I argued at check in at no avail. I paid the 300 euro and that was my last EY flight. I mailed them my reason why I switched to QR spending 4k+ euro year, estimate 40K+ in 10 years. They never replied and don't care.

I now switched back to QR, easier to buy promotion J class ticket and flying A380 and 787.

I will most probably reach gold within the 12 month period, but don't expect them to care. Neither do I.

Found out by accident EK has a very very good deal on BKK-FRA in F this year, cheaper than J because no saver fare in J for the dates I checked.

Unfortunately I already bought 2 QR biz returns BKK-BRU for 2015.
Otherwise my September trip would be F with EK.

Thus if I find a similar deal on EK spring 2016 you know who I will fly with.

mtdd

I don't expect loyalty from any airline loyalty programme. I only ever fly J or F, so I get all the perks for the specific itinerary concerned. So now I only buy tickets that are cost-effective for me. It is the only criterion I have.

Having abandoned a particular (nameless) airline for a couple of years, I have now gone back to them since I found I could sit in their plane on my most regular itinerary, on a codeshare ticket for $900 less than the pax next to me who had booked directly with the airline. Now THAT is my kind of loyalty.