The Future of Frequent Flyer Programs: What Should We Do?
First USAirways, then Delta Air Lines, now British Airways...
Just one look at the threads in any of those forums summarizes that the way of life in travel as we currently know it is in serious danger of deteriorating or disappearing altogether - and in some cases, the deterioration is well under way.
The purpose of this thread is to have a roundtable discussion involving everyone with ideas as to what we can do - if there is anything we can or should do - to stop or slow the current (or eventual) hemorrhaging of these frequent flyer programs.
Mostly anyone even remotely associated with frequent flyer programs will be affected by the current course of the future degradation of these programs by their airlines, including (I really dislike mentioning this) FlyerTalk and other companies of the WebFlyer network.
Should we as frequent flyers band together globally (regardless of program) to take action together? Should we continue to take actions separately, as separate factions of different frequent flyer members are doing currently, with buttons, billboards and/or protests? Should we just quietly accept the seemingly grim future of the frequent flyer program and choose our flights accordingly? Should we limit our travel, or perhaps stop flying altogether?
In terms of frequent flyer program(me)s (I know - there are many more serious things about which to be concerned, some of you are thinking), this is a serious issue. What do you think?