Originally Posted by
pitz
There's lots that could be offered to such top customers to retain their loyalty. Offer them a complimentary limo ride to/from the airport (even from the ramp if possible on domestic flights so they don't have to mess with the riff-raff in the terminal). Make sure their favourite snack is available in the MLL when they visit, and arrange for a MLL meal if one is desired. Offer them (or their kids) an hour in an AC flightsim if they're interested. Send them a Christmas/birthday gift. Load a couple cans of Pepsi onto the plane if they are Pepsi (and not Coke) drinkers (or if they like 'adult' beverages, make sure their preference is on-board), provide customized meals, give away high quality sports and concert tickets through the concierges, etc.
Basically, treat those customers like royalty in whatever ways they can. Make them completely, and utterly repulsed at the thought of using the competition where those luxuries, that quality of service, won't be present.
My understanding of the Canadian market is that very few of us are willing to pay a premium for being treated like royalty. Michael Adams has a decent book on how American-developed "elite" programmes have flopped in Canada -- not only are we too cheap to pay for the privileges, we actually (as a society) assign negative social capital to those who do. Give us a (perceived) bargain, though, and we're on it like hair on soap.
The very thing that makes bottom-feeders valuable (in, say, a fish tank) is that they eat sh*t. And surely the whole point of those of us flying on discount long-way-round advance-purchase fares is that AC is making money from us by serving us otherwise unsellable product? Just like people who buy discount brunch are paying to eat scraps that restaurants otherwise have to throw out?