Originally Posted by
boogsbobo
We are a low-cost carrier, flying mostly domestic but also a few international routes going to the US... we want to build a program similar to Southwest, JetBlue, Virgin, etc. which assign points a cash value (1/60 dollar southwest, 1/80 Jetblue, 1/50 Virgin).
I would seriously just copy the JetBlue TrueBlue program. Start to finish.
Don't get me wrong - I think that there are quirks to it that make it less fantastic than some others for the biggest "gamers" out there - but I do believe that it provides incredible benefits to both sides in the loyalty equation and still has the flexibility built in to allow for the creative types of promos and pricing that would let you offer great value to the program participants.
The segments->free flights option mentioned earlier works well if all your segments are roughly the same length and cost but it breaks down if there is variation in the route map or pricing model. And as you move towards a more complex pricing structure, as you've indicated you will be soon, this becomes even more complicated to operate on a reasonable valuation basis for the back-end with fixed value earning on a per-segment basis rather than on a per-dollar basis.
And, BTW, the 1/80 of a dollar value you've got listed there for JetBlue points is way off, both in that it is too low and in that the points cover a range, not a fixed value.