Originally Posted by
arcticbull
The way I see the modern air travel marketplace is as follows:
(2) Corporate customers.
No matter what they tell you (and they will :P) loyalty programs shouldn't mean much here. These people's loyalty is really decided by their corporate contracts and not their preferences. But they fly, and fly a lot. They should be given upgrades and preferential treatment. But handing out points hand over fist to this group won't yield any incremental benefits to the airline.
(3) Self-payed leisure travelers who care about the product.
The way I see it, FFPs should cater to these people most of all. Unlike their fellow travelers in group #2, these people have a choice in airlines. They should be given occasional upgrades, and more importantly, lots of points. This group is willing to pay a premium (20-30% in my case) to fly on their airline of choice in exchange for points, upgrades and treatment.
I think 70% of Flyertalk falls into categories (2) and (3), and 30% into (5).
There is a category in between these two, made up of folks that travel on someone else's dime AND have some or complete discretion as to which airline they fly. There's a fair amount of small/medium sized companies or organizations that don't have corporate contracts and even large orgs that allow the traveller to bypass travel restrictions if reasonably done. I don't know if they'd warrant a separate category though since they have the same characteristics as (3).
Cheers