Originally Posted by
Great White North
The problem that Alaska may find is that loyalty bought over years can be destroyed very quickly. Furthermore, when consumers gt angry with a company, they tend to patronize a different company even if all other factors are equal. So gutting your loyalty program to bring it in-line with other vendors can simply drive people to those other vendors even if they don't offer anything better.
Of course, if Alaska simply wants to compete on the lowest price and not worry about loyalty, it could just cut the loyalty program completely and join the ranks of Ryan and Spirit.
This isn't a change to the loyalty program. It's a change to the credit card that connects to the loyalty program. You don't have to have the credit card to be in the program.
So the "product" here is the credit card. Not the loyalty program or the airplane seat.
Viewed another way: I may not like, for example, the on-board meals AS sells, but I still want the airplane seat they sell. Same could apply to customers of the credit card. Both may still want to fly AS simply because it suits them, even if they don't like the other product much. I feel that way.
I can see loyalty to the credit card damaged severely (both by actions of AS and BofA). But there are a lot of people who continue to fly AS even if are not part of Mileage Plan and if they are, they may not rely on the AS VISA to earn additional miles. This change impacts the last group, not all AS passengers and not all Mileage Plan members.