I think that to discuss airline loyalty today it is helpful to think about what constituted airline loyalty before deregulation and frequent flier programs and how "loyalty" has evolved.

I flew a lot in the late 70's and early 80's before dereg and loyalty programs and frankly, I didn't have much loyalty. Yes, I flew certain airlines more because of the routes I took but if I missed the EA flight from ATL to BOS because a meeting went over, I would just hop the next flight even if it was DL. I traveled with an OAG subscription and one just took the next flight. Life was easy. Loyalty was "bought" a little with marketing and merchandising but, at least for me, I picked the most convenient flight and that was that (it helped that I flew F as policy and I traveled with a stack of AAirchecks that were blank tickets I could fill out at the gate for any flight on any airline). Even if I was on regular ticket stock, other airlines would take it (prices were the same) and it was refundable if I had to reroute.

As dereg kicked in and FF programs did too in the early 80's, I suspect that created forces that created "loyalty".

Fast forward to today - I am very loyal to AA and the reason I am is because of those perks. Now, I wouldn't fly a lousy airline for lousy perks (or even reasonable perks). However, if the product is similar and, by concentrating my flying on mostly one airline/alliance I get perks that I value, I will do so. The driver of that "loyalty" are the perks.

To be honest, the perks I value the most are the ones that make my everyday travel better - not the freebies due to mile accumulation. While I benefit from free flights and systemwides, for me I want AA EXP in order to be upgraded throughout the year as I fly for business.