FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Airlines Really Don’t Want to Upgrade People for Free
Old Mar 7, 2016 | 5:57 pm
  #67  
sethb
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Originally Posted by ATOBTTR
How much can a promotion really run? Especially if it's advertised via email?

And is there any other industry that rewards customers like the airline industry does? The closest is probably hotels. After that, is there really any other industry that has a model even close to what the airline industry has for rewards and perks?

I think the greater issue too is many people got used to being rewarded like top customers and now they simply can't handle the airline telling them "we're not going to reward you like we used to - you aren't one of our most valued customers." It's a tough pill to swallow for some.
Doing the promotion (telling people about it) is free. Whatever is promoted (e.g. free flights) is what costs money.

What other industries have a similar market, with relatively few providers and customers who make individual decisions about hundreds of dollars from once/year to several dozen times/year?

MQDs is telling people they aren't top-level any more. I don't see any problem with that. Rather, Delta is telling the people who are it's top customers that they still don't matter.
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