matrixwalker2012

When giving out elite perks, it's not wise to be highlighting to the customer how much they're spending relative to the few perks they're getting. What are EXP perks? Let's say you need $12K to play, would you be willing to pay $12K for all of that? And how many of those perks would you actually use? The 4 SWUs that EXP gets, if I was told to get those, I'd have to pay $12K to play, now how am I going to feel? Even if I do consistently pay the $12K, do I need to have my spend be constantly highlighted to me???

Loyalty is not about rewarding spend, loyalty is all about getting the customer to keep coming back. The goal of a loyalty program is to generate repeat business, regardless of what kind of business it is. If I'm a great customer and you want me to keep coming back, it's incredibly tacky to keep highlighting to me how much money is leaving my wallet.

A reward program is meant to reward spend. It's perfectly fine to tie rewards to dollars spent with some bonuses courtesy of the loyalty side.

Put the two programs together in tandem, and you've got a great Loyalty + Rewards program. Some carriers even choose to separate the two, such as BA and CX.

Now, if someone is buying $30K intl F tickets, or is an exceptionally HVC, then AA can express-lane the pax to EXP status via Concierge Key.