Originally Posted by
Andriyko
What long-term loyalty can we be talking about when the vast majority of passengers want the bare minimum at the bare minimum prices and will dump you as soon as someone else offers a cheaper price?
As far as airline concerned, this is neither right nor wrong (so let us call it is an urban myth). If vast majority passengers behaved like that, airline will not have a FFP business at all. They will just all lined up in a line and let the consumer to bid on cheapest price.
Then on another hand, loyalty is not solely built upon loyalty programmes. Loyalty can be built via cheaper than average prices, friendly one off experiences, emotional affiliation, home-bound familiarities, word of mouth...etc. For example, when one 'non-loyal (in your definition)' customer look for one airline ticket, he/she has a choice of airline A with good reputation and airline B with absolutely awful service at reasonable prices, he/she could still be loyal to one of the companies for different reason other than loyalty programmes. And for another example, the bad news of how dreadful BOB is will change one customer's loyalty towards BA, even though he/she might or not fly with BA next time.
People buy at absolute price will have loyalty, people joining any loyalty programme may not be so loyal at all.
Plus United airlines had said (which I have quoted to you before, at least twice in different thread in BA forum) less than 50% of customer make purchase solely based on price. Purchasing behaviour is not a clear cut based on price. Airline loves to showcase low price in order to push themselves into number 1 or number 2 on price comparison sites or OTAs, but it does not mean the cheapest get the business first nor most.
Then another advice for whomever (since you are unlikely to run an airline), a good airline should not be built based on bottom feeders, but those who always pay the extra dollars. That is why Southwest is so successful. They are not the cheapest and often more expensive than legacy, and they are not overly enthusiastic on chasing being top airline for price on OTA or price comparison sites, they know loyalty goes both ways. Loyalty is an emotional bound which may help customers willingly open his/her wallet to pay the extra 50p. And in the low margin airline business, every 50p helps.