Originally Posted by
sdsearch
FF programs were born in he USA, where there is lots of competition (as long as you live near a big-enough city), and where most of the flying is domestic.
Once FF programs existed, every airline around the world seemed to think it needed one, but they don't work as well on airlines that are the only airline in a given country as they do in countries where there are lots of airline competing.
So how FF programs attract people to one airline/alliance depends a lot on where you're based. It's understandable that it won't work as well for someone based in a place like HKG (which AFAIK has no domestic flights at all) as for someone based in a major city in the USA.
HKG-based CX's Asia Miles used to be way better for me than AA's program was. It was only after CX's Asia Miles became pointless to me that AA's miles became nearly as pointless for me in impacting my air travel purchase decisions.
FFPs seemed designed for attracting and retaining traffic that would connect and/or that would originate/terminate at a destination with more than one option.