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Mar 7, 2020 | 8:12 pm

#190

Main Wheel

Join Date: Oct 2015

Posts: 126

Well, I haven’t been on the board for quite a while. This thread makes for interesting reading.

After gaining Platinum status with TG, I have seen flight cuts, the decimation of ROP, and as an aside the absolute wipeout of my Amex Platinum card earnings due to their restructure, which for me worked hand in hand with my travel on Thai. I have come to the conclusion these big companies mainly rely on complacency and reluctance to change from their customers, in order to keep them. I have spent the last year winding down my ROP points and have under 200,000 left plus one PUP.

I decided a few months ago to stop being complacent, reluctant to change, and above all else stop being loyal to one brand when that loyalty has stopped paying dividends. I was in the thai Airways first class lounge at Suvarnhabumi about two weeks ago, and they have about halved the size of the menu. No steak anymore. That really brought home the cost cutting going on with their most premium customers.

I cancelled my Amex card yesterday, and will move to another Star Alliance FF program once I have exhausted my ROP points. I will then buy my tickets based purely on cost, and look at simply maintaining a gold level with whatever program I ultimately decide to utilise.

From the Harvard Business Review:

Depending on which study you believe, and what industry you’re in, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. It makes sense: you don’t have to spend time and resources going out and finding a new client — you just have to keep the one you have happy. If you’re not convinced that retaining customers is so valuable, consider research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company (the inventor of the net promoter score) that shows increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.

My two cents worth,
Main Wheel

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