Originally Posted by
scubadu
You, as an individual leisure traveler, can't really have a "relationship" with a multi-billion dollar per year company
Originally Posted by
lrdpenn
I don't think big-business loyalty programs are inherently designed to build a relationship. They are designed to incentivize greater wallet share.
That's all completely fair, in a vacuum.
However - as lrdpenn points out, the entire conceit of loyalty programs is to drive return business, by encouraging marginal purchases by individual travelers with the company.
Insofar as AA/Oneworld is the airline/alliance with which I've been flying the most for 20+ years, the preference I give to those airlines for my travel spend is rewarded in somewhat predictable ways, due to the nature of the commercial relationship (elite status, in this case).
When the reward for that preference is no longer predictable (for example, when the expectation of an orderly SWU allocation process is bypassed by in-app offers for the airline to grab a bit of quick cash), that's what I meant by the title of this thread: making a mockery of loyalty.
I don't expect or imagine that my individual custom makes any difference at all to AA. But the disdain their approach here shows for customer loyalty is, as I've said, gross.
And "gross" is the new "Something Special in the Air"
We can acknowledge it, but we don't have to like it.