Originally Posted by
Midships
Surely the totaity of your bottom line ius the profit you make. Some customers will be break even and others will be big profit contributors.
If you can charge some customers double for the same job or product, you're really going to look after them in a much better way than those that don't.
In an ideal world, a loyalty scheme from the supplier's perspective would be based on profitability alone, but that's a bit tricky. I presume if you wanted to give your best clients at the end of the year a case of wine as a thank you, you wouldn't also do that to a customer where the metrics showed you only broke even?
On the other hand, fate is a fickle mistress. It is entirely possible that last years big profit contributor might hit headwinds and reef the sails, while one of the smaller fish suddenly becomes a whale. When that happens, it is unlikely they will forget a perceived slight. What BA appears to have done is alienate a portion of its BAEC membership, while possibly crippling its ability to attract fresh blood. It is certainly conceivable this may work for a few years, but as the number of fattened calves reduce, where is the replacement tranche? There are also those who travel for business with an ability to direct their custom, and making their ability to gain status more difficult is surely not an ideal plan to attract it.
If some minor thing such as TP runners was the issue, a calculation modification awarding the TP on a complete trip distance versus a per element/distance would remove the convoluted routings and perverse doubling back incentives…but these were only “profitable” for the flyers because of the absolute thicket that airfare rules have become, and whose fault is that.
The problem BA seem have within the UK is they needed the short haul routes to be “interesting”, which they did via things like outsized CE rewards for short/cheap flights or loss leading intra-Europe routes, in order to attract custom away from the competitors flights that might be more direct or cheaper. That’s now gone, so it will be an interesting barometer to watch, as those bookings will likely soften well before long haul numbers become evident, if this plan is going to go south.