Originally Posted by
Arctic Troll
There are different ways to skin a cat.
There's also always the monetise everything option. EasyJet in Europe have decided to effectively sell status via EasyJet Plus for a flat up-front fee. The joy of that for EasyJet is they get the cash up front and people, having paid, will usually follow the sunk cost fallacy and continue to choose EasyJet because they've already made the financial commitment.
Indeed, I think these are also simpler to communicate too. BA version of Amazon Prime along the easyJet Plus / Admirals Club model could do well in Europe and short haul? With the added benefit of lounge access + 2-class travel, that could be quite attractive for regular short-haul travellers. Maybe easier to tie to credit card spend too and make targeted 'get X membership' offers to likely frequent flyers.
For the premium options, Qatar's model of charging high-priced 1-time access to their top lounges might be interesting, but then including this with top tier memberships. Cue unbundled 'Club World Lite' fares perhaps..?
If the goal is to grow annual spending per member, then to unlock discretionary travel with paid membership + member/personalised offers seems simpler and better than opaque tier point earning and heavier general discounting.