It starts with perspective: have the right one and you’ll be a winner.
Seldom does one airline offer the lowest price, best routing, and newest seat for any one person’s travel. Everyone knows this, including the airlines.
Which means that for an airline to win your business consistently—even when the price is higher, the routing less convenient, and the seat not as comfortable—it has to give you another reason to buy a ticket (or shall we say, grease your palm)—right?
It’s called a mileage program.
Let’s call it a mileage program, because calling it a loyalty program is inaccurate, since these days it’s more of a bribe than a reward. Unless there’s something about an airline’s unique and specific method of palm-greasing that does induce loyalty in you.
I say unique and specific because so many people ask me which mileage program they should pay most attention to. What they mean is, which program can they game to get maximum results. (It’s interesting that airlines compete fiercely to haul you a long distance safely in a tin tube, and yet so many of their customers are most concerned with the style of grease each offers.)
It seems to me that there should be more important things to consider than the gimmick. And they are: price, convenience, and comfort. Too many frequent flyers overlook them because they’re obsessed with the mileage program.
Mad at me for suggesting you take the programs too seriously?
Then let’s back up for a moment. You’re earning miles for one of two reasons, right? You’re either getting them for flying an airline you’d take anyway, or you’re getting them by going out of your way to fly an airline—falling for the gimmick.
Either way, you’re probably finding that the payoff pays less and less. So, keep your cool, and don’t go too far out of your way to play—unless doing so pays very well.
Keep these things in mind if you’re going to match wits with the airlines and their gimmicks:
• With the proliferation of fees, forget about playing mileage games if you’re a coach traveler—it’s simply a waste of time. Mileage programs are increasingly geared to the front cabins. Craft your game plan with this in mind.
• Think about the miles you earn and the elite status you earn as two very different things. One earns you free travel, the other makes travel more convenient.
• If you travel on dates or to destinations that rarely offer the chance for mileage redemption, stop going out of your way to earn more miles. Instead, try viewing this as a perk: not having to fly out of your way. Or how about this perk: not paying more than you must. Or, my favorite, self-fulfilling perk: not choosing the itinerary with the second-best seat.
• Sure, it’s been said an infinite number of times, but be flexible. There are plenty of mileage award seats available for redemption, today, to many destinations, on many dates. Learn where to find them and be pleased with how you play the game.
Remember: The airline industry rolled out mileage games 20 years ago to increase the likelihood you would buy tickets from them, even when their price was higher and/or the routing was less convenient. They never meant for you to take the programs too seriously, as you can see by the stuff they peddle as prime redemption opportunities.