Reward Travel: Death by 1,000 papercuts

Reward Travel aint what it used to be. Beyond blackout dates and change fees, Airline companies are making sweeping changes in their policies for travelling with reward points that change the very nature of a Reward for patronage into a parity that tests patience and loyalty.

Consider a recent effort with American Airlines to book reward travel to the Caribbean. Booking for myself, my spouse and daughter should have taken a few simple steps. Instead, it included fees for transferring points, accepting points, baggage fees, and a host of other "hidden" fees and transfer limits that didn't originally come up in the pricing. By the end of the exercise, I was seriously questioning the value of the points themselves and vowing to not use AA unless forced to in the future.

This is contrary to the total concept of "Rewards". In the current manifestation of many reward programs, the customer no longer feels rewarded for good behavior. Instead, they feel hemmed in between limits, hidden fees, and value and experience shortfalls that make reward travel feel more like a ploy than a thank you.

This is similar to those companion air ticket deals some companies push. Marketed as a 2 for 1 travel opportunity, the savvy customer must wade through pages of fine print, flight schedule limits, and specialty fares. In the end, these "deals" end up with one full fare plus companion ticket costing the same or more as buying the 2 fares directly and with much more limited schedules. Was this supposed to make me feel special? Why bother..

My advice to the rewards programs: keep it simple and make sure the value is easily demonstrable. If not, you will find ever more scepticism and disdain for sneaky tricks that undermine the Rewards program value proposition and the companies competitive edge.

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