What Makes or Breaks Airline Loyalty?
Back in 2001 I flew to London for vacation. I left my wallet on the counter at the newsstand in Heathrow Airport, and didn't realize it until I was back at Newark airport. I figured it was lost forever, but I called Virgin Atlantic anyway to see if there was anything they could do. Within 24 hours the airline staff had retrieved the wallet from the Heathrow Lost & Found (with all the cash still in it), gave it to a flight attendant to hold on the next flight to the States, and had a Virgin Atlantic employee drive up to my house in Connecticut to return it. Talk about going the extra (thousand) miles for a customer.
Is loyalty to an airline possible? Some airlines say that customers simply care about price and schedule, but we have proof that there's a lot more to why customers choose an airline. We highlight some findings from a new research study in today's issue of 1to1 Weekly. The research suggests four key drivers to airline loyalty: one-to-one communications; a positive customer experience from ticket purchase to in-flight care to luggage handling; keeping the brand promise in all marketing communications and employee behavior; and executing frequent flyer programs well. And as the skies become more crowded with competitors, loyalty becomes a bigger deal.
What do you think? Why are you loyal to a particular airline? What's your favorite? Have a great story to share?
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I fly and frequent flyer miles are Wal-Mart level come-ons. I rarely if ever redeem them--yes, too complicated and way too restrictive. The real story is: American airlines are dirty, cramped, without service, no attention to customers as people, no esthetics what-so-ever, destroy bags they can't loose, under-staffed, mono-linguistic, overworked, and just not in the game. I fly Royal Jordanian, KLM, Lan Peru, and most other airlines because ... well, they care and like to have my business. Ergo, they get it. To hell with ff-miles... give me service.
Thinking that frequent flyer programs endears travellers to an airline is really missing the mark. You may want to continue to fly with an airline just to get the free flight that you are close to earning, but that is not loyalty. Once you spend those miles you no longer have a compelling reason to fly. The only other hook might be pre-boarding priviledges, but those only outweigh poor treatment by employees for one or two flights.
When you do the real research with actual customers about what truly drives loyalty it always comes back to their relationship with the company and those relationships are based on their experiences with the company's employees. Whether it is how an employee explains a company policy that prevents first-call resolution or the attitude of the person who is about to get off of their 8-hour shift when you walk up to the counter or the guidance you get from someone about what to expect from the company as your transaction progresses, loyalty is based on the emotions that those interactions create. Frequent flyer programs impact satisfaction, but not real loyalty. Improving every touchpoint with the customer (especially the human touchpoints) so that a consistent and positive experience is realized will ensure that customers want to continue to transact with you because they trust you and it would be painful to go elsewhere.
Of course, you have to want to provide a great experience for any of this to matter...
Great thread!
Darin Phillips
Great research on airline loyalty programs! I certainly enjoyed reading this. I would also like to add some additional comment. Last year, I flew over 100,000 miles across three loyalty programs: Star Alliance (United and others), SkyTeam (Continental, NWA and others), and American Airlines.
After experiencing all three systems, my favorites are Star Alliance and the Sky Team, and regrettably, I have accumulated over 300,000 miles on AA - much of it earned on a code share partner. Every time I flew AA last year, I was not recognized with status in any way. The other airlines treated me well as a status flyer, even though I earned miles on a partner airline. I know that I can travel across both systems and enjoy participating in their programs with confidence. In these days of "all things being equal", this small point of integration puts the Star Alliance and Sky Team way over the top for me. I am giving away my AA points as gifts to my family, and enjoying the other program points for myself.
Air travel once was a wonderful experience, if only because you could look down on the world below.
But, that experience has deteriorated to the point where a 'good' flight is only one where nothing went wrong.
So what happened? I have to lay most of the blame on deregulation. Yes, it lowered fares, but it took service with it.
Under regulation, an airline knew exactly what the yield would be on a given seat or a given flight.
Now, the mentality is a lot like the one used to build prisons, that is, 'maximum containment at minimum cost.' Throw in another couple of rows of seats, take away amenities (or charge ala' carte for them) and you have the airborne equivalent of a city bus.
Is it any wonder that the charter flight business has flourished? It's the only place left where the high-end traveler can 'move about the country' without feeling like part of a herd.
i travel internationally and locally within united states. Surprisingly out of all the european and US carriers the airline that took me by surprise was Air India. I had so many reservations about using this airline. The entire experience was fanatastic from ticket purchase to in-flight service to food.
And if US airlines really need to learn about customer service and loyalty, they must make a trip to India and travel by Kingfisher Airlines. A domestic carrier is surely an example how to drive loyalty via customer service beyond imagination. As the passenger reach the kingfisher counter the airline staff will take your luggage and take care of everything from their after. Loyalty is a result of differentiation created and executed by the airlines.
I think Virgin Atlantic is a good case in hand. I fly with them regularly between Heathrow and New York and the airline has 'blinded' me to considering any other carrier.
Their frequent flyer program appears to be generally more generous than most, the experience from booking to boarding is casual, genuine and professional, but above everything else, when the airline makes a mistake and sometimes big ones, they do their best to correct it.
Is this service symptomatic of European carriers only or are US airlines finally turning around and realizing customer service is important?
As a frequent business traveler and a marketing manager, I understand the value of frequent traveler programs. Unfortunately, as service has continued to spiral downward in the airline industry, even the perks of frequent traveler programs cannot make up for horrific service. Even though I held gold preferred status on one particular airline (US AIR), I was driven away by a total lack of customer service. I have “test driven” other airlines, but most have also fallen way short in the basics of customer service. I have finally found one airline (Delta) that seems to offer better service and have switched by business to that airline. It was not the quality of the frequent traveler program that incented me towards selecting an airline. In fact, it was their superior service that incented me to join the airline’s frequent traveler program. Your article may be putting the cart before the horse. In an era of poor airlines service, frequent business travelers will be selecting their airlines based on service and then joining the frequent travel programs offered by the more service oriented airlines.
Flying out of Charlotte, NC, there are very few options for direct connections other than US Airways. Use is pretty much gauranteed, but that does not mean that they really generate loyalty. They ahve changed the frequesnt flyer program several times over the last couple of years. So much so that even their own employees are confused. Their baggage handling is awful, especially in Philadelphia. They need to take lessons on customer interaction in certain cities. US Airways can blame this all on the America West merger, but the problems existed long before and have not really improved.