I'll be the first to admit that I've lost my love of brand loyalty programs. You know, the ones like American Airlines Advantage that pretty much kicked it all off. Well now, American and Southwest in the past two days have both offered to boost my status by my buying my loyalty level.
To me this is a number game, not a loyalty game. If the airlines offered me things like no cost redposit of my scheduled flights that I had to change, the ability to do name changes for business tickets (we do change people in companies sometimes), no hassle booking for seats that are available on all flights using points/miles, a resumption of seats that are not so squeezed together where you can't work in coach I might think about the program's value.
So, rather than pay for what are perceived benefits, I'd rather simply use the pay as you go approach, and put my money into paying for a better seat, than hopefully earning a better seat because if I'm being offered the move up to the next level, you have to realize those above me are being offered even more.
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