IN THE competitive markets we live in, imagine the following frustrating scenario:
As a loyal customer of a particular supermarket chain, you are invited to join its loyalty program, which offers rewards for your support. You go out of your way to shop at Supermarket A, turning a blind eye to the often more affordable prices of Supermarket B. This is because your statement of loyalty points is looking particularly flash, and you look forward to the day you can walk in and fill your shopping bags without your credit card in the firing line.
Finally you have accumulated the required number of points, and with a spring in your step arrive at Supermarket A - to be told you may only select fresh produce from a very small hidden section in the back of the shop. The majority of produce is also available of course, but kept in reserve for those paying by cash. The manager advises that with your loyalty points you could pick up some potatoes, but what you are really after are tomatoes and asparagus. But you'll have to wait - you only have access to these just before the doors close. You leave empty-handed. The numbers on your loyalty statement have lost their shine.
You wouldn't accept this from a supermarket. But this is pretty much the reward program that Airline Q offers. Yes, we're supposed to read the fine print in our ample spare time and plan trips years in advance, but why is it that my hard-earned points are so inferior to other forms of payment? Because that is exactly what my points are.
On a recent flight from New York to Sydney I applied for an upgrade to business class with points. Being 192 centimetres tall, flying economy for 21 hours is my idea of pure hell. Airline Q has somehow conjured up a system where these upgrade applications are approved or declined only five hours before departure. Needless to say, they like to wait until the last moment to see if someone offers real dollars for those yummy ''tomatoes and asparagus'' before they're ''given away''.
Before departing for the airport I stare at the hotel computer screen. The upgrade has been declined. I am flying economy again. And I have forgone the opportunity of paying for an exit row seat in economy or a premium economy seat. These sell way in advance of departure while loyalty-program members wait hopefully for confirmation of an upgrade.
An Airline Q official advises me that a future solution would be to pay for an exit row seat, apply for an upgrade, and forgo the money spent on the exit seat if the upgrade is approved! My loyalty is running thinner by the day.
