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A12 BUSINESS
Friday 17 March 2023

When does travel brand loyalty make

sense?

By SAM KEMMIS
of NerdWallet
Travel brand loyalty is noth-
ing new. Ever since Texas
International Airlines and
American Airlines created
the first frequent-flyer pro-
grams in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, travelers have
been racking up miles,
seeking elite status and
pouring their airfare dollars
into brands that offer the
most perks.
Yet sticking with a single
airline, hotel or rental car A Delta airplane takes off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
program comes with built- International Airport in Atlanta, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022
in limitations. It means nar- Associated Press
rowing one’s comparison be more trouble than it’s and highlights how the
shopping, for one thing, worth, yet sticking with one juice might not be worth
which can effectively in- program can limit travel the squeeze for low-level
crease prices. A person options. status. Katy Nastro, a travel
who’s loyal to, say, Delta Air Here’s how to decide expert at flight deals web-
Lines might pay $100 more whether going monoga- site Going, emphasized the
for a flight on Delta in order mous with a travel brand same goes for airline elite
to earn miles and status. Is makes sense. status, which disproportion-
that trade-off worth it? BIG PAYOFFS FOR BIG ately rewards high rollers.
“It has to be a really good SPENDERS “It takes a lot of short flights
deal for me to fly with an- Travel brands like United to even reach the lowest
other airline,” says Joanne Airlines and Marriott main- rung of the ladder,” Nastro
Herd , travel advisor at Gir- tain their loyalty programs said in an email. “So you
asole Travel, a luxury travel for a simple reason: They may be foregoing cheaper
booking service , who has want to attract big spend- and quite possibly better
been loyal to American Air- ers, particularly business flights for the potential of a
lines for years. travelers. To this end, loyal- reward in the future.”
She recently took a busi- ty programs will lavish ben- Because the perks are so
ness-class flight with Sin- efits on travelers in propor- valuable for very frequent
gapore Airlines because it tion to how frequently they travelers, it almost always
cost thousands of dollars travel (and how much they makes sense for them to
less than those available spend). maintain some travel loyal-
on an American Airlines This might sound simple, ty, even at the cost of con-
partner. but it affects the value of venience.
“I almost regretted it be- these programs for ultra- OTHER TRADE-OFFS TO
cause I barely made the frequent travelers relative CONSIDER
status I wanted,” she says. to leisure travelers. For ex- While limiting one’s loyalty
Navigating these trade- ample, a traveler with the to a single travel brand can
offs is particularly fraught lowest-level Hilton status will offer benefits for frequent
for semi-frequent travel- get about $2 back in value travelers, it also has hidden
ers, who may not travel for every $100 they spend, drawbacks. Claire Sturza-
enough to earn high-level according to a NerdWal- ker, who writes about travel
elite status perks, but still let analysis, while someone on her blog Tales of a Back-
want to earn and use miles. with the highest-level status packer, began traveling
Collecting a few hundred will get about $49 in value full-time seven years ago.
points from a smattering for every $100 they spend. Yet despite her bonafide
of loyalty programs might This is an enormous gulf, frequent traveler status, she
mostly avoids loyalty pro-
grams and the elite status
rat race.
“I want something differ-
ent when I travel; that’s
why I travel,” she says.
“I would rather stay at a
small guest house. I know
money is going back into
the community where I am,
rather than a giant global
corporation.”q