Frequent flyers have spent years staying loyal to airlines. Now airlines are giving them ‘the middle finger’

Imagine you’re booking a flight.

For most people, it’s an easy decision: the cheapest fare or the easiest route will be the one to win out. But for many, it’s a different scenario. They’re willing to spend more, fly at awkward times or even make multiple connections to reach their destination — all to earn airline loyalty points.

This is the dance of the frequent flyer program — often a costly dance, but one that reaps benefits in the form of lounge access, free seat selection, priority security and other things that make flying in the crowded 21st century a little more bearable — as long as you spend or fly enough to earn enough points to reach the “elite” tiers of airlines’ loyalty programs.

But with airlines increasingly changing their programs to make it harder to accrue status, has the points bubble burst?

“Earning real value from airline loyalty programs is tougher than ever,” says Kyle Olsen, travel products editor at CNN Underscored.

“Airlines have raised [flight] redemption costs and made rewards less valuable. Higher spending requirements make status harder to achieve. Dynamic pricing means award flights cost more points than before.”

This year, three carriers in the Oneworld airline alliance — British Airways, Iberia and Qantas — will change their loyalty schemes. From April, it’ll be harder to achieve status on the first two, while from August, spending loyalty points on Qantas will require a higher spend.

Rob Burgess, editor of “avgeek” website Head for Points, calls it a “downward trend.”

“BA and Iberia are turning their programs into recognition schemes for their biggest spenders rather than loyalty schemes,” he says.

Those Oneworld changes come on the heels of Delta Air Lines, whose much criticized toughening up of their own program made it tougher to acquire status last year. CEO Ed Bastian cited crowded lounges as one reason for the changes. Suddenly the “elites” weren’t feeling so … elite.

So are loyalty programs worth it anymore? And with suggestions that airlines are no longer interested in rewarding the little guys, are there any that still work for the average Joe?

For decades, frequent flyers have taken to the skies in the attempt to win points — and “prizes.” So coveted are the higher status tiers in airline loyalty programs that people do outwardly illogical things like take out new credit cards, book flights they don’t need to take, and even fly across the globe without even leaving the airport — because they want the points.

Loyalty programs are a balance of carrot and stick — benefits that make flying a nicer experience in return for spending more (and often unnecessarily) with the airline.

That carrot essentially drives “irrational behavior,” says Benjamin Lipsey, senior vice president for customer loyalty at Air France-KLM (sibling airlines to Delta in the SkyTeam alliance) and president of their loyalty program, Flying Blue, which was named best airline rewards program last year by online platform Point.me.

“A rational consumer would take the cheapest flight at the best time. From a psychology perspective, [loyalty programs] are about trying to stimulate irrational behavior,” he says.

Lipsey of all people should know — he’s a self-described “loyalty nut.” At 16, he started managing his dad’s frequent flyer account, ensuring that family vacations had extra perks thanks to his father’s on-business flights.

“I wanted to make sure we went to the lounge when we traveled as a family,” he says. “We were able to have priority security, check-in, checked bags and lounge access. I wanted to make sure we didn’t lose that.”

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The teenage Lipsey discovered FlyerTalk, a website where points fans discussed their preferred programs, including ways to achieve status faster or more cheaply. Today it counts around 900,000 members, with separate forums for every loyalty program out there.

“You start to realize it’s a bit of a game — you look for ways to maximize the system, loopholes to optimize,” he says.

Of course, as poacher-turned-gamekeeper, Lipsey — still an active member of FlyerTalk —shouldn’t appreciate game-players in his new role. And yet he does.

“It’s important to let customers feel they can find gamification opportunities,” he says.

“If [on Flying Blue] you do London-Paris-New York, or London-Amsterdam-Tokyo, by connecting you achieve status more easily. Me personally, I’m happy with that.”

Burgess says that although frequent flyers often look for loopholes, the majority earn in a “harder” way.

So why do airlines court customers in the first place? Because they need to, says Paula Thomas, founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty, who has previously worked on loyalty programs for Emirates and telecoms company O2.

Loyalty programs work best in industries where there’s little differentiation between businesses, she says — like energy companies, telecoms industries … and airlines. For these sectors, “pricing is the only differentiator and that’s not a good business model,” she says.

Enter the frequent flyer schemes, where customers are given tangible benefits for selecting one company over another.

“A good program makes you feel that the business understands you, values you as a passenger and makes you think you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

“And travel is the most inspirational thing.” In other words, it’s a two-way street, benefitting the airline as much as the client sipping on bubbly in the business-class lounge.

Lipsey agrees that a good loyalty program is crucial in aviation. Not only can airlines mine their members’ data if they get them engaged, but in an industry of notoriously tight margins — around 5-7% — frequent flyers can swing the pendulum from loss to profit. “Every little bit counts,” he says. “We do what we can to incentivize customers to fly.”

Yet as airlines refine their programs as they rebound post-pandemic, some passengers warn that that two-way street risks turning into a one-way highway, favoring the airlines.

One major trend is pivoting from a miles- or segment-based system — where you rack up status by accruing points with every flight — to a spend-based system that awards loyalty purely to airline high-rollers, making it harder for the average flyer to achieve status.

In September 2023, Delta Air Lines announced it was moving to a purely spend-based system, making it more expensive to earn status, while also cutting down on lounge access for credit card holders.

The changes were met with such outrage that soon after, CEO Ed Bastian admitted that they “probably went too far.” Delta then lowered the proposed thresholds required to achieve status by about 16-20% — though the tiers remained significantly higher than previously.

This year, all hell broke loose in the Oneworld alliance, when British Airways announced its frequent flyer program was moving from segment-based accrual — where passengers get points per sector flown, depending on the cabin class — to one purely based on spend.

Until now, canny flyers had been able to achieve Silver status (where benefits like lounge access kick in — equivalent to Oneworld Sapphire status) for as little as £1,500 ($1,895), or Gold (equivalent to Oneworld’s Emerald status) for around £3,000 ($3,790) by judiciously route-hopping and taking advantage of offers that BA itself had launched, such as double airmiles on vacation bookings.

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Yet although the airline seemed keen to be offering ways to game the system, it has now shut the door — ensuring fewer will retain the key.

Reaching the coveted Gold status — where passengers can select prime seats at the time of booking, check an extra bag, and use the semi-private First Wing at Heathrow Terminal 5 — will now require a whopping £20,000 ($25,280) spend. Silver now requires a spend of £7,500 ($9,480).

Passengers can also now earn money on entire vacation packages (though split between family members), and by purchasing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) — essentially gifting the airline up to £1,000.

But there’s a catch. Flight spends are eligible only on the airplane fare, not taxes or charges, which are notoriously high component of flights leaving the UK. Burgess has crunched the numbers and believes that the actual spend required would be £10,000 ($12,640) on business-class flights for Silver, or £30,000 ($37,920) for Gold.

Flying economy makes status even less attainable, since taxes represent a higher proportion of economy fares. Burgess reckons that a passenger would need to spend £40,000 — a staggering $50,560 — on economy flights in one year to achieve Gold status.

Colm Lacy, BA’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement: “A large number of our customers will benefit from these changes and we’re confident that this is a better way of truly rewarding their loyalty.”

Five weeks after announcing the changes, BA tweaked the program, allowing commuters to attain Silver status with a flat 50 flights, and adding bonus tier points for flights in 2025. Those extra points will make little difference to your final tally, though: the extra 75 points per economy shorthaul flight is a boost of just 0.38% towards Gold status.

Swift on BA’s heels, two more Oneworld airlines have announced changes. Iberia will also move to a largely spend-based system, requiring 7,500 points for “Oro” status (at which point benefits like lounge access kick in) and 20,000 for “Platino,” or Oneworld Emerald. Buy a ticket, and Iberia will give you one point per euro spent.

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Iberia will add bonus points depending on the cabin and route flown, as well as allowing customers to beef up their balance through external offers and credit card usage. Burgess has calculated that Oro status might be achievable with a spend of €2,720 (about $2,850) — appetizing to BA flyers wanting to switch to another Oneworld program, but out of reach for most Spaniards, whose average salary is under 27,000 euros (about $28,000).

Meanwhile, Qantas has revealed that obtaining Classic Reward redemptions (which “cost” the fewest points) will require spending anything from 5-20% more points from August, depending on the class of travel. Upgrades will require up to 20% more points while carrier charges for business class seats will shoot up by around 35%. However it’s not all bad — customers will earn more points on flights, too.

Americans may not find these changes too outrageous. In the US, you need 125,000 loyalty points to reach the equivalent of Oneworld Emerald status, Platinum Pro, with American Airlines. And Delta requires $5,000 qualifying dollars to reach their entry-level Silver Medallion status. But there’s a crucial difference between the US and other countries.

“US programs are heavily tied to credit cards and allow travelers to earn miles without flying,” says Olsen. That’s because credit card companies buy the miles from the airlines to reward their customers. Lipsey calls it “an incredibly lucrative source of revenue for airlines.” In other parts of the world, especially where credit cards are less ubiquitous, it’s not possible to rack up status purely with cards.

Making status more expensive isn’t the only change spreading across the Atlantic. Dynamic pricing for redemptions (buying tickets with points) is another downward trend which started in the US. One former Delta aficionado says that to them, the points they spent years accruing are now “basically worth nothing.” Meanwhile British Airways devalued its Avios for redemptions last year.

But as the airlines tweak their programs, making it harder for customers to achieve status or spend their hard-earned points, flyers are starting to wonder whether it’s worth staying loyal.

“Rob,” who wishes to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, is community director of FlyerTalk and member of the British Airways Executive Club forum.

He was nearly halfway to “Lifetime Gold” status — where flyers have accrued so many tier points that they are awarded status for life — when BA announced its changes.

“All my lifetime plans reaching it just before retirement have been blown out of the window,” he says.

“When I read the news I turned to my wife and said, ‘We’re leaving BA.’ It’d probably cost £50,000 between us to maintain Gold. That’s not a viable proposition for 99.9% of people in this country.”

The British Airways forum was by far the most popular on the website, with nearly 140,000 threads — nearly twice as many as Air Canada’s, which had the second highest engagement.

But BA’s abrupt changes have “splintered what trust people had with them,” he says.

Trust is a key component of a loyalty program, says Paula Thomas. For airlines, she says, that means that the rewards advertised in the program must be widely available — specifically, flight redemptions, which Qantas has been criticized as being parsimonious over.

Devaluing the currency, as British Airways did last year, is also a no-go.

“It’s extremely disappointing for someone who wants something of value,” she says. “If you’re not allowing [people] to enjoy what you’ve promised, or if you’re moving the carrot further away, you’ve misrepresented the value of the program. Business is business but it has to be fair.”

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And as for British Airways’ failure, five weeks from launch, to clarify the rules around accruing points on their BA-linked credit cards, Thomas says, “If you don’t have the information, that’s where trust is compromised.”

In September, the US Department of Transportation launched a federal probe into frequent flyer programs, demanding information from American Airlines, United, Southwest and Delta on how they run their programs. The DOT wanted to “ensure consumers are getting the value that was promised to them, which means validating that these programs are transparent and fair,” then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. The DOT did not respond to CNN’s questions about whether the probe was ongoing, and when its findings might be released.

“I think a lot of companies forget loyalty is a two-way street,” says Lipsey, though he’s at pains to say he’s not talking about any airline in particular. “It’s not just a transactional relationship; trust is really crucial… When the program makes a change, it reflects on the airline and vice versa.”

And when it’s lost, others can jump in. When Delta announced its changes, JetBlue launched a “status match” campaign and promptly signed up nearly 20,000 disaffected Delta flyers, the airline said at the time, though it declined to confirm final numbers to CNN.

Lipsey’s Flying Blue program has launched a “status match” campaign for disaffected BA customers. He says “several thousand” have already signed up, half of whom are gold-card holders or above. “We hope to achieve between €20-30m in incremental customer value from these customers who matched,” he says. Virgin Atlantic is also happily status-matching BA elites.

And although some airlines are closing the drawbridge to those seeking status, others are keeping them open. Since airlines team up in alliances, status with one airline is valid for its alliance “siblings,” too — so many flyers who’ve been priced out by their original program can join another more suited to their flying patterns, and achieve status easier.

For instance, disenfranchised Delta customers can see if Flying Blue works better for them, while British Airways exiles can sign up with Iberia and already find it about 17% “cheaper” to achieve status, thanks to the pound’s strength against the euro.

Rob, the FlyerTalk community director, plans to switch to a rival Oneworld loyalty program such as Royal Jordanian or Malaysia Airlines — and says most of the BA FlyerTalk members look set to do the same. As the teenage Lipsey discovered, there’s a world online where people swap status tips.

Airlines are notoriously tight-lipped about the numbers of their frequent flyers, but with Bastian admitting that congested lounges (a phenomenon born during the pandemic, when airlines rolled over customers’ status) were a reason for tightening the Delta program, it’d be fair to say a drop in the number of status-holders is a clear aim. (BA’s Colm Lacy disputes this, saying in a statement: “These changes aren’t about reducing the number of members in each tier but making sure that we get the level of recognition right for each individual.”)

But with a global economic crunch, and passengers tightening their belts, some argue that closing the door to all but the highest spenders is a dangerous choice.

“It’s sticking the middle finger up to the little people,” says Rob, of BA’s changes. Lacy disputes this, saying that by awarding tier points for vacation package spend, “We now have a way to reward leisure customers that we haven’t in the past.”

For Lipsey, a spend-based system is a dangerous gamble.

“BA has basically said ‘Gold is worth £20,000’ so now as a customer you start saying, ‘Am I getting £20,000 worth of value?’ If it’s purely revenue-based, that’s the risk. And I think it removes the irrational behavior that is key to loyalty programs.

“It’s a bold move they’ve made. What they’ve done is basically fired the leisure customer. Whether they need those or not is up to them to decide. I’m sure they’ve done their homework.”

Burgess says that the airline might be in for a shock. “Many people were only putting up with BA because they got these extra benefits. Take those away and the emperor has no clothes.”

Flying Blue is considering a “revenue component,” admits Lipsey — maybe a minimum spend or a flight requirement. But nothing more.

“You don’t put a price on loyalty,” he says.

One thing’s for sure: other airlines will be watching those who do.

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