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But "loyalty" and "loyal" are the wrong words to use here.
In everyday life, there are quite a few words that are frequently misused. “Luxury” and “deluxe”, for example, no longer mean very much when they’re used to describe an apartment, a hotel, or a resort. You’ll often find people using “regularly” when they really mean “frequently” or “often”, and as a lot of readers will already know, “enhanced” usually means the exact opposite of its dictionary definition when used by someone working for a miles or points program.
In the miles & points world, another often misused word is “loyalty”.
The engagement programs offered by the big airlines and hotel chains are often called “loyalty programs”, and members of these programs are often called (or call themselves) “loyal” to whatever airline or hotel chain they use the most.
But “loyalty” and “loyal” are the wrong words to use here.
Being loyal to someone or something means that you’ll stick with them through good times and bad and that you’re not going to change sides as soon as someone offers you what looks like a better alternative.
True loyalty cannot be bought. But you only have to take a quick look around the miles and points world to see that just about everyone can be bought.
Most hotels (and their programs) will quickly turn on their members if there’s a chance that doing so will make them more money (just take a look how Marriott almost always sides with its hotel owners instead of looking after its Bonvoy members, and how Hilton has increased the cost of awards three times in under two years).
And most airlines (and their programs) will change their rules in a heartbeat if they think that a rule change will shift things in their favour – that’s why we’ve seen so many airline program devaluations over recent years.
There’s nothing loyal about any of that.
We, the members of the various hotel and airline programs, aren’t much no better. We’re not really loyal either.
Sure, some of us like to think that we’re “loyal” because we’ve used the same hotel chain for years or flown with the same airline since we were kids, but when you look into why we’ve behaved in this way, it’s usually because we have been getting quite a bit in return or because we didn’t have any better options.
More importantly, during all those years of “loyalty”, had some other program come along and offered us something we perceived to be better or more interesting, most of us would have moved our business over to them and decided that that was where our “loyalty” now lay.
The truth is that in the miles and points world, most people are only interested in engaging with programs that reward them well and suit their needs best, and most of the programs are only really interested in bringing in as much money as possible while offering just enough to keep that inflow of cash alive.
Most airline and hotel programs are really “rewards programs” and not “loyalty programs”.
They reward people who spend, stay, and fly the most. They do not reward the people who never spend, stay, or fly with anyone else, but who also only spend a little, fly a little, and only stay a few nights.
Moreover, as soon as most members of these programs take a break and stop engaging quite so much (even if it’s only for a little while), all the benefits and perks the programs once offered them start to disappear very quickly.
None of this is a criticism, by the way. I’m not passing judgement one way or another. I just think that we need to stop using the word “loyalty” when it comes to the miles and points world because it’s misleading.
And it’s misleading in favour of the airlines and the hotel chains because while most long-serving miles and points enthusiasts know exactly how this hobby works, it can give some people (usually newcomers to this hobby) a very false sense of what the miles and points world is all about, and these guys can fall into the trap of believing that loyalty (in the true sense of the word) actually matters when playing this game.
It does not. It’s everyone for themselves. And when they find this out, usually the hard way, they feel cheated, deceived, and angry, and there’s really no need to feel any of those things.
The fact is that the airline and hotel rewards programs will always do what’s best for them and the members of those programs should be doing exactly the same (most already do – they would be fools not to), so let’s stop pretending that loyalty has anything to do with miles and points and just tell it how it is.
Both sides in the miles and points world are out to get as much as they possibly can out of the other, and as long as we all know that’s how the game is being played, that’s ok.
No one will feel cheated, no one will feel deceived, and no one will get angry, and isn’t that the best way to be when you’re playing a game?
