02-25-2011
10:42 AM
2 Loves
Brian,
I think what you've failed to realize in making this change is that customers like to be loved. I fly medium-haul flights about once a month (slightly more); my fares tend to range in price form $250 to $400 round trip. In other words, I'm not taking 16 legs at $39 each. I also do not exclusively fly Southwest - primarily because you are rarely the cheapest option in my market - but I do prefer to fly you and will shell out modestly more for an SWA flight given the option.
The great thing about Southwest is that flying your airline is a consistently pleasant experience. The conversational flight attendants, the egalitarian boarding procedures - this makes me look forward to my SWA flights, instead of dreading flying as I do with your (sometimes cheaper) competitors. Your simple FF program participated in this loyalty-inducing attitude. It was brilliant to get unexpected free tickets in the mail, and doubly brilliant to get drinks vouchers. The drinks vouchers cost you relatively little, yet I loved them - and I remained consequently loyal and willing to pay more in order to fly your airline. SWA makes customers feel happy. The simple frequent flyer program was a big part of that. It seemed "different" and customer-oriented, and the automatic tickets were a serious perk for casual to medium-serious flyers who frequently fail to book such things on other airlines.
I understand that the system may have needed an overhaul. I think customers would be much more understanding if you were just honest about it. This system is obviously being done for your bottom line - as it would be in any responsible company - but you should be willing to say so. Don't say "this makes things better!" Rather, say "for cost purposes, we need to distinguish between short and long-haul flights, and I'm afraid we need to up it to 20 legs to qualify instead of the old 16-leg qualification."
The other thing that grates is the way this change is tied to cost. As I said above, I do not buy your cheapest tickets, not by a long shot. But the pleasant atmosphere associated with Southwest is partly due to a feeling that "we're all in this together." We wait in line more-or-less together, we chat, we pick our seats just like every other customer, we all fly on the same planes and we none of us get served caviar and free dinners. You simply don't compete with other airlines on business amenities; if I wanted to fly first or business class, obviously I would fly Delta (which, indeed, I sometimes do). If you need to distinguish between long- and short-haul flights, or more- and less-expensive routes, by all means give people 1.5 credits for a flight from Jacksonville to Las Vegas, 1 credit for a flight from Chicago to LAX, and 1/2 credit for a flight from New Hampshire to New York. But you can't be egalitarian with a devoted populist base and catering to the biggest spenders at the same time. And frankly, you don't cater to the biggest spenders anyway. So what is the point of determining rewards based on price? It makes your customers feel like they are being milked for money, while the old system (even if it was changed in terms of how many flights needed to be taken, or how far) made us feel like we were getting a privilege.
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This new program is an absolute disaster. I find that I am likely to save money under the new program - so I am probably in the target demographic - but it makes it impossible to predict when you'll be eligible for a free flight, so it does away with the best thing about the old program: simplicity. If they needed to make more money, they could have changed the number of flights necessary for a free trip - and if they were worried about long-haul vs. short-haul flights, I suppose they could offer double rewards for anything over a certain distance - but this new system is not more fair, it is just more complicated and less user-friendly. I am actually willing to pay more for cheerfulness and ease of use. I hate the new system with a passion.
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