Airlines today are creating a generation of disloyal customers
Airlines’ loyalty schemes have lost their sheen, especially among younger flyers. Are they worth the effort?
I’m a disloyal customer. In 2025 I boarded 49 flights. The routes varied but one constant was my unwillingness to join a loyalty scheme. I have tried to sign up in the past but the tedium of downloading an app and sorting through the admin would always drive me to despair.
I’m not alone in my disloyalty. According to UK-based travel-data collectors OAG (the Official Aviation Guide), only 65 per cent of flyers under the age of 28 bother with such schemes, while a broader base of 89 per cent of people in their sixties and seventies still see value in membership.
This is partly because older flyers tend to fly further forward on planes and spend more per ticket. But the loyalty landscape isn’t as straightforward as it once was. Since American Airlines popularised the concept in 1981, seeking to attract repeat business, the schemes have morphed into gamified deals that are often linked to banks, point-scoring, credit cards and big hotel groups. For some airlines, the strategy has paid off. In 2024, Delta Air Lines made more than €6bn made from its credit-card partnership with American Express.
For many frequent flyers, however, the effort of picking up points and jumping through hoops to recoup them isn’t worth it. Some programmes are suffering from prestige dilution too. On a recent trip to Copenhagen, I sneaked into the SAS lounge. There were as many people packed inside as in the coffee shop nextdoor and similar levels of discomfort. To keep points covetable and worth collecting, airlines are already looking at setting tougher targets to get to gold. For now, many see these programmes and the perks that they offer as pointless.
