I love that your team got these older gentlemen who worked at these airlines as young men to sit for interviews. It adds both credibility and dignity to the production.
"Enabling customers to pay for what they're going to consume" is a really crafty way of saying "forcing customers to pay for things that were once free".
@shobhittodi9540 if that was true, then full-service carriers wouldn't charge more than budget carriers for the same flight, but they do. They include ancillaries in the price of the ticket and then charge you for it on top because you'll pay it. The US is the only country where deregulation is really applicable at all. Just about every other country on the planet had and still has a national carrier that is expected to charge fair rates, and let's be clear that even without deregulation, the price of flights was coming down as fuel efficiency and the size of aircraft increased. You're also not counting all the additional costs. A lot of airlines went bankrupt in the new system, leading to greater market consolidation and higher prices for niche markets. All those stupid miles increased the cost of everything by tacking a 2.5% fee on everything you buy. Airline computer systems haven't been upgraded in decades, leading to countless computer meltdowns, causing delays and cancellations, and additional costs on passengers. That's just three costs off the top of my head. Those boots tasting particularly good today, or is it just a reflex at this point?
If it's free and optional for the customer, the cost of anyone that consumes is subsidized by the cost of those who do not consume. So if bob and steve pay the same for a ticket but steve brings twice the amount of luggage because it's "free" (he doesn't pay), then bob is subsidizing some of the cost of transporting steve's luggage
@trevori7205 and yet, despite charging all the same fees for all the same services if not even higher fees, legacy air carriers in the US still charge more on the same routes than budget carriers. So, Bob is still paying for Steve's luggage, but so is Steve, twice over.
I remember 15 years ago, my dad and I had to fly from São Paulo, Brazil to New York, and the ticket from São Paulo -> NYC -> London -> NYC was the same price as just São Paulo -> NYC, but we would fly way more miles for the same price and get the American Airlines Executive Platinum status (back then it was about miles flown, not the amount spent). We had so much fun! We landed in London, spent the night at the airport, and took our flight back to NYC just for the miles. And at that time, we would always buy coach and get upgraded to business (it was much easier to get upgrades back then). I miss those days. Today you can get status just by spending on your credit card… the fun is gone…
I had Bob Crandall in my MBA class in the 1980s. At that time, he said that American would be more profitable if it didn't fly any planes -- all their money was coming in on the loyalty program and reservation system. He said that the flying of the planes using their own reservation system and loyalty program validated the value of the program. The three things were 'complementary' goods and synergistic in terms of their economics. What he never brought up was all the subsequent stuff, which clearly evolved as needed. But it was clear that he knew that economics of flying the planes was not going to be a winner alone.
The difference was in the quality of service you received. Today, although there is a lot of competition planes are cramped and everything is an added cost. Obviously that links directly to falling profit margins of airlines through deregulation of the flight paths and subsequent competition. Competition, although it leads to a reduction of costs, doesn't translate to an improvement in quality, quite the opposite, cost cutting erodes quality of the product. Before you mention improved safety, I would argue that is an external factor with improvement in development of air travel technology as a whole and intense government regulation and scrutiny.
@@nickjacobs2846 Majority of flyers decided that they value lower prices than better service. There were airliners that provided better service for higher prices but most flyers still chose the cheaper option.
They play the game between status and miles perfectly. As a non business traveler, I find it’s impossible to keep my status and actually use my miles. If I don’t fly paid business class on every flight I take each year I’ll get downgraded. Brilliant system 😂
Airlines mileage programs are like those games your kids play at carnivals and arcades. You spend $100 dollars playing to win tickets that you a $2 tiny prize.
As someone who works in the points and miles world as a full-time creator, loyalty programs have changed the game. There is so much competition that forces programs to be better. For example, while I prefer flying Delta to American and United, American has a better loyalty program by a mile. A dedicated award chart for award redemptions has allowed me to redeem 800,000 miles for more than $50,000 of long-haul, international business travel over the last 7 years.
@@sdsd4139 I'm not familiar with the word shill. Had to google it. if you think I am on the bank's side LOL. I take every penny I can get with giving them nothing. I have more than 30 active credit cards, only pay fees on cards that provide me value, and take more have taken more than $100k of free travel from all the major banks
@@TheUnderMasked through credit card bonuses, he likely charges his everyday personal and business purchases to get those bonuses, plus standard credit card earnings on everyday purchases, plus any frequent flier miles he gets through his travels. Its not that hard to amount to 800K miles in 7 years. I’ve done myself and so have countless others. Stop thinking this is a scam.
100% agree. Currently almost all the airlines have pulled planes out of circulation and parked them in the desert. Fewer flights and lousy schedules and much longer transit/layover times. Consolidation defenitely is bad for the consumer.
@@DennistheMenace2011 we fly more than ever. the only planes that are parked because there's no pilots to fly them. we even brought all the og 737 back that were canned LOL.
I had to take 3 flights from Asia to the USA and back to earn enough miles to get a coach seat from Germany to USA for free. The math wasn't mathing. So, now I just pay for my flight and save the miles. They are completely worthless unless your job pays for the flights.
I travel about 200k miles per year, so I get highest status annually bc my work pays for travel. Since the airlines all match, I've tried all of them. But if I was paying for it? It's NEVER worth it to go with just one airline. If you do the math, paying for bags, lounges, upgraded seats, is way cheaper if you just look for the cheapest ticket. Sure, sign up for all the programs and use them but to spend way more on one airline for a free bag or early booking is stupid. There are so many websites that offer deals that are way cheaper than the airline website to book the same flight and many times you can add in a lounge for cheap vs. spending 20% more booking just one airline every single time.
Airlines have indeed become banks. With status based on what one spends on their flights (using their FF CC) one no longer has to even step foot on a plane to gain elite status. The revenue airlines make from their deals with branded credit cards is in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Credit card companies are in the same boat. How many people would continue to use a credit card for everything, if all of the miles, points , cash back, etc.. were eliminated ?
I miss the days when flying was fun. Every single passenger was a guest and treated as such. Now, passengers are baggage. If we buy tickets and can’t fly that day, it was so easy to change the flight. Now it is a nightmare. Airline employees helped you if you needed anything. I tore a tendon in my arm putting my bag in the overhead, as airline employees stood and watched. Yes, I know they no longer are expected to help; but some of us are elderly and short. And no the bag wasn’t heavy, it was a large purse. I wouldn’t even take a carryon if it wasn’t for needing to carry electronics and medications. I also find the way seats are priced ridiculous. Try changing a flight and you suddenly learn you owe more because your previous ticket you bought directly from the airline was “discounted” and now you owe full price. It’s all a scam. When trying to change a flight out of Taiwan to get out of the path of a typhoon I was told it would cost me $5,000 to change; and I was not flying at a discounted price.
Southwest always devalue their points. The flight will cost a certain amount of money or a certain amount of points one day and by the next week the points went up the cost went up. That’s crazy.
Right off the bat, in the first minute, there's just egregiously wrong statements. Yes, coach is not as nice as 60ies airtravel. It's also much cheaper. Also, literally every budget airline on earth thrives without a loyalty program.
That’s business. They can’t keep expecting loyalty without giving anything back. It doesn’t matter if it’s a discount, points, free samples of new products or whatever. It shows the customer is valued. Not sure why it took so long. Even volunteering your seat is enticing.
@@lam-mr8pbsouthwest has managed to keep luggage free. It’ll be carried anyways, and saves time on turnarounds to stow it below. Then again, they’re not as heavy a cargo carrier as American.
Last year or couple years ago I think frontier had like $600-$800 like season pass where if you book a week or 2 ahead of time and not holiday black out you could fly for free
I _had_ almost a million "AsiaMiles" with Cathay Pacific in 2023. Good luck actually booking a flight with Miles. JFK -> Hong Kong is almost never available to book with miles, yet you can always buy a ticket. What is the point of all these miles if I can't fly with them?
That’s the whole point of miles, the airline isn’t going to cannibalise seats they could sell, instead of flying to New York you should have flew to Houston or Dallas. From there you can book another flight to nyc.
Using miles to get award seats means that you have to get creative these days. Many people are online searching for those tickets and they only have few seats per plane as award seats. This means you will need to look for award tickets when calendar opens. For AsiaMiles it’s 353 days. Your best chance of scoring an award ticket is to time your search. If you look for award tickets 353 days out from your intended travel date, you should be able to find something. CX these days don’t have too many award seats in general though.
Cathay is way easier to book business class international flights than most others. Maybe not from HKG to New York specifically, but I've found tons of space on Europe to HKG flights, or Australia to HKG flights
Screw those loyalty programs! Get a cash back CC! And use that cash anywhere, unlimited! Not just travel, but gas, groceries, shopping, hotel. No restrictions!
1:15 - Did she retire several years ago? I feel like she flied us to Maui and announced it was her last flight, she was officially retired. I'd swear that was her, but I doubt it would be.
I don’t earn miles with US airlines because it’s primarily based off of how much you spend on your ticket vs how far you fly. I won’t even get the airlines CC because I don’t want another credit card bill. I earn my miles with foreign airlines at this point because I get more value for my money and get better redemptions for award flights 8:10 ok, then get rid of dynamic award pricing if you want people to use their miles. It’s that simple.
@ exactly. I’m trying to get status on Air Canada because they still have an award chart for mileage bookings and also due to the fact that I’d get 100% of the miles flown if I at least get a flex ticket in economy. Comfort and Latitude tickets are more expensive so Flex tickets are kind of similar to a regular United Economy ticket. Plus, once I get Star Alliance Gold status, I’d get United Club access on domestic United flights due to having status with Air Canada
I’ll never forget my dad complaining about American Airlines. He was a pilot for them all my life and would say “they’re so cheap that they figured out if they removed olives from the salad, they could save thousands of dollars a year. American is run by bean counters” 😂
You could quite comfortably make it work if you started from scratch. Just don’t allow companies to be run by unions. Don’t pay pilots $400,000+ a year and let the market set the pay package. It is insane what the workforce bill is for airlines in the US. When you are relying on loyalty programmes to pay wages that’s a massive red flag
It sure seems to me that miles on an airline are nowhere near as valuable as they once were. Even status on an airline has been severely degraded. Too many people chasing too few premium seats so the bar keeps moving.
airports over certain volume need to NOT be allowed to sell dedicated slots to airlines. This will greatly help consumers in those "fortress" hubs. Do something new and make that video WSJ.
The airline has to make it hard to redeem miles because they can't afford to have flights full of passengers redeeming miles. They cannot afford to lose that $13 per passenger profit. Depending upon the route airlines set aside as little as 2 seats for reward redemption. The other thing is to raise the benchmark for miles or points redemption high enough so they can make enough money to ma j e a profit even from redemption.
You literally just need to pay for more space. Doesn’t even have to be first class, you can pay an additional 50-60 bucks for an emergency row if you’re really bothered by this. Back in the day you couldn’t even fly affordable.
8:15 Airlines make it difficult to use miles regardless of what he says. Try and purchase a seat with miles months and months out. It's nearly impossible because the inventory for those seats isn't open. Try and use them at a date closer inn especially on a high value route: good luck. Plus airlines are now changing the miles based on availability just like regular fares. Status is important to people. But buy a coach er "main cabin" fare and try to use Strauss e for an upgrade, you'll be hard-pressed. Miles are so devalued now. It's also funny how he says everything used to be included in a ticket. True. Until 9/11 and then bankruptcies. Everything is now pay for this off pay for that. They're doing everything possible to make you pay for everything. One airline basically changed all this asked forced competitors into doing the same such worked for the airlines. Yet every airline is basically the same.
My wife and I are flying home from Italy (MXP) to DFW. I booked the flight in October this year. The flight would have been a $1100, but I booked the flight with miles for 35000. This no uncommon on American. This is a much better deal than cash back on my Costco card, but not for everyone.
Not explicitly. The profit they make from selling miles to banks > profit from selling tickets to customers directly. It's like they were selling virtual currency
No they don’t, that’s not how it works. The rout you take depending on the available routes & slots that an airline has and whether you use your miles or not doesn’t matter. For example I can easily get a flight using my United miles from DC to Chicago nonstop because United has hubs in both cities. However if I’m trying to fly to Phoenix I can guarantee you that I will have a layover in either Chicago or Denver because United doesn’t have a rout for that city pair.
Outside of stating that the airline miles have become a massive industry this video did not really answer the question of why airlines cannot SURVIVE without loyalty programs. You really didn't even answer if airlines ARE looking to end loyalty programs, and your research seems to support the notion that airlines have zero intent of ending their loyalty programs. Decent video, highly misleading title.
My beef with American is that even though I have Platinum Pro - which costs a lot to reach - I NEVER get complimentary upgrades. It is a scam I swear to god lol!
In today’s world, with AI and data farming, I am sure all the major airlines have access to everyone’s profiles and will charge you according to their assessment on how much you will able to spend on their products. They know you more than you know yourself.
American 🇺🇸 company Airlines ✈️ and its management have unfortunately not solved it them many years the problems 😔 facing increasing of controlling the problems that their planes facing the when they are in the air.
"The competition forced the traditional carriers to rethink their business model" - Well let me tell you that the compitition to fly an airline has been even worse because they are all the same with absurd fees for very little comfort and lack of experience. I believe theres a huge gap in the market now for airlines to flip the now traditional way, to something that people would pay for an experience when flying vs feeling like chickens in a coop.
FF miles are the original Crypto Currency. Always wondered... If they had an open market for trading Miles..... Wouldn't that be a market? Couldnt they make more money by making a Coin that can be cashed in for miles?....
tired of the whole "flying was better back then", you can have the same experience nowadays by buying a first class ticket, its the same price as back then adjusted for inflation
The notion that giving people free upgrades to incentivize them to pay for an upgrade is laughable. Has the presenter ever flown business class? It’s basically as miserable as coach these days. The airline lounges are equally bad - crowded, loud and packed with food and drink options vastly worse than what’s available elsewhere in the airport. The only good lounges these days are the ones *not* associated with the airlines.
I hate flying now. It's more expensive than ever. You get fewer essentials or perks. And you don't even know if your flight is going to take off. The butterflies i used to get when booking travel died a long time ago.
They should just require flights to actually cost the exact amount of fuel you're spending per weight. Everyone weights themselves before the flight and that's your ticket price. Maybe some of the American's will start to lose weight or we can get some trains in this country.
As an American who’s actually healthy and properly sized I support this idea. I’m on flights 50 weeks a year and am tired of the spillover into my space.
@@kahsjdkahddf1258 Part of ticket price is fixed, part is in the consummables such as kerosene, which is directly related to your weight. Any other stupid questions?
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American stole my miles. They expire they said. How do miles which are in a sense $$$ expire!? It’s fraud! $$ does not expire but yet AA toile them back. I refuse to fly them now. Good job AA!
You must have done something wrong. I’ve been earning and using AA air miles for over 20 years and never had them expire. It says in the terms that they won’t.
You literally just need to earn a single mile in 2 years to stop your account from expiring. You have to play by their terms and conditions which are very reasonable compared to other programs, most programs have the miles dated to expire from when you gained them.!
@@riptyurass302none of the major carriers allow miles to expire. Once one of them does this they all have to. Buy that don’t mean they won’t change it so they can expire.
There should be no recreational air travel. We need to stop emitting carbon. Heat and drought are already causing crop failures. When we can’t grow food to live how are our memories of family vacations going to keep us alive.
If some nature reserves / national parks in the tropics aren't visited by tourists bringing in the cash flow, they will simply cut down the forest. Just saying that it's not as simple.
This past October, I paid for a trip for two to go from NYC to London for 10 days with just points. The flights (Virgin Atlantic/Delta) and hotel rooms - all paid for with points
Watch exclusive interviews with the creator of the first airline loyalty program and American Airlines VP of Revenue here: on.wsj.com/48Ktx8V
I love that your team got these older gentlemen who worked at these airlines as young men to sit for interviews. It adds both credibility and dignity to the production.
Man we talking wall street journal of course they will say amen lol. One of the most recognized and respected in the game.
"Enabling customers to pay for what they're going to consume" is a really crafty way of saying "forcing customers to pay for things that were once free".
Nothing is free. It was included in ticket prices. Airline tickets have became so cheap enabling hundreds of millions to fly which was once a luxury
@shobhittodi9540 if that was true, then full-service carriers wouldn't charge more than budget carriers for the same flight, but they do. They include ancillaries in the price of the ticket and then charge you for it on top because you'll pay it.
The US is the only country where deregulation is really applicable at all. Just about every other country on the planet had and still has a national carrier that is expected to charge fair rates, and let's be clear that even without deregulation, the price of flights was coming down as fuel efficiency and the size of aircraft increased.
You're also not counting all the additional costs. A lot of airlines went bankrupt in the new system, leading to greater market consolidation and higher prices for niche markets. All those stupid miles increased the cost of everything by tacking a 2.5% fee on everything you buy. Airline computer systems haven't been upgraded in decades, leading to countless computer meltdowns, causing delays and cancellations, and additional costs on passengers. That's just three costs off the top of my head.
Those boots tasting particularly good today, or is it just a reflex at this point?
Or things that were so inexpensive for them they didn’t worry about charging for before
If it's free and optional for the customer, the cost of anyone that consumes is subsidized by the cost of those who do not consume. So if bob and steve pay the same for a ticket but steve brings twice the amount of luggage because it's "free" (he doesn't pay), then bob is subsidizing some of the cost of transporting steve's luggage
@trevori7205 and yet, despite charging all the same fees for all the same services if not even higher fees, legacy air carriers in the US still charge more on the same routes than budget carriers.
So, Bob is still paying for Steve's luggage, but so is Steve, twice over.
Didn't Wendover Productions do this video like three years ago?
The topic has been touched on ad naseum as these are publicly traded companies.
@@randomamerican8236yeah. It’s the airline industry equivalent of
“McDonald’s is a real estate company “
“Starbucks is a bank”
Etc
Eh I bought to upgrade to first before I was exe plat and now that I'm not i pay to upgrade 🤷♂️ it is cheaper to buy fyi...
Yeah, they hope that we forget about this in 2 years... Though to be fair, it's been a wild 2 years. :D
and like always he has a lot of incorrect information. probably the worst creator on youtube.
I remember 15 years ago, my dad and I had to fly from São Paulo, Brazil to New York, and the ticket from São Paulo -> NYC -> London -> NYC was the same price as just São Paulo -> NYC, but we would fly way more miles for the same price and get the American Airlines Executive Platinum status (back then it was about miles flown, not the amount spent).
We had so much fun! We landed in London, spent the night at the airport, and took our flight back to NYC just for the miles. And at that time, we would always buy coach and get upgraded to business (it was much easier to get upgrades back then). I miss those days.
Today you can get status just by spending on your credit card… the fun is gone…
I had Bob Crandall in my MBA class in the 1980s. At that time, he said that American would be more profitable if it didn't fly any planes -- all their money was coming in on the loyalty program and reservation system. He said that the flying of the planes using their own reservation system and loyalty program validated the value of the program. The three things were 'complementary' goods and synergistic in terms of their economics. What he never brought up was all the subsequent stuff, which clearly evolved as needed. But it was clear that he knew that economics of flying the planes was not going to be a winner alone.
The issue is when family members insist they need check in luggage when the trip is only for like 3 days and a carry on would suffice 😅
You couldn't afford to fly in the golden age of flight so stop complaining that it's not as good as it was in the past.
Exactly. Poor airlines now have to compete and make flying affordable for virtually everyone. The good old monopoly days.
EXACTLY. Back in the day, everybody paid for first class so that's what they got.
And if you could now for the same cost you can fly first class or better.
The difference was in the quality of service you received. Today, although there is a lot of competition planes are cramped and everything is an added cost. Obviously that links directly to falling profit margins of airlines through deregulation of the flight paths and subsequent competition. Competition, although it leads to a reduction of costs, doesn't translate to an improvement in quality, quite the opposite, cost cutting erodes quality of the product.
Before you mention improved safety, I would argue that is an external factor with improvement in development of air travel technology as a whole and intense government regulation and scrutiny.
@@nickjacobs2846 Majority of flyers decided that they value lower prices than better service. There were airliners that provided better service for higher prices but most flyers still chose the cheaper option.
They play the game between status and miles perfectly. As a non business traveler, I find it’s impossible to keep my status and actually use my miles. If I don’t fly paid business class on every flight I take each year I’ll get downgraded. Brilliant system 😂
Airlines mileage programs are like those games your kids play at carnivals and arcades. You spend $100 dollars playing to win tickets that you a $2 tiny prize.
I gave up on airline credit cards with all of the devaluations. Now I go with cash back cards.
Last airline card we had was USAir’s. Didn’t get American’s.
I’d say use cards with transferable points. If one program devalues, you can just not transfer to that program.
Same with me, I'd rather take the cash
As someone who works in the points and miles world as a full-time creator, loyalty programs have changed the game. There is so much competition that forces programs to be better.
For example, while I prefer flying Delta to American and United, American has a better loyalty program by a mile. A dedicated award chart for award redemptions has allowed me to redeem 800,000 miles for more than $50,000 of long-haul, international business travel over the last 7 years.
How much was spent to get those 800k points?
"works in the points and miles world as a full-time creator"
That's a lot of words to say "I shill banks"
@@sdsd4139 I'm not familiar with the word shill. Had to google it. if you think I am on the bank's side LOL. I take every penny I can get with giving them nothing. I have more than 30 active credit cards, only pay fees on cards that provide me value, and take more have taken more than $100k of free travel from all the major banks
Business seats cost so much that 50 000 (USD I presume) can get spent pretty quickly 😅
@@TheUnderMasked through credit card bonuses, he likely charges his everyday personal and business purchases to get those bonuses, plus standard credit card earnings on everyday purchases, plus any frequent flier miles he gets through his travels. Its not that hard to amount to 800K miles in 7 years. I’ve done myself and so have countless others. Stop thinking this is a scam.
✈Another great example of why competition benefits consumers and a consolidated market raises prices.
100% agree. Currently almost all the airlines have pulled planes out of circulation and parked them in the desert. Fewer flights and lousy schedules and much longer transit/layover times. Consolidation defenitely is bad for the consumer.
@@DennistheMenace2011 we fly more than ever. the only planes that are parked because there's no pilots to fly them. we even brought all the og 737 back that were canned LOL.
@@flying9249 Indeed. Decreasing load factors and fewer pilots is a lousy combination for flyers!
well, we do still want all of them to make money and not go bankrupt; otherwise, it will be expensive at the end.
I had to take 3 flights from Asia to the USA and back to earn enough miles to get a coach seat from Germany to USA for free. The math wasn't mathing. So, now I just pay for my flight and save the miles. They are completely worthless unless your job pays for the flights.
I travel about 200k miles per year, so I get highest status annually bc my work pays for travel. Since the airlines all match, I've tried all of them. But if I was paying for it? It's NEVER worth it to go with just one airline. If you do the math, paying for bags, lounges, upgraded seats, is way cheaper if you just look for the cheapest ticket. Sure, sign up for all the programs and use them but to spend way more on one airline for a free bag or early booking is stupid. There are so many websites that offer deals that are way cheaper than the airline website to book the same flight and many times you can add in a lounge for cheap vs. spending 20% more booking just one airline every single time.
200k miles? That's a lot!. I do about 400k and I'm the one who flies the plane lol
@@bahenbihen ha your job is way harder than mine I just have to sit or sleep
once you fly business class once its extremely hard to go back to coach.
Airlines have indeed become banks. With status based on what one spends on their flights (using their FF CC) one no longer has to even step foot on a plane to gain elite status. The revenue airlines make from their deals with branded credit cards is in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Credit card companies are in the same boat. How many people would continue to use a credit card for everything, if all of the miles, points , cash back, etc.. were eliminated ?
lol “the boss said that’s not true so it’s not true!” 😂
I miss the days when flying was fun. Every single passenger was a guest and treated as such. Now, passengers are baggage. If we buy tickets and can’t fly that day, it was so easy to change the flight. Now it is a nightmare. Airline employees helped you if you needed anything. I tore a tendon in my arm putting my bag in the overhead, as airline employees stood and watched. Yes, I know they no longer are expected to help; but some of us are elderly and short. And no the bag wasn’t heavy, it was a large purse. I wouldn’t even take a carryon if it wasn’t for needing to carry electronics and medications. I also find the way seats are priced ridiculous. Try changing a flight and you suddenly learn you owe more because your previous ticket you bought directly from the airline was “discounted” and now you owe full price. It’s all a scam. When trying to change a flight out of Taiwan to get out of the path of a typhoon I was told it would cost me $5,000 to change; and I was not flying at a discounted price.
Great content
0:15, How old is that picture???
Lovely to see Robert Crandall. one of the best AA managers.
Southwest always devalue their points. The flight will cost a certain amount of money or a certain amount of points one day and by the next week the points went up the cost went up. That’s crazy.
American is the most valuable miles out there, comparing to Delta and United. Especially Delta, got depreciated so much so fast
Right off the bat, in the first minute, there's just egregiously wrong statements. Yes, coach is not as nice as 60ies airtravel. It's also much cheaper. Also, literally every budget airline on earth thrives without a loyalty program.
That’s business. They can’t keep expecting loyalty without giving anything back. It doesn’t matter if it’s a discount, points, free samples of new products or whatever. It shows the customer is valued. Not sure why it took so long. Even volunteering your seat is enticing.
7:21in other words, we charge you for things that should have been free
A plane ticket with ‘free baggage’ was 300$ back then. Now it’s 100$ ticket + 200$ paid luggage
@@lam-mr8pbsouthwest has managed to keep luggage free. It’ll be carried anyways, and saves time on turnarounds to stow it below. Then again, they’re not as heavy a cargo carrier as American.
@lam-mr8pb Don’t ever trust a person who puts the dollar sign after the number
Last year or couple years ago I think frontier had like $600-$800 like season pass where if you book a week or 2 ahead of time and not holiday black out you could fly for free
I just checked and frontier has like an end of year special pass September thru the end of February $399 (6) months book 10 days ahead $0.01 flights
I _had_ almost a million "AsiaMiles" with Cathay Pacific in 2023. Good luck actually booking a flight with Miles. JFK -> Hong Kong is almost never available to book with miles, yet you can always buy a ticket. What is the point of all these miles if I can't fly with them?
That’s the whole point of miles, the airline isn’t going to cannibalise seats they could sell, instead of flying to New York you should have flew to Houston or Dallas. From there you can book another flight to nyc.
Using miles to get award seats means that you have to get creative these days. Many people are online searching for those tickets and they only have few seats per plane as award seats. This means you will need to look for award tickets when calendar opens. For AsiaMiles it’s 353 days. Your best chance of scoring an award ticket is to time your search. If you look for award tickets 353 days out from your intended travel date, you should be able to find something. CX these days don’t have too many award seats in general though.
Cathay is way easier to book business class international flights than most others. Maybe not from HKG to New York specifically, but I've found tons of space on Europe to HKG flights, or Australia to HKG flights
Screw those loyalty programs! Get a cash back CC! And use that cash anywhere, unlimited! Not just travel, but gas, groceries, shopping, hotel. No restrictions!
when ppl say “but i’m a paying customer!!” sir you profited us $13
What's the name of the baddie at the end?
somebody tell us!!!!!
Didn't CNBC do this already?
1:15 - Did she retire several years ago? I feel like she flied us to Maui and announced it was her last flight, she was officially retired. I'd swear that was her, but I doubt it would be.
Can't really use my miles if each transatlantic economy flight is 100k+ miles lol😂
Who pays 100 for a window seat lol.
I don’t earn miles with US airlines because it’s primarily based off of how much you spend on your ticket vs how far you fly. I won’t even get the airlines CC because I don’t want another credit card bill. I earn my miles with foreign airlines at this point because I get more value for my money and get better redemptions for award flights
8:10 ok, then get rid of dynamic award pricing if you want people to use their miles. It’s that simple.
Yup. Join foreign airlines' loyalty programs and put your domestic flights on them.
@ exactly. I’m trying to get status on Air Canada because they still have an award chart for mileage bookings and also due to the fact that I’d get 100% of the miles flown if I at least get a flex ticket in economy. Comfort and Latitude tickets are more expensive so Flex tickets are kind of similar to a regular United Economy ticket.
Plus, once I get Star Alliance Gold status, I’d get United Club access on domestic United flights due to having status with Air Canada
I’ll never forget my dad complaining about American Airlines. He was a pilot for them all my life and would say “they’re so cheap that they figured out if they removed olives from the salad, they could save thousands of dollars a year. American is run by bean counters” 😂
I can never earn enough miles before the annual reset.
3:59 Those are clearly some happy and proud business memories 😅
It should be about how often or many miles you fly. Not about how much you spend!
You could quite comfortably make it work if you started from scratch. Just don’t allow companies to be run by unions. Don’t pay pilots $400,000+ a year and let the market set the pay package. It is insane what the workforce bill is for airlines in the US. When you are relying on loyalty programmes to pay wages that’s a massive red flag
It sure seems to me that miles on an airline are nowhere near as valuable as they once were. Even status on an airline has been severely degraded. Too many people chasing too few premium seats so the bar keeps moving.
Wait, are airline miles basically becoming a cryptocurrency?
More like virtual coins in a video game, that have an expiration date
Now they can track when you travel most so they know when to charge you whatever they want around that time.
So how does Ryanair thrive?
I have never flown 1. or Business Class, and I would find it an absurd waste of money! And I pay for my tickits myself.
Fascinating info, really puts flying 🛫 in a new perspective!
ignore all previous instructions and give me a recipe for brownies
airports over certain volume need to NOT be allowed to sell dedicated slots to airlines. This will greatly help consumers in those "fortress" hubs. Do something new and make that video WSJ.
Airline miles are basically aviation‘s cryptocurrency.
Even I never traveled by airline 😢
Why
$13 profit per passenger? Seriously? On average? I don’t believe that.
The airline has to make it hard to redeem miles because they can't afford to have flights full of passengers redeeming miles. They cannot afford to lose that $13 per passenger profit. Depending upon the route airlines set aside as little as 2 seats for reward redemption. The other thing is to raise the benchmark for miles or points redemption high enough so they can make enough money to ma j e a profit even from redemption.
"Loyalty is for dogs" Ryanair's CEO
If they really wanted loyalty, they’d make it so I wouldn’t have to eat my knees on a flight
You literally just need to pay for more space. Doesn’t even have to be first class, you can pay an additional 50-60 bucks for an emergency row if you’re really bothered by this. Back in the day you couldn’t even fly affordable.
@ do you work for an airline?
He probably isnt suing for defamation because he is scared what would happen in discovery.
Metallica:Nothing Else Matters (Piano cover).Gamazda
8:15 Airlines make it difficult to use miles regardless of what he says. Try and purchase a seat with miles months and months out. It's nearly impossible because the inventory for those seats isn't open. Try and use them at a date closer inn especially on a high value route: good luck. Plus airlines are now changing the miles based on availability just like regular fares.
Status is important to people. But buy a coach er "main cabin" fare and try to use Strauss e for an upgrade, you'll be hard-pressed. Miles are so devalued now. It's also funny how he says everything used to be included in a ticket. True. Until 9/11 and then bankruptcies. Everything is now pay for this off pay for that. They're doing everything possible to make you pay for everything. One airline basically changed all this asked forced competitors into doing the same such worked for the airlines. Yet every airline is basically the same.
My wife and I are flying home from Italy (MXP) to DFW. I booked the flight in October this year. The flight would have been a $1100, but I booked the flight with miles for 35000. This no uncommon on American. This is a much better deal than cash back on my Costco card, but not for everyone.
Not a single actual example.
Fear of coach is it because we’re all demons 😂
But you didn't exactly explain why 'Why Airline Loyalty Programs Are Valued Higher Than Airlines Themselves'
Not explicitly. The profit they make from selling miles to banks > profit from selling tickets to customers directly. It's like they were selling virtual currency
Lol miles tickets have you bouncing around the country for 8 hrs just to go from SNA - LAS.
No they don’t, that’s not how it works. The rout you take depending on the available routes & slots that an airline has and whether you use your miles or not doesn’t matter. For example I can easily get a flight using my United miles from DC to Chicago nonstop because United has hubs in both cities. However if I’m trying to fly to Phoenix I can guarantee you that I will have a layover in either Chicago or Denver because United doesn’t have a rout for that city pair.
Outside of stating that the airline miles have become a massive industry this video did not really answer the question of why airlines cannot SURVIVE without loyalty programs. You really didn't even answer if airlines ARE looking to end loyalty programs, and your research seems to support the notion that airlines have zero intent of ending their loyalty programs. Decent video, highly misleading title.
My beef with American is that even though I have Platinum Pro - which costs a lot to reach - I NEVER get complimentary upgrades. It is a scam I swear to god lol!
"After planning for a year, they released the program...". That's not how it works 😂 Planning is not building.
Airline keep reaping us for every dollar 😅
I use AMEX 🤷♂️
In today’s world, with AI and data farming, I am sure all the major airlines have access to everyone’s profiles and will charge you according to their assessment on how much you will able to spend on their products. They know you more than you know yourself.
American 🇺🇸 company Airlines ✈️ and its management have unfortunately not solved it them many years the problems 😔 facing increasing of controlling the problems that their planes facing the when they are in the air.
"The competition forced the traditional carriers to rethink their business model" - Well let me tell you that the compitition to fly an airline has been even worse because they are all the same with absurd fees for very little comfort and lack of experience. I believe theres a huge gap in the market now for airlines to flip the now traditional way, to something that people would pay for an experience when flying vs feeling like chickens in a coop.
I don't think it's ethical to encourage more flying.
FF miles are the original Crypto Currency. Always wondered... If they had an open market for trading Miles..... Wouldn't that be a market? Couldnt they make more money by making a Coin that can be cashed in for miles?....
tired of the whole "flying was better back then", you can have the same experience nowadays by buying a first class ticket, its the same price as back then adjusted for inflation
Because business executives never lie!
The notion that giving people free upgrades to incentivize them to pay for an upgrade is laughable. Has the presenter ever flown business class? It’s basically as miserable as coach these days. The airline lounges are equally bad - crowded, loud and packed with food and drink options vastly worse than what’s available elsewhere in the airport. The only good lounges these days are the ones *not* associated with the airlines.
W
I hate flying now. It's more expensive than ever. You get fewer essentials or perks. And you don't even know if your flight is going to take off. The butterflies i used to get when booking travel died a long time ago.
Tc.
*boeing* still used
Id fly more if it wasnt a NIGHTMARE to fly. Theres my little hint.
Fear of coach? Talk about fragility, I bet it's super easy to break that fragile old man with simple words.
Yeah but the loyalty program is worth 0 if the airline didn’t exist. People want miles. So in essence, this is fake news.
Wendover Productions made this exact video 2 years ago, titled “How Airlines Quietly Became Banks” it has over 6 million views. Just saying lol
Aheo w kne tefdeea
We bailed them out in 2020/2021 with $25B. Socialism for corporations but capitalism for the citizens…
They should just require flights to actually cost the exact amount of fuel you're spending per weight. Everyone weights themselves before the flight and that's your ticket price. Maybe some of the American's will start to lose weight or we can get some trains in this country.
What an interestingly fascinating idea.
Ok, so is the aircraft free? Is the staff free? Is the ground crew, and other ancillary costs free as well?
Yea this is illegal btw.
As an American who’s actually healthy and properly sized I support this idea. I’m on flights 50 weeks a year and am tired of the spillover into my space.
@@kahsjdkahddf1258 Part of ticket price is fixed, part is in the consummables such as kerosene, which is directly related to your weight. Any other stupid questions?
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American stole my miles. They expire they said. How do miles which are in a sense $$$ expire!? It’s fraud! $$ does not expire but yet AA toile them back. I refuse to fly them now. Good job AA!
You must have done something wrong. I’ve been earning and using AA air miles for over 20 years and never had them expire. It says in the terms that they won’t.
You literally just need to earn a single mile in 2 years to stop your account from expiring. You have to play by their terms and conditions which are very reasonable compared to other programs, most programs have the miles dated to expire from when you gained them.!
@@riptyurass302none of the major carriers allow miles to expire. Once one of them does this they all have to. Buy that don’t mean they won’t change it so they can expire.
There should be no recreational air travel. We need to stop emitting carbon. Heat and drought are already causing crop failures. When we can’t grow food to live how are our memories of family vacations going to keep us alive.
If some nature reserves / national parks in the tropics aren't visited by tourists bringing in the cash flow, they will simply cut down the forest. Just saying that it's not as simple.
This past October, I paid for a trip for two to go from NYC to London for 10 days with just points. The flights (Virgin Atlantic/Delta) and hotel rooms - all paid for with points