FFP Survey reveals interesting industry trends

Loylogic offered an online survey along with the 2008 Freddie Award voting. More than 9,000 members from 60 frequent-flyer programs worldwide participated and one message came through strongly:

"94 percent of frequent flyers want a flexible miles-plus-cash payment option when redeeming rewards."

Other facts and trends of the frequent flyer and credit card industry:

• Only about 30 percent of participants feel that the value of their miles has increased over the past three years.
• As a consequence, 40 percent of the frequent flyers consider switching from their airline co-branded credit card to a credit card program—about every fifth voter has already done so.
• More than 50 percent of all frequent flyers consider non-flight rewards a valid alternative to flight rewards
• One out of six considers non-flight rewards more important than flight rewards.

According to the survey, frequent flyers want new reward options but they are not ready to swap their hard-earned miles for any low-value offer. One out of two frequent flyers seeks "Great value" when redeeming miles for non-flight rewards. Increasing the tangible value of miles will be one of the key challenges that frequent flyer programs will have to resolve in future.

Source: Loylogic