[TRAVEL] Business Travellers Giving up on Loyalty Programs

There is an article on LinkedIn that suggests that business travellers are giving up loyalty programs.

The main reasons causing this shift are: “blackout dates, broken promises and bait-and-switch games”. Price and convenience are becoming the priority instead. Personally, I would also add the fact that there are high tax and fuel surcharges, as well as limited reward flights. Now that more and more people are into the points game, the reward flights will be booked up much faster.

Furthermore, contrary to what we may read in the news, the economy is doing well in the airline and hotel world. Which means that airlines and hotels have less need to provide incentives to attract more loyal customers to their company. Instead, devaluations are happening across the board.

I don’t blame people loosing faith in the points game at the moment. One way to avoid worrying about earning loyalty points is to have a travel credit card that earns points that credits you dollar for dollar on your travel purchase like the Capital One Aspire World Travel credit card. Personally I am going to hang on to my points, because I still have faith that they will come in handy. But at the same time, I will make sure that I diversify and continue to collect points with my Capital One credit card.

Otherwise, if you do not travel much during the year, then I strongly recommend going for a cash back credit card instead, especially the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card, if you can spend enough to justify the annual fee. Otherwise, you can go for one or more of the no annual fee credit cards.