Southwest Lemmings

In laymen’s terms, Southwest’s motto is to be/do things differently than other airlines. In order to provide consumers with the lowest fares, they do things differently. They don’t have first class. They don’t serve meals on flights. They don’t charge for checking bags. They don’t have predetermined seating. They don’t charge change fees (my absolute favorite). The icing on the cake was their loyalty program, where you earned one point for every flight flown, with sixteen points earning you two free one-way flights (with some black out flights). The program was simple. No crazy calculations, no spending extra money to buy points, no tiered point system based on whether you booked standard or business class or what your status was within their program. Like the rest of their business model, the program was simple. Every time I booked a flight on Southwest.com I was excited. I knew without thinking I was going to get “one point” for each flight taken. In fact, I was so excited over their program that I even purchased their credit card and started booking hotels and car rentals through their site because you could get points for those items too.

Over the years, went through a hate/love relationship with Southwest, but finally fell head over heels. I even blogged about them. In March, it all changed. Much to my (and others) chagrin, Southwest rolled out a new loyalty program, Rapid Rewards, that was shockingly and sadly very similar to all other airline loyalty programs. But, with even less “perks”. Other airlines are able to offer complimentary First Class upgrades and no baggage fees, whereas Southwest cannot.

Me? I’m making a commitment to return to US Airways. On Southwest, I’m just shy of Companion Pass status. But, their previous simple, loyalty program, “standard” no bag fees and no change fees were reasons why I consistently chose them over others, including US Air where I have Chairman status aka Southwest’s version of Companion Pass status. With the “same” loyalty program as other airlines and “less” perks, there’s no longer enough reasons to not only navigate to Southwest’s site first but also book a flight without even checking competitor sites. Southwest, with your new loyalty program you’ve lost a customer and avid traveler. Today, the only reason I’m booking Southwest is if their fares are lower than the competiors by over $200.

As a business woman, I get the decision. But, in a world where frequency and keeping current customers vs. fishing for new ones is the name of the game, is the new, tiered program really that cost effective?