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Showing posts from November, 2011

The Power of the Loyalty Program

Image  courtesy of American Airlines Today's chapter 11 announcement by American Airlines is a strong reminder of the power of customer loyalty and most importantly, of the contemporary significance of the frequent flyer program. To provide a little bit of background, American's AAdvantage program is credited as being the first loyalty program in the world, having launched in 1981. Currently, it is one of the largest (if not the largest) of such programs with 67 million members. Fast forward to today:  American Airline's parent company AMR has filled for Chapter 11 , and AA sent an email to all it's AAdvantage members . What is immediately clear from that email is that AA wants everyone to know that (a) their miles are safe and (b) the program will not be altered as part of these reorganization procedures. See the  entire letter Here Airlines enter into Bankruptcy through what seems to be a never-ending revolving door. The real news is that their frequent