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Will airlines charge to join frequent flyer programs?

A survey finds consumers in their 20s and 30s are much more willing to pay for membership in loyalty programs. (Image: Delta)

A survey finds consumers in their 20s and 30s are much more willing to pay for membership in loyalty programs. (Image: Delta)

If fee-hungry airlines haven’t already started thinking about imposing fees to join their frequent flyer programs, they might start to consider it after they see the results of a new survey from LoyaltyOne.

That survey of 1,005 consumers found that the younger they are, the more willing they’d be to join a fee-based loyalty/rewards program. The survey focused on rewards programs offered by large retailers, like Amazon Prime and a comparable new effort from Walmart, but the same attitudes could well apply to mileage plans.

The survey found that 62 percent of all respondents said they were willing to sign up for a fee-based rewards program if their favorite retailer had one. But the positive rate was much higher among millennials (age 18-24) at 75 percent, and among those age 25-34 at 77 percent.

Almost half of the respondents (47 percent) said they believe rewards in a fee-based program would be better than those in programs that offer free membership — but again, that attitude was much more prevalent among younger consumers.

“These results should attract the attention of brands considering a shift to fee-based loyalty programs as marketers look for ways to create competitive differences and lock in customer spend against a backdrop of waning program effectiveness and engagement challenges,” said LoyaltyOne Consulting Associate Partner Lance Du Chateau.

LoyaltyOne specializes in designing and deploying customer loyalty plans.

Readers: Would you be willing to pay for membership in your favorite frequent flyer program? How much? What would you expect to get in return?

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Trip Report: SWISS Roche Coach + San Francisco mistakes + Planespotting 101: Airbus + Cool gasoline price heat map + More!


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