Consulting Journal: Style - Loyalty cards (1)

Style: Loyalty cards (1)

by David Blakey

In the first of three articles, we look at when you would use loyalty cards.

[Monday 4 August 2003]

This is the first of three articles. In the first article, we shall look at how you can use loyalty cards with airlines, car hire companies and hotels.

We shall imagine that you are about to drive to the airport, park your car, take a flight, hire a car at your destination, drive to a client, drive to a hotel, spend the night, drive to your client again, drive to the airport, and then fly home. For some of these stages, we shall look at how you pay for each item and what you get in return.

Park your car

If you are a member of an airline ‘club’, you can expect to use the club's valet parking service. This is often a separate memership than your meembership of an airline's ‘frequent flier’ programme. Usually, memebership of the airline club will cost you an annual fee, while membership of the frequent flier flier programme is free.

One of the facilities offered by airline clubs is valet parking. This gives you a convenient point to leave your car at the airport terminal. Your car will also be ready for you when you return. The valet service will arrange for your car to be cleaned, for an additional charge. I have even had minor repairs to my car done and new roadworthiness certificates obtained for me by an airlin'es valet parking service.

You can expect to drive your car to the airport and to have it parked for you while you are out of town on business for a client. You can expect to have the client pay for this. We shall look at how you can do this in a later article.

Check in at the airport

You may be a member of the airline's ‘frequent flier’ programme. You can expect to accumulate points for each flight towards a reward. I do not think that you owe anything to a client when you present your frequent flier card at check-in. The flight would cost the same if you did not have the card.

This same argument applies to an employee's use of a corporate card. If you are an employer, you should not expect that your employees should put their points into a corporate ‘pool’. The accumulation of points should be a reward for the employee flying on the employer's business. I enjoy flying, but I recognize the waste of my own time while waiting for flights and walking through the corridors of airport terminals.

Sit in the lounge

As a member of the airline club, you will be able to use the airline's lounge at the airport. You should make sure that you have membership, so that your stay in the airport before your flight is as comfortable as possible. Most of the services in the lounge will be avaailable to you without any additional payment. Your clients should expect that you should use these services, so it is appropriate that you should charge your clients a portion of your membership fees. I shall suggest a simple way to do it in the third article.

Hire a car

If you are a member of a car hire company's loyalty programme, and if your client is booking the car for you, then you should make sure that you give your membership number to the client. This makes sure that you get an appropriate vehicle, with appropriate insurance cover. The car hire company will have this on file. I only drive automatics: I have never driven a car with a manual gearbox. I only drive saloon cars: I have never driven an SUV. The car hire company will make sure that I get the right vehicle.

Check in at the hotel

Your client may have made the hotel booking for you or you may have made it yourself. Either way, you should not be paying ‘standard rate’ for your room.

As you travel, you may discover that you like a particular chain or brand of hotels. You may prefer hotels that are classified as ‘luxurious’ or ‘executive’. You may prefer ‘boutique’ hotels. Whatever your preference, you will want to stay in hotels that match that preference. You may be able to join a hotel chain's loyalty club.

Hotel loyalty clubs can differ considerably. One chain may give you a discount for every stay and coupons to use throughout the year at their hotels to reduce the cost further. Another chain may give you a larger discount for every stay. Some chains include discounts in their restaurants. Other chains include discounts in their health areas, such as the pool, gym or sauna.

As with frequent flier memberships, any rewards from a loyalty club should go to the card-holder, rather than the consulting company.

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