How to build airline customer loyalty that lasts
By Kathryn Casna●6 min. read●Feb 20, 2026
Airline loyalty programs have never been more profitable. They've become multi-billion-dollar financial engines. They’re so valuable that some airlines' frequent flyer programs are worth more than the airlines themselves. Yet here's the paradox loyalty program managers are living with every day: members have never been less loyal.
According to research by TNMT, 95% of airline loyalty program reviews rated one star out of five on Trustpilot between 2019 and 2025. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction of the actual flight experience has increased. The problem isn't the airline. It's the loyalty program.
This creates a specific challenge for loyalty leaders. You're responsible for both member engagement and program profitability, but the traditional levers (points, tiers, elite status) are delivering diminishing returns. This guide covers research-backed strategies to rebuild genuine member engagement without sacrificing what makes these programs valuable in the first place.
Why are airline loyalty programs losing their grip?
The decline in member engagement is structural. Loyalty programs were originally designed to change customer behavior: to make travelers choose your airline over competitors. But that influence has steadily eroded. As consumers join more programs, their engagement with each one tends to decline — and airlines are competing for attention, not just bookings.
Travelers now sign up for loyalty programs for the perks: free checked baggage, a sign-up bonus, and access to airport lounges. These aren’t exclusive benefits; many airlines offer them. Which means it benefits travellers to sign up for more than one loyalty program. Your customers are considering multiple brands for every trip. That's not loyalty, that’s comparison shopping.
Younger travelers make this even more challenging. Gen Z participates in travel loyalty programs at significantly lower rates than older generations — just 65% compared to higher participation among Gen X and Boomers. And with Gen Z's spending power projected to reach $12 trillion by 2030, that engagement gap represents real revenue at risk.
Unfortunately, program changes over the past several years have eroded trust. The shift to revenue-based earning means members need to spend more to earn the same rewards. Dynamic award pricing makes redemptions feel unpredictable. Benefit clawbacks after pandemic-era extensions left members feeling like the goodwill was temporary.
For loyalty program managers, this data points to a fundamental shift in what members expect. The old playbook was made up of accumulating points, climbing tiers, unlocking perks. That still matters, but it's no longer enough to drive the kind of engagement that keeps members from shopping around.
Where do members get most frustrated? The redemption problem.
If there's one pain point that crystallizes why loyalty programs are losing their grip, it's redemption.
Top airlines are sitting on billions of unredeemed miles. Delta has around $3.8 billion and United has around $4 billion. Those are staggering figures that represent both a liability for airlines and a frustration for members. It’s a massive store of value that members struggle to access. Award seat availability has declined for over a decade as airlines fill planes with 85% or higher capacity from paying customers. A decade ago, that was closer to 70%. There simply aren’t enough available seats to redeem all those miles customers have racked up.
This creates a vicious cycle that loyalty managers know all too well. You can't simply add more award seats. Capacity constraints make that unrealistic, especially on high-demand routes. But if members can't redeem their points for something meaningful, they'll stop engaging with your program entirely.
The solution is expanding redemption options beyond flights into categories that feel valuable to members but don't cannibalize your core revenue.
This is where many programs struggle operationally:
Managing gift card vendor relationships
International fulfillment
Catalog curation
Fraud prevention
A diverse redemption portfolio is complex and resource-intensive. It's one thing to decide you want flexible redemption options. But can you actually deliver them at scale?
3 strategies to rebuild member engagement
Programs that are winning member engagement share common approaches any loyalty team can adapt. Here's what building a loyalty program that actually earns loyalty looks like in practice.
1. Expand redemption flexibility beyond seats
Loyalty programs work best when the perceived value to the member far exceeds the marginal cost to deliver. When a member redeems points for a $100 gift card that costs the program $85, both sides win. The member gets immediate, tangible and emotional value. The program reduces its points liability without giving up a seat that could have been sold for cash.
The operational challenge is building and managing a diverse catalog at scale. You need to:
Negotiate with vendors across categories
Handle international currency and availability
Prevent fraud
Ensure the redemption experience feels seamless instead of an afterthought bolted onto your booking engine.
Airlines that solve this create a release valve for point accumulation while giving members the flexibility they increasingly demand. It's no longer enough to offer flights and a handful of partner hotels. Members expect options, and the programs that deliver them earn a genuine competitive advantage.
2. Invest in personalization, not just points
Here's a stat worth remembering: 78% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases when brands offer personalized experiences. Yet most airline loyalty programs still deliver generic communications and one-size-fits-all offers.
Consider what you actually know about your members:
Booking patterns
Route preferences
Cabin class choices
In-flight purchases
Ancillary service usage
Credit card spending through co-brand partnerships
That's an extraordinarily rich data set, and most programs barely scratch the surface of what's possible.
Personalization in loyalty programs doesn't have to mean complex AI implementations. Successful loyalty program examples often start with basics: sending a bonus miles offer on a route the member flies frequently. Recommending redemption options based on past behavior. Acknowledging a member's anniversary with the program or their 50th flight.
The goal is making members feel recognized as individuals, not just account numbers in a database. That recognition, when it's genuine and relevant, creates emotional connection that points alone can't buy.
This matters especially for retaining high-value members. Your top-tier travelers have the most options and the highest expectations. Generic communications signal that you don't know or care who they are. Personalized outreach signals the opposite.
3. Create "surprise and delight" moments outside the points economy
Some of the most effective loyalty tactics don't involve points at all:
An unexpected lounge pass after a delay
A small gift card on a member's program anniversary
A handwritten note from a gate agent after a milestone flight
These micro-moments create emotional resonance that compounds over time. Members remember how you made them feel during disruptions or celebrations far longer than they remember their points balance.
When done well, unexpected rewards can generate strong loyalty without giving away free flights. The key is to make the reward feel friendly rather than transactional. Using gift cards instead of cash can help, too. A member who earns a 5,000-mile bonus they were promised feels satisfied. A member who receives an unexpected $25 gift card after a rough travel day feels valued.
The challenge is operational. How do you deliver these moments at scale, to the right members, at the right time, without creating a logistical nightmare?
This is where many programs stall. The intent is good, but the execution requires infrastructure that legacy frequent flyer systems weren't built to handle. You need the ability to trigger instant rewards based on specific events and deliver them through channels members actually use. And you need to track the impact on engagement and retention.
How modern rewards infrastructure solves the operational challenge
The strategies above — flexible redemption catalogs, personalized offers, surprise rewards — all require infrastructure that most legacy loyalty programs can't deliver efficiently.
Modern digital rewards platforms change the equation. They allow loyalty teams to send instant rewards triggered by specific member behaviors or events — gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, charitable donations, cash equivalents — without routing through complex vendor relationships or waiting on legacy fulfillment delays.
This is particularly valuable in three scenarios:
Service recovery: When a flight is delayed or a bag is lost, the window to preserve member goodwill is narrow. Being able to send a $50 gift card to a member's phone within hours instead of weeks transforms a negative experience into appreciation.
Partner co-marketing: Credit card sign-ups, hotel bookings through your portal, car rental conversions — these partner behaviors are valuable. Rewarding them instantly reinforces the connection between action and reward that makes loyalty programs work.
Member retention: A targeted incentive delivered at the right moment can reactivate a high-value member with slumping engagement before they drift to a competitor.
The operational benefits compound quickly:
Centralized catalog management across thousands of brands in hundreds of countries
Built-in fraud prevention that doesn't require your team to build custom solutions
Automated tax documentation for larger rewards
Real-time tracking and analytics that show exactly how reward delivery affects member behavior
Connection through a single platform or API integration, rather than a patchwork of vendor relationships and manual processes.
Many loyalty teams are already stretched thin managing program economics, partner negotiations, and member communications. But the right infrastructure removes friction from the strategies that actually move engagement metrics. It lets you focus on member experience strategy rather than vendor management logistics.
Building loyalty that lasts
Airline loyalty programs remain enormously valuable — both as profit centers and as tools to influence member behavior. What's changed is the competitive landscape. Members have more choices, higher expectations, and less patience for programs that take their loyalty for granted.
The programs that thrive will be the ones that earn engagement through genuine value, not just accumulated points. That means investing in redemption flexibility that gives members real options, using first-party data to deliver personalized experiences that make members feel recognized, and creating moments of unexpected recognition that build emotional connection outside the transactional points economy.
The technology to deliver these experiences at scale exists today. Successful programs are already using modern rewards infrastructure to solve the operational challenges that held previous generations of programs back. Learn more about how loyalty programs work and how the right infrastructure can help yours do the same.
