The owner of the Platinum Lumo card, the highest level of Finnair’s loyalty program, estimates that the change may weaken the level of many Finnish loyalty cards.
Carrier Finnair will change its loyalty program early next year to be similar to grocery store bonus programs.
Finnair says that next year it will introduce the Avios loyalty currency of British Airways’ parent company IAG and that it will change the Finnair Plus program to one based on the amount of money spent.
In Finnair’s loyalty program, the company’s customers earn level points from their purchases to move up the membership levels and reward points, which can be used to buy flights and additional services, for example.
Next year, loyalty program members will collect Avios loyalty currency instead of reward points. Members advance to new membership levels based on the total sum of the flights and additional services they have purchased from Finnair.
The change means that in the future the number of flights will no longer affect progression from member level to another or the accumulation of loyalty currency.
“The program rewards customers directly based on the amount of money spent, just like many retail loyalty programs,” says Finnair’s commercial manager Be Orvér in the company’s announcement.
Married-currency is also used in the loyalty programs of IAG-owned British Airways and Spanish Iberia, as well as in the program of IAG’s major owner, Qatar Airways.
Finnair says that the reward points of the Plus program will be changed to Avios currency when the program is renewed, so that the purchasing power of the current points “remains unchanged”.
Finnair is also updating the level point limits required to reach different membership levels, but does not provide more detail about the level limits at this stage.
There are several levels in Finnair’s loyalty program, the lowest of which is the Basic level and the highest is Platinum Lumo.
with Finnair frequent flyer, holder of the Platinum Lumo card of the company’s loyalty program Ilkka Mannikainen estimates that the change may affect the loyalty level of many Finnair customers after the company reveals the euro limits of membership cards.
“Unfortunately, it may happen that many Finns fall off the wagon and the change becomes a big crunch and a mess. There may be surprises for people”, Mannikainen assesses the effects of the change in the program.
Mannikainen says that he anticipated the change announced by Finnair on Wednesday for several years.
“In Finnair’s loyalty program, we are starting to offer the best benefits to those who bring the most money into the house. This is a clear operating principle of the market economy, and this is how it should go,” says Mannikainen.
Mannikainen estimates that the change in the program may, however, weaken his customer loyalty towards Finnair, because the number of flights no longer affects promotion to a higher membership level.
“In my case, the change may change my consumption behavior in such a way that I no longer consider Finnair to be the number one choice, but any company on the market will do. My loyalty is crumbling,” Mannikainen says.
Mannikainen believes that Finnar’s own identity will also be lost in the change, because the company’s own loyalty program will be combined with the IAG- and Qatar-led system.
“Finnair is no longer the same domestic Finnair, because the company is giving up its own loyalty program.”
Finnair’s loyalty program has more than four million members. Finnair says that it will announce the exact date of the introduction of the renewed loyalty program later this year.
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