Building Loyalty: Can Brand Communities Retain High-Revenue Flyers?

Building a brand community sounds like a great idea. According to marketing thought leader Mark Schaefer, community is “the last great marketing strategy.” In Belonging to the Brand, Schaefer calls community “the marketing megatrend of our time.”

These statements might seem to be a bit hyperbolic, but Schaefer points out the declining effectiveness of traditional marketing and advances in technology as drivers of brand communities.

People Don’t Love Airlines

The airline business might pose additional challenges to building community. Most customers are occasional flyers. And, not many people love airlines. It’s hard to love a company that charges extra for amenities that used to be included and stuffs you into a tiny seat on a crowded airplane. And, even the most customer-oriented airlines have problems - flight delays, missing luggage, long waits on tarmacs, and waves of flight cancellations. The airlines get the blame for all of these bad experiences, even those that are caused by circumstances beyond their control.

The data shows the disdain people have for airlines. Not a single airline makes the top 50 in the latest Axios/Harris reputation rankings. Delta does the best at #58, while United and Southwest come in at #70 and #71, respectively. The other big U.S. airline, American, didn’t show up in the top 100. This lack of positive emotional connection is a major hurdle for any kind of community building effort.

Existing Communities

FlyerTalk is an online community that calls itself “the largest expert travel community” and claims 850,000+ members. It’s a busy place - while writing this article, I looked in and more than 15,000 members were online.

FlyerTalk is entirely independent from the airline brands, but they do have sub-communities focused on each airline. The United forum alone, for example, has over 40,000 discussions.

A busy digital community hasn’t translated into much offline interaction. While there have been FlyerTalk members who form subgroups to have in-person meetups, these don’t seem common. Attempts to get an Austin, Texas meetup going, for example, have been unsuccessful.

Online communities can still be strong, of course. Across FlyerTalk, many members offer help and advice to others with less experience or who are trying to solve a problem. But, the airline forums can only loosely be considered brand communities. And, they don’t do much, if anything, to promote the brand or increase engagement with the brand.

Other communities, like Reddit’s United Airlines subreddit, seem to feature mostly complaints and anecdotes about passenger or employee behavior.

Elite Flyers as a Community

The one group where a community seems feasible would be an airline’s most frequent flyers. This group has, on average, a better customer experience because of their status. Elite flyers board first, don’t pay for checked bags, get cabin upgrades when available, and may get other perks like a free cocktail or meal. This group is subject to the same vagaries of air travel as everyone else, but the experience is much less grueling. The top-tier elite flyer is experiencing a different airline than the basic economy flyer.

Because of their perks, elite flyers are often more favorably disposed toward their airline of choice. And, of course, these are the highest revenue, most loyal customers. If you want to build a brand community, this is by far the best group to work with.

Cruise Line Communities

Surprisingly, airlines generally make little effort to bring these flyers together. This is a contrast with, say, cruise lines. For their most loyal members, like airlines, cruise lines have a variety of perks - free laundry, discounts on various items, cabin upgrades when available.

The cruise lines offer their higher loyalty special on-board receptions, and even special lounge access in some cases.

While many of these perks have minimal monetary value, the events and lounge access do something special: they encourage high-value valuable customers to interact with each other for extended amounts of time. They make each member feel like they are part of a special group. During the course of a cruise, these elite members will continue to encounter each other, building a temporary community.

The friendships formed can last well beyond the end of a particular cruise. Even when they don’t, the cruiser’s identity as part of a select group of loyal customers will linger.

Airline Loyalty vs. Cruise Line Loyalty

A key difference between loyalty on airlines and cruise lines is that the latter offer status for life. Once you are Zenith on Celebrity, you are Zenith forever.

In contrast, airline loyalty programs have become ruthlessly transactional.

Each member must requalify every year to keep their status. And, while cruise lines typically count days spent cruising, airlines have stopped counting miles and now count dollars. A flyer who takes a short business class flight can earn as many points as one who spends 30 hours flying to and from Australia in economy.

Transactional vs. Emotional Loyalty

Airline programs can keep customers loyal, but it’s a transactional loyalty. If I know I’m many points (Premier Qualifying Points, or PQPs) short of requalifying for 1K status on United, I’ll pick a United flight even if a competing airline has a slightly more convenient flight.

The actual amount of time you spend in a brand’s airplanes (”butt-in-seat” miles) is mostly meaningless. In some cases you can qualify for elite status without even flying. Spend $200,000 using an American Airlines co-branded credit card and you can qualify for Executive Platinum status. Imagine a flyer who spent most weeks of the year standing in TSA lines, schlepping through airports, dealing with delays, and sitting in uncomfortable economy seats... how would they feel meeting someone with the same “elite flyer” status who had yet to board a flight?

Sometimes, you just need cash. In 2023, I didn’t fly quite enough to keep my United 1K status. No worries, an email offer from United promised me. The airline would happily bump me from Platinum back to 1K for only... wait for it... a one-time payment of $12,000. (Nope, I didn’t bite.)

None of this makes a flyer emotionally loyal to an airline. You might be treated like royalty one year, but if your job changes and your international business class flights dry up, you’ll be in the back of the line next year. Airlines do have some lifetime status members, but the thresholds keep rising and few flyers qualify.

Re-examining loyalty programs to recognize actual flight miles, even in a modest way, would make them seem less transactional.

Holiday Party Rewards Loyalty, Hints at Community

United Airlines did take one rather extraordinary step for its most loyal flyers in Austin, Texas. They invited elite Mileage Plus members to a holiday cocktail reception at an Austin City Limits venue. Apparently, this was the first such event held in a city that wasn’t a United hub like Houston or Chicago. Reportedly, Austin has the highest number of elite flyers of any non-hub city.

The entire event was top-level. It began with complimentary valet parking. There was live music, of course - this is Austin. Ultra-premium spirits were poured at the bar, and guests were gifted with a custom-engraved spirits bottle. Notably, the event included a plus-one option, so the significant others of the invited road warriors could attend as well.

Luc Bondar, who holds the titles of COO/President of MileagePlus and VP of Loyalty at United Airlines, said a few words to the assemblage. In keeping with the spirit of the event, he was brief and minimally promotional.

Did this event make the invited flyers feel valued and special? Did the less-traveled plus-ones feel at least a little rewarded for the time spent apart? I’d say yes on both counts. The event was so well staged that one couldn’t help but be impressed.

One of the enjoyable parts of the event was meeting other frequent flyers and United loyalists. I didn’t encounter any other speakers, but I met sales executives, business owners, and even leisure travelers. There was enough shared experience that the conversations were easy and interesting.

The event succeeded in letting the invitees know their loyalty was valued. But, it only hinted that an actual community could exist. I enjoyed connecting with fellow flyers, but as the evening closed, everyone left for their home and the holidays. Brand perception was boosted, but few lasting connections between individuals were formed.

Steps to Build Community

What could United do to keep the positive feelings going after their holiday event? Or what could any airline do to foster connections between their most loyal customers?

There’s no easy answer. As I mentioned earlier, airline loyalty is transactional, not emotional. Few flyers would get a United tattoo or wear Delta-branded apparel. In Austin, I’m far more likely to see people sporting logos for H-E-B, the beloved Texas supermarket, or Buc-ees, the unique highway convenience store chain, than any airline.

Nevertheless, focusing on top-tier loyalty customers, here are a few things airlines could try:

1. Events. The United holiday reception was successful in bringing many of the brand’s highest revenue flyers based in Austin together. But, it was far too expensive to replicate frequently or in smaller markets. Much less costly events - wine tastings, cooking demonstrations, guest speaker sessions, etc. - would let flyers network, socialize, and build relationships with like-minded travelers in their area.
2. Lounge Spaces. While dedicated lounges for elite members would be a great benefit, the cost would be prohibitive. But, the major airlines already have large networks of lounges. Larger lounges, particularly in hub locations, might be able to cordon off an area exclusively for elite members. This would underscore their identity as part of a special group as well as let them interact with fellow members.
3. Online Community. Bringing a brand’s elite flyers together in an online community, either on a dedicated platform or a site like Facebook or LinkedIn, would let them connect, share travel experiences, and access exclusive content.
4. Dedicated Community Manager. Whatever approach or approaches are uses, they need a dedicated community manager or team to foster engagement and facilitate connections among the brand’s elite travelers. This team would be responsible for organizing events, moderating online forums, and serving as a direct point of contact for addressing concerns or queries.
5. Brand Ambassadors/Influencers. It’s unlikely many people who fly enough to achieve elite status are looking for more to do. Nevertheless, in various communities it’s possible that some individuals could serve as brand ambassadors or influencers supporting the brand and showing a human side to it.
6. Co-creation. Robert Cialdini’s seventh and most recent Principle of Influence is Unity, a feeling of shared identity. One way to foster unity is co-creation, building something together. Using these communities to involve customers in creating products, redesigning services, etc. would begin to invoke this powerful principle and build a strong attachment not just to the community but to the brand.

Building community isn’t easy, but the benefits to a brand are enormous. The first airline to crack the code of building a brand community will gain a major competitive advantage.