Stories by Louis Ibah
Why continue to fly six or more times in a month between say Lagos and Port Harcourt, Uyo to Abuja or any other Nigerian city and at the end of the trip, your ticket are just discarded like another piece of worthless paper when some Nigerian airlines have joined the global trend by introducing the Frequent Flyer Programme (FFP) and its countless benefits to regular fliers.
In the last three years, local airlines like Arik Air, Dana Air, Medview Airlines and Air Peace have launched FFPs designed to encourage their customers to enrol to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometers or segments), which may then be redeemed for air travel or other rewards.
What is FFP
The FFP can be seen as a type of virtual currency, one with unidirectional flow of money to purchase points, but no exchange back into money. The FFP is an incentive programme operated by an airline to reward customers for their continued loyalty. As a traveller, you earn free miles for the miles you fly on a particular airline. The concept behind FFP is that the airlines want their passengers to become lifetime customers. It is much more costly for the airlines to get new customers than it is to retain the ones they already have. So how do they reward you? The more frequently you fly with them, the greater your awards. Points earned under FFPs may be based on the class of fare (first class, business or economy), distance flown on that airline or the amount paid. Higher fare classes such as business or first class, usually offer the most points.
An FFP not only rewards you for spending money and travelling with a particular airline. There are other benefits available through FFPs, including priority boarding, airline lounge access, complimentary flight upgrades and exclusive offers from programme partners such as hotels, car hire companies and credit cards. FFPs have grown enormously. As of January 2005, a total of 14 trillion frequent flyer points had been accumulated by airlines worldwide, which corresponds to a total value of $700 billion.
FFP imperative for business class travelers
It’s no secret that most airlines value one class of customer above all: Business travellers. Airlines earn far more money off such passengers than leisure travellers for the simple reason that road warriors (or their bosses) typically buy tickets at the last minute, which are generally far more expensive than tickets purchased a month or even two weeks before take-off by leisure or economy class travellers. Plus business travellers are typically seated in those fancy (and costly) business or first class seats. Giving these set of passengers more miles is simply an airline’s way of rewarding their high-spending habits, as well as a way to keep lucrative passengers from straying. This means if you fly business class often, you are robbing yourself by not hooking up to an FFP.
Nigerian airlines’ FFP
Air Peace calls its own FFP ‘Peace Advantage’ and says it’s “a loyalty programme where members earn Peace points, which can be redeemed for air travel or other rewards.”
Said the airline of its FFP: “To become a member, you must have flown with Air Peace three or more times. You may enroll online via our website or contact our call centre or you may also visit any of our airport customer service/sales desks to enroll. Any passenger aged 16 years or older can register to be a member. “No registrations are accepted for ages between 0 and 16. Such members are accommodated on the family card. Peace points are reward currency you earn as a Peace Advantage member. How many points must a passenger earn for an awards ticket? It’s usually 25,000 points for a one way economy class ticket and 40,000 points for a one way business class ticket.
How are my points calculated?
Economy class points are calculated by 2 per cent of ticket cost, while for business class points it is 3 per cent of ticket cost. All points are earned 24-48 hours after you have flown,” the airline added.
For Dana Air, its Communications Manager, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, said with the ‘Pay with Dana Miles’ initiative, which it launched recently, members of the airlines’ FFP can now use their miles as they desire for payment of excess baggage, upgrade from economy class to business class, exchange miles for tickets and still get loads of benefits attached to the FFP of the airline.
Ezenwa said, “we are excited to introduce the ‘Pay with Dana Miles’ initiative, which offers our guests the opportunity to use their miles as they desire. The ‘Pay with Dana Miles’ initiative is just our way of providing more options for our guests and keeping our strategic mission, which is to earn the loyalty and respect of our customers by consistently demonstrating our commitment to service, and providing affordable regional air transport services that focus on innovation, quality and service excellence.”
Arik Air calls its own ‘Affinity Wings’, noting that, “this programme has been designed with amazing rewards and benefits and that membership will give you a chance to earn and spend miles with Arik Air in addition to a broad selection of partners in the nearest future.”
How to benefit from FFP
The key to deriving the best benefit from FFP is to pick one FFP and stick with it. It’s not just about passengers flying domestic routes in Nigeria but it also applies to passengers on international routes flying with carriers from other countries. And the rule is that whether you’re seeking a free flight or elite status, the only way you’re going to get there is to start racking up the miles in a single FFP. Having a handful of miles in several different airline FFPs won’t get you anywhere. Unfortunately, if you always shop for online tickets by price, this may be the situation in which you find yourself. Therefore, pick the airline that you fly most often, or that you can fly most often, especially if you regularly go to the same destinations. If you don’t travel very often or expect to earn most miles through means other than travel (credit cards, hotels, etc.) look for the programme that will give you the most flexibility and the greatest purchasing power. The programme that gives you a lot of miles quickly may not be the best choice if all the rewards you’re after will cost you more miles than in a competing programme. Your frequent flyer miles reside in your account – much like your naira or dollar in the bank. They accumulate as you travel, although unfortunately they don’t earn interest. At this time, most of the larger domestic airlines use a fairly uniform policy: mileage does not expire but there must be some activity in your account once every three years. The airlines may change their mileage expiration policies, so you should read their most current guidelines. When the mileage total reaches a certain amount, you can “redeem” them for an award, usually air travel.