It always amazes to see the amount of effort and money companies spend in order to acquire new customers. However, these very same companies seem to go out of their way to chase away their existing customers.
I used to be a very loyal customer of one particular airline, let’s call in Horse Air. I always loved the fact that their services were among the best and the food they served had the world talking.
I would book Horse Air to wherever I travelled, even when connections were bad. My loyalty saw me rise up the racks of its frequent flyer programme and I quickly rose to “gold” status. Among the privileges I received included free travel, more luggage, use of its premium lounge and priority boarding whatever class I choose to travel.
After getting my “gold” card, I seemed to enjoy most of its privileges accept for priority boarding. It seemed to me that I was never invited to board the aircraft first. I did not really mind this too much. What I really enjoyed were the “free flights” I could redeem with my frequent flyer miles.
I used to enjoy return flights to my favourite destination for only the price of airport tax. Later however, I was also asked to pay a fuel surcharge. Well, I was not happy but I continued to give them my support. Then all of a sudden, the inflight meals took a turn for the worse, the food served was so little and the taste too had deteriorated to an extend that I would often say to meals on board.
Then came the final straw. The fuel surcharge was increased so much that my so called “free” tickets started to cost more than those sold as “normal” by low cost carriers. What really got to me was the fact that the airline was selling tickets to the public at “0” fare or such low fares that a loyal customer like me, was paying almost the same amount as a person who used their service maybe once in two years!
I saw no point in continuing my loyalty. I started using the services of the low cost carrier and other rival airlines. To my astonishment, I found that these other airlines had in fact, better aircraft, better fares, better food and even used better airports.
So, there you go, that’s how Horse Air lost me…
I used to be a very loyal customer of one particular airline, let’s call in Horse Air. I always loved the fact that their services were among the best and the food they served had the world talking.
I would book Horse Air to wherever I travelled, even when connections were bad. My loyalty saw me rise up the racks of its frequent flyer programme and I quickly rose to “gold” status. Among the privileges I received included free travel, more luggage, use of its premium lounge and priority boarding whatever class I choose to travel.
After getting my “gold” card, I seemed to enjoy most of its privileges accept for priority boarding. It seemed to me that I was never invited to board the aircraft first. I did not really mind this too much. What I really enjoyed were the “free flights” I could redeem with my frequent flyer miles.
I used to enjoy return flights to my favourite destination for only the price of airport tax. Later however, I was also asked to pay a fuel surcharge. Well, I was not happy but I continued to give them my support. Then all of a sudden, the inflight meals took a turn for the worse, the food served was so little and the taste too had deteriorated to an extend that I would often say to meals on board.
Then came the final straw. The fuel surcharge was increased so much that my so called “free” tickets started to cost more than those sold as “normal” by low cost carriers. What really got to me was the fact that the airline was selling tickets to the public at “0” fare or such low fares that a loyal customer like me, was paying almost the same amount as a person who used their service maybe once in two years!
I saw no point in continuing my loyalty. I started using the services of the low cost carrier and other rival airlines. To my astonishment, I found that these other airlines had in fact, better aircraft, better fares, better food and even used better airports.
So, there you go, that’s how Horse Air lost me…
