Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Frequent flier rebellion
Travel | Consumer
December 14, 2023 – Members of travel loyalty programs are becoming increasingly disloyal. Since 2021, there has been a steep decline in the likelihood that a consumer would recommend airline, hotel, and cruise line loyalty programs to a friend or coworker, find partner Jillian Tellez Holub and colleagues. A major reason for the dissatisfaction is that travel companies have been rolling back some of the new rules put in place during the pandemic that made it easier for consumers to attain and keep a higher status level—and the benefits that come with it.
To read the article, see “Travel invented loyalty as we know it. Now it’s time for reinvention,” November 15, 2023.
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Visual form
Three-panel slope-chart display. Each panel uses paired endpoints and connecting lines to show how recommendation scores moved between 2021 and 2023.
Layout / body structure
The chart is arranged as three small multiples read left to right: airline, cruise, and lodging. Inside each panel, one solid line represents the loyalty program and one dashed line represents the brand, so the same two measures can be compared across travel categories.
What is being compared
The visual compares net likelihood of recommending the loyalty program versus recommending the brand across three travel sectors and across two time points. It is designed to show whether loyalty-program advocacy is holding up better or worse than brand advocacy as customer sentiment changes.
Measurement system
Scores are shown in percentage points, with a vertical scale running from negative territory up to 50. The horizontal axis marks 2021 and 2023, and the line styles rather than colors distinguish loyalty-program scores from brand scores.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each panel contains two plotted endpoints joined by a line, making the direction and steepness of change immediately visible. The airline, cruise, and lodging panels all use the same axis range, so the magnitude of the drop can be compared directly from panel to panel.
Main takeaway from the visual
Recommendation scores for loyalty programs fell sharply over the two-year window, and the drop is steeper than the movement in brand recommendation. The slope-chart format makes that visible by showing the solid loyalty lines falling much more dramatically than the dashed brand lines, especially in cruise and lodging.
Key standout values or extremes
Cruise shows the steepest visible drop in loyalty-program recommendation, falling from the low 40s to the low 20s. Lodging also falls sharply from the mid-30s to the mid-teens, while airline declines more moderately from the high teens to the low teens and the brand lines stay much closer to flat.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.