Back when they started, frequent flyer schemes were simple affairs. The premise, first introduced in 1979 by Texas International Airlines, was straightforward: customers who chose to fly with a specific airline would be “rewarded” for their loyalty. Early rewards might come in the form of perks or special fares for frequent customers, but this quickly evolved into air miles, which could go towards the cost of future flights once enough of them had been accrued. The idea was taken up by airlines around the world, in the hopes that offering an incentive would encourage passengers to pick them over a competitor.
Skip forward to 2023 and these programmes have morphed into something much more complicated. Air miles have been replaced by points, with different names, values, methods of collection and stipulations around how you can spend them depending on the carrier or group of airlines (British Airways recently made waves by changing the way Avios (its name for points) are earned from per mile flown to per pound spent). These days, you don’t just earn – or have to redeem – points from or on flights; stay in the right hotel chain, rent a car from the right company and pay with the right credit card, and points can be garnered and used on partner airlines, or indeed spent on a whole host of other travel experiences.
