Customer loyalty is always top of mind, and that’s no different when it comes to air travel elite. Air travel, as an aside, is always a topic of exasperation. Many now sit in ever-increasingly smaller seats, pay for extra amenities like leg room and suffer crying children. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a mom of a former toddler who cried during entire flights many times.

There’s a first time for everything! Recently, I spent the night in the Philadelphia airport, an experience that I never wish to repeat!

Perhaps the airport lounge catering to customer loyalty might have been open for the air travel elite. Or, heck, they just would have sprung for the $300/night airport hotel for six hours! (That deserves a big LOL as I chose my discomfort over the dollars.)

The New York Times says that the cost to build a new airport lounge is $10 million. Add to that the battle to lure air travel elite to new lounges. What you get is marketing at its finest, driven by the need to recoup expense outlays and engage in customer loyalty.

Airlines’ Unabashed Customer Loyalty

One amenity, particularly, offered to premium fliers in the name of customer loyalty causes a slight gag (kinda like a dirty sock flying into my mouth). Delta’s lounge at Reagan National now boasts a ‘chandelier made to look like branches of a cherry blossom tree.’ Oy.

Other plush amenities make more sense, and these are just the tip of the iceberg:

• Wellness amenities like spa treatments, relaxation and meditation areas, and healthier foods for those with celiac disease now abound.
• ‘Rotating celebrity-chef inspired menus,’ showers, playrooms for the kids, and soaring spaces are commonplace.
• Local art and locally crafted beer are popular features. At the same time, people with lengthier layovers can also jump into a day bed.

Here are some of the current plans by airlines to make their airport lounge attractive to customers:

• Alaska Airlines is spending $50 million to spruce up and expand its lounges including new ones in New York and San Francisco. Says the New York Times, Alaska Air just opened its biggest lounge yet in Seattle to accommodate that airport’s growth in traffic from 30 million passengers in 2010 to 50 million passengers in 2018.
• Delta Air Lines built five new lounges and 18 others are expanding as a way to customer loyalty and engagement.
• United views airport lounges as a way to cater to premium travelers who need just-in-time amenities: a quick bite, device charge, or work table to review a file.

Credit card companies are also in on the action. For example, American Express’s recent purchase of app and website LoungeBuddy now offers reviews and airport lounge information. At the same time, day passes to the airport lounge are also offered up for purchase.

When Amenities Create Too Much Customer Loyalty

People often say that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. In the case of airport lounge expansion, beautification and plush amenities, it’s airport lounges may soon get a bad rap. Can you think why that would be? Overcrowding!

When positive word-of-mouth marketing gets out, it’s then that travelers add extra time prior to a flight. They know a good thing when they see it. Why not spend wait time in an inviting, comfortable environment?

Customer loyalty now becomes more of an issue. The natural success of a marketing campaign gets in the way with too many people wanting in on a really good thing.

That’s where the issues begin to rear their ugly heads:

• Tiered Entry Rules: International Premium Cabin Ticket holder takes precedence over a Priority Pass cardholder
• Price Increases: Because of capacity issues, airlines increase pricing to reduce overcrowding
• No Day Passes: Credit card companies limit availability of day passes which eliminates lower-tier cardholders
• Guest Limits: Some credit card companies limit lounge usage to two guests only

In A Nutshell

This story is not surprising. Air travel now caters to the elite; while it always has, tiers are even more apparent: pricing, accommodations and amenities. In addition, those tiers also include the airport lounge itself.

Elite customers as the cream on the cappuccino beget the most luxurious marketing campaigns; yet, even among the ranks of the 1 percent, some of them are being asked to wait outside…all in the name of customer loyalty.