Skift Take
Loyalty points are a currency that requires an expertise of a George Soros to take the best advantage of.
Earlier this year, The New York Times published an article lamenting the decline of the mileage run, those short trips taken at year's end in order to earn a few more miles and achieve elite status.
The main argument of the article was that as airlines move towards revenue-based loyalty programs, the need to earn last second miles is somewhat moot. By extension, loyalty programs are in decline.
To an effect, that's true, but the article fails to consider the wide variability of loyalty programs and their applications. A big component of a loyalty program's value has to do with its utility. One program, where a traveler is constrained to earning and spending points on a single carrier, for example, can be far weaker than another program that has multiple earning and transfer partners.
In truth, a great deal of variables go into building a loyalty program and applied ca
