George Hayter: Air miles way off the mark (From Hampshire Chronicle)

George Hayter: Air miles way off the mark

10:34am Thursday 16th August 2007 in

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OUR local airport has just become a loyalty card blackspot.

Last week, the main airline at Southampton Airport, Flybe, introduced its "Rewards4All" loyalty scheme.

Avoiding tedious loyalty schemes has been one of the good things about using the budget airlines - until now.

Flybe, trying to fill the middle price ground between cheap and expensive carriers, is convinced it needs Rewards4All to remove the last argument that passengers have for sticking with aviation legacy brands such as British Airways.

But it can take many hours to calculate the perks from the various providers and how they compare.

I'd rather have cash than a free flight to somewhere I wouldn't otherwise go or free use of an airport lounge that I don't really need.

Flybe should save the money it's spending on this hare-brained scheme and keep prices low instead.

Anyone who remembers Green Shield stamps in the 1960s will know where I'm coming from.

Green Shield stamps were a huge drain on the country's saliva. Despite filling a stack of Green Shield books, our family never did get that bicycle.

Like the rest of Britain, our tongues were glad to see the end of Green Shield stamps, but the arrival years later of a Tesco loyalty card seemed like a return to insanity.

It was worse when other supermarkets came up with similar schemes, followed by loyalty cards for everything from hotels to car hire.

With all those cards, vast herds of cattle had to be slaughtered to provide leather for larger wallets. Now Flybe is perpetuating the insanity.

Never is so much human time and effort been wasted as when loyalty cards are proffered.

And never have I been subjected to so much boredom than when people recount the bargain weekend away they've just had with Air Miles.