In this article, Safir Jamal, CEO of Passtination talks about how low-fare airlines can jump on the loyalty train without relying on a model built for business travellers and legacy airline economics.
Earlier this year, easyJet announced plans to launch a new loyalty programme in its 2027 financial year. Meanwhile, Arajet’s chief communications executive has spoken publicly about their plans to develop their own frequent-flyer programme.
This momentum alone should be enough to dispel the myth that low-fare airlines don’t need loyalty. An airline built on low fares still needs repeat customers and a direct relationship with its frequent flyers.
The question is how low-fare airlines can jump on the loyalty train without relying on a model built for business travellers and legacy airline economics. If they copy legacy schemes, they risk inheriting legacy problems. An overly complex structure that offers no instant value is unlikely to resonate with budget-conscious leisure travellers.
The legacy model was built for a different customer
Status ladders and points systems are not inherently ineffective. Full-service carriers bet on these traditional mechanics as they can support premium cabins, alliance-wide benefits, and co-branded cards. Many can also count on their corporate travel customer base who fly often enough to stay engaged and keep up with the ever-changing rules.
These are less applicable to low-fare airlines. Their economics often run on thin margins and price-sensitive leisure travellers who fly too infrequently to reach a high tier. These customers have no structural reason to stay loyal beyond genuine, felt value.
If a low-fare airline loyalty programme only starts offering visible value after several trips or significant spending, its proposition sits beyond much of the target market. The result? Disengaged members and wasted spend, because this customer base has the least patience for confusion and the fewest reasons to push through it.
Recent Deloitte research offers a warning from the wider sector. Its survey of more than 5,500 US loyalty members, including 683 airline members, found that flyers allocating 100% of their annual airline spend to one carrier were the least likely to say the programme added value. Only one in five travellers felt recognised. While the research does not establish complexity as the cause, it does challenge the assumption behind every status ladder that deeper programme participation produces clearer value.
Simplicity or scale – why not both?
Southwest Rapid Rewards approached 100 million members in the second quarter of 2026 with just two elite tiers, A-List and A-List Preferred. Members can use points for any available seat without blackout dates, and points don’t expire.
While we cannot attribute the programme’s growth to its simplicity, the fact that the low-fare airline with the most loyalty members in the world runs one of the industry’s least complex programmes dismantles the idea that a valuable loyalty scheme needs a long ladder.
Elsewhere in the low-fare airline world, Allegiant’s Allways Rewards has been repeatedly recognised for its simple structure. Points have a fixed value of one US cent towards travel, with no minimum redemption or blackout dates. In fact, their CCO Drew Wells has previously said the airline intentionally moved away from traditional loyalty models that mostly serve high-mileage business travellers.
Volaris’s programme, altitude, has zero status tiers. Their goal is to make every flight count and offer tangible, immediate benefits to members – including the opportunity to pay for flights and extras with points.
Lastly, Vueling provides a different live test. The low-fare airline many point to as proof that loyalty works for budget carriers has recently added two more rungs to its Vueling Club ladder. While it’s too early to judge the outcome, it will be interesting to observe whether each extra layer creates value that members can perceive.
Sometimes, less is more
The complexity trap usually starts with good intentions. A programme adds new partners, new earning routes, new redemption options, and new card benefits because each addition appears to offer more. However, the actual value becomes harder to access as members are then forced to remember eligible partners, conversion rates, qualifying points, expiry rules, and availability restrictions.
Offering simple and instant value doesn’t have to mean discounts. It could mean cash-equivalent points that members understand, the ability to part-pay flights with points, or even receiving faster help during disruption. The principle is that members can see what they’re getting and take advantage of it, without having to decode the programme first.
The same applies to choice. When building Passtination, we noticed that destinations where our digital wallet pass offered discounts at a long list of merchants produced significantly less engagement. Testing led us to settle on 15 to 20 carefully selected merchants per city: enough variety to be useful to travellers without becoming overwhelming. It is a practical example of why abundance and value are not the same thing.
Design with strategy in mind
Designing a loyalty programme should begin with the behaviour the airline wants to influence. If the objective is more direct repeat bookings, value should be visible during the search and booking stages. If you want to boost ancillary sales, the reward should make a relevant add-on more attractive without creating another maze of rules.
Aligning the programme with airline strategy should also extend to measurement. The number of enrolled members does matter, but metrics around active use, redemption rates, and repeat booking better indicate whether the programme has succeeded in changing behaviour.
When evaluating a programme, carriers should also factor in the operational burden that comes with it, including technology, servicing, partner management, points liabilities, and the attention required from members.
Points and tiers may be appropriate, but neither should define a “real” loyalty programme by default. The aim is to use the fewest tools necessary to achieve the desired commercial outcome.
Carriers like easyJet are reopening the low-cost loyalty question at the right time. The simplest programmes in this category seem to be matching or beating the most structured ones on scale – not despite their simplicity, but arguably because of it.
