easyJet to launch a new points-based loyalty scheme

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I did a long piece yesterday on easyJet Plus and – in passing – mentioned Flight Club. This is easyJet’s ‘invite only’ loyalty scheme for top flyers which has a number of ‘soft’ benefits (such as the ability to cancel non-refundable flights) but does not give points for free flights.

It seems this is all going to change. easyJet is finally launching a points-based loyalty programme.

The airline has recently appointed its first Head of Loyalty. Industry gossip is that the job has been taken by Zac Vogel, who held the role on an interim basis over the Summer and – although he hasn’t updated his LinkedIn profile yet – has now joined permanently. Vogel was previously Head of Marketing at Etihad in Abu Dhabi for four years and Head of Group Brand at Qantas for six years before that.

easyJet launching points based loyalty scheme

We know what easyJet is planning because they put the details into their results presentation last week.

Take a look here (PDF) and scroll down to slides 30 and 31.

66% of easyJet flights booked in the last financial year were booked by people who have previously flown with easyJet in the last two years. Importantly, members of easyJet Plus and Flight Club fly more often, spend more on ancillaries and spend more with partners. Slide 25 says that loyal customers are ‘more than 2x’ more valuable to the airline, although it is not clear what this is based on.

Slide 31 is the key. Click to enlarge:

This is what we are going to see:

easyJet will introduce a points currency

Points will be earned on all purchases

Points will also be earned with selected partners including easyJet Holidays

There will be a ‘range’ of redemption options, which implies that this is NOT a straight cashback programme like Norwegian Reward

‘Points & Cash’ will be available, presumably allowing people with only a handful of points to still use them by getting a discount on a future easyJet flight

The programme will launch first in the UK in 2019, with European expansion in 2020. It appears that easyJet Plus and Flight Club will continue, although it will be difficult to run both of those alongside an additional points-based scheme.

2020 will also see the launch of a Business Rewards loyalty scheme for corporates. Before that, 2019 will see the launch of Corporate Flight Club for businesses which make a substantial number of easyJet bookings.

I dug out the advertisement that easyJet ran for the new ‘Head of Loyalty’ role. It adds a bit more information:

“This is in additional to easyJet’s existing (refined) loyalty offers, not a total replacement

The programme should consist of a segmented suite of offers rewarding the full cross-section of our customer base (eg to include Business)

Leverage easyJet assets where there is high perceived customer value but low(er) cost to easyJet

Extend the programme across profitable partnerships including as a route to market (eg financial services products) and to incentivise ancillary spend (eg accommodation)”

….. so we may even see an easyJet credit card in the near future.

It all looks very interesting and I will bring you more information as it is released.

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Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Mike says:

27 Nov27 November 09:54

Interesting. I don’t think it matters how good they make the scheme, unless there is some arbitrage for premium long haul travel I suspect many of the readers of this site won’t be interested.
- Brighton Belle says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 10:38
  
  I don’t really agree. There are plenty of Easyjet destinations to enjoy a long weekend. Everything long haul needs a week’s commitment. But like all these programs it will be a way to fill up planes in the slow months I guess. It’s better than nowt.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 10:46
    
    +1
    
    Long weekend in Sevilla for my wife & daughter next year – no sense trekking up to LHR so it’s easyJet from Bristol.
  - Alan says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 10:50
    
    Agreed, with the extra RFS 9k Avios + £35 cost from the regions now for any short-haul flights it’s rare that BA is competitive and Easyjet combined with Amex Plat PP is a pretty appealing option. Lots of good choices for a weekend break and direct flights with no need to visit LHR!
  - Olly says:
    
    28 Nov28 November 08:40
    
    Agreed, they are good for the last minute long weekend break from my point of view.
- Bagoly says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 10:56
  
  Arbitrage is indeed one aspect.
  But there is also a pure range of offers limitation:
  BA, LH etc provide services that I can’t (sensibly) afford.
  Most loyal U2 customers can afford any route that they offer in any seat.
  
  And while plenty of long-haul premium flyers bring with them >£100k of revenue a year, I imagine the number over £10k at U2 is minimal – those who commute weekly mainly buy well in advance so less than £100 per flight.
  I suppose there may be some people who fly E.g. between London and Geneva 50 times a year on Flexi tickets at £300 a time.
- marcw says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 11:05
  
  Disagree. I use Avios only for S/H, and I think it is very popular among reader on this site.
  
  Long haul is just a rip off, even with a 241. Way better options out there.
  - Mikeact says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 19:03
    
    Long haul is a rip off .? Please elaborate.
    - David says:
      
      2 Dec2 December 12:30
      
      Long haul redemptions.
      Make no sense in economy, and need a 241 to make them competitive for premium cabins.
      
      And like marcw, my mainstay use of BAEC and Avios points is shorthaul.
- Tom says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 13:55
  
  Also there is no point trying to collect avios on BA short haul routes. If the easyJet scheme was compelling I would happily consider switching out flights to them (not least because Bristol and Birmingham are more convenient for me than LHR) for short haul.
  
  I am a huge fan of the Norwegian scheme.. via work I’ve earned over £800 of Norwegian flights that I can take with my family..and since it is a discount you don’t have to worry about available inventory. You also have a very interesting route network!
ankomonkey says:

27 Nov27 November 10:03

Isn’t Easyjet Head of Loyalty a bit of a step down from his previous roles? I’m not trying to crucify this guy who I know nothing about, but it feels like a big drop to me. I thought the same about the guy who moved from a senior Avios role to FlyBe (mentioned last week). Wasn’t that also a relative downward move?

I’m not trying to be critical of either person, maybe I don’t understand roles in the loyalty sector, or maybe there aren’t that many roles out there so you take what you can… Loyalty roles at Easyjet/FlyBe don’t excite me the way a role with Qantas, Etihad or Avios would.
- Rob says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 10:11
  
  If you look at his LinkedIn, he left Etihad a while ago and had just been ‘consulting’ for a few months – he didn’t leave Etihad to do this.
  
  The Flybe move is a step up for Oliver – he wasn’t part of the Avios leadership team and now he gets to design a programme from scratch and run it. Very good stepping stone to bigger things. The guy who runs – and created the new structure for – Club Eurostar did exactly the same thing, leaving a mid level role at Avios. Both of these guys are young and they probably have a better chance of running Avios one day (which came with a £700k package last time I checked) by spending a few years outside running a smaller scheme.
  - Alex says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 11:49
    
    Slightly OT, but since you mention it… The Club Eurostar change has actually made it much easier for me to keep my Carte Blanche. At first I thought it would be atrocious, but then I realised I’d actually spent way over 2k some years and almost missed the cut a couple of times!
    
    Now they need to introduce a Carte Blanche for life scheme. I’ve qualified for the last 8 years (including the year of the change), maybe after 10 years they could give me one for life? 😉
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 16:58
    
    Thanks Rob. Again, I wasn’t being critical of either individual, I was just intrigued as neither new role sounded overly attractive to me. I’ll keep waiting for Singapore to offer me their head loyalty role. I offer a ‘fresh perspective’ as someone with no background in loyalty schemes other than trying to maximise benefits for personal reasons.
- Alan says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 10:27
  
  Perhaps its the “starting from scratch” element that appeals?
  - Bagoly says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 10:57
    
    Yes – it certainly would to me
- Adam says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 14:19
  
  I would definitely urge caution about judging the level of a role by our own perceptions of what a role might entail. I suffer from a similar problem with recruiters constantly sending me jobs that are clearly a lot more junior than the position I’m currently in – all because I have a more ‘junior’ sounding job title.
  
  In this day and age, I would be very surprised if someone effectively demoted themselves to take on a more junior role. There will doubtless be a number of factors at play, such as increased responsibility, remuneration package, path to progression etc. especially at the level we are talking about here.
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    27 Nov27 November 17:01
    
    Granted. Was just curious as in both cases the previous roles sounded more appealing, to me at least.
- Nick says:
  
  27 Nov27 November 17:47
  
  Ollie wasn’t in a senior role at Avios, it was a huge leap up for him. It’s only a couple of years since he was a handle-turner in BA Rev Man, he’s done incredibly well for himself.
Bagoly says:

27 Nov27 November 10:47

Other Easyjet news, in more mainstream HfP reader territory: it seems that they have removed the half bottles of champagne (Piper) from the Bistro – at £16 less the £7 Flexi voucher this was outstanding value.

One can now pre-order whole bottles of champagne (Lanson, as on QR) at £32, but that’s overdoing it for me on my own on a short flight.
Tony says:

27 Nov27 November 14:18

For somebody like me who does around fifty low cost flights a year a true Easyley Loyalty scheme would be very interesting particularly if a credit card also comes with it.
Also bear in mind Easyjet have set up Worldwide by Easyjet, working with other airline’s including Virgin and Norwegian.
Callum says:

27 Nov27 November 19:46

I’d say they can all run concurrently. Introduce points earning to Flight Club and it will effectively just be a higher tier level to the main scheme.
Lady London says:

27 Nov27 November 19:48

I think they are looking at other types of card than straight credit card. Such as something in Switzerland that might or might not reach other countries.

I like U2 as they are . They have been a welcome refuge from British Airways. I really hope someone doesn;t come along with “same as everyone else” ideas.
- David says:
  
  3 Dec3 December 12:10
  
  I suspect that a higher % of easyJet’s revenue comes from customers spending their own money (or money that technically belongs to a company, but their own) as opposed to their employer than a lot of other airlines.
  
  This means the approach of slightly higher fares in return for a loyalty scheme may not work – as unlike other airlines the former is paid by the same person who benefits from the latter
MichaelG says:

28 Nov28 November 21:01

It’s a bit frustrating the arrogance on here sometimes, thinking the only readers are those taking 50 first class transatlantic flights a year, and they are the only people that brands are concerned about. They might have the big spend and present the bigger margin for the brand’s, but the amount brought in from low value spenders is huge. I’ve seen groups of 20-30 blue collar workers who spend maybe 200 nights away a year change hotels because of poor/no loyalty scheme. A lot of readers on here may not spend an extra hour a week travelling to a different airport just to gather some points, but there is a huge market of people out there who will, and easyjet know that they are currently losing people cause of it.
- Shoestring says:
  
  28 Nov28 November 21:06
  
  Up the workers!
- peld says:
  
  3 Dec3 December 13:01
  
  Agree. Being in Edinburgh, the low cost airlines are way more convenient, if i’d pay the extra to go on BA. Its pointless flying to LHR/LGW, waiting for an hour or two then flying on somewhere in Europe for the sake of a few points. Add in the fact that there is nothing compelling about BA short haul. If there was some basic points system to get money off or a credit somewhere I can see it being a hit.