Hi All! A little bit something different in this issue. No Big Point article. Instead, two new sections. First, ‘Pointed Takes’, my rant…um, views…of some recent industry news where I feel the headlines missed the proverbial point. And second, ‘Stage Points’, summarizing some of the best things I heard at Loyalty Connect 2 weeks ago, including within my own panel 😀.
As always, let me know what you think! And if you have a friend or colleague who you think would benefit from So Many Points, please encourage them to subscribe.
In this Issue:
📣 Pointed Takes: Loyalty Headlines that missed the point this past week
🎤 Stage Points: Best things overheard at Loyalty Connect in Atlanta.
🔎 Points Worth Reading: Articles and reports worth your time
⚡Quick Points: Scannable to know, clickable to learn more
POINTED TAKES
Thoughts on Spirit, Uber, Starbucks and Best Buy
✈ Spirit Airlines is dead. And so are the loyalty points.
When Spirit shut down abruptly, other airlines sprang into action, offering low fares, adding routes, and offering status matches for Spirit elite members. The Loyalty points? Officially, they’re stuck in bankruptcy court purgatory. However, not one airline offered to match points or even add a small number of points to former Spirit customers’ accounts as a goodwill gesture. The only brand (as of this writing) running any promotion based on Spirit loyalty points is… Papa John’s, yes, of pizza fame. In their ‘Skies to Pies’ promotion, former Spirit customers can ‘use’ their points for a free pie. Kudos for the clever promo, but if a Spirit customer was counting on a free flight soon, a pizza is a small consolation.
But the silence from the other airlines on points sends a bad message and a stark reminder to customers: Your points are truly worthless until you actually use them. Travel brands hand out points like candy with their ‘here are 10 new ways to earn points,’ but apparently, the bankruptcy of a fellow airline is a jetbridge too far. And there is no law coming to save you to turn those points into any sort of value. But as I said in issue #17, maybe there should be!
🛌+ 🚘 Uber now has hotel bookings. And doing loyalty better than any brand with a points program.
Uber adding hotel bookings into their app (via a partnership with Expedia) is not a travel story or an app story. It’s a loyalty story. The US has never embraced full lifestyle apps like Asia and the Middle East have. But Uber is now close. Ride, eat, buy, deliver, and now stay all via one ecosystem. Uber One members get 10% in Uber One credits on eligible hotel bookings, effectively strengthening the Uber flywheel of earn/burn within their own ecosystem— all without points.
Uber is not trying to compete with Marriott or Hilton. Instead, they are taking a different path. Cash back > points. Membership > tiers. Convenience > complexity. As points are democratized and turned into discount engines with lots of rules and diminishing value, consumers will continue to do business with those who make life easier and easier. That’s the new loyalty.
☕ Starbucks says they’re winning by not discounting. But their $2 discount is winning.
Starbucks held its Q2 earnings call last week, during which it reported 4% YOY growth in Active Rewards members to a record 35.6 million. Despite some backlash over the program changes, the new program is doing what it was intended to do—driving engagement across many metrics.
But on that call, CEO Brian Nicchols said: “…demonstrates you don’t have to make our rewards program a coupon book…we had to stop doing all the discounting…this needed to be about personalization…about recognition.” Also declared on the same call? The new $2 discount off any item (for 60 stars) is the #1 redemption at nearly one-third! Not sure if Nicchols missed his cup of coffee that morning, but $2 off is neither personalization nor recognition and…<checks notes>…a discount. And a shitty one at that. It’s the worst possible return value of the new program.
What does this signal? That for all the posturing our industry does about “personalization” and “experiences”, if you give people a points program and give them discounting options, THAT is how they will use it. And that’s ok. Just know that is what the program is, and stop pretending it’s something it’s not.
📺 Best Buy tried to stay away from points. Their customers won’t let them.
As much as our industry likes to opine that “points are dead, consumers want experiences blah, blah, blah…”, Best Buy admitted the obvious—the consumer demands points. Their own survey found 80% wanted one as part of their paid membership program, so they’re adding it starting June 4th in the form of 1% back, then redeemable in $5 increments.
Kudos to Best Buy for listening to its customers and not resisting. But it shows how hard it is for so many brands to achieve the scale and success they want with programs without one. We (as in ‘we the industry’) created this problem. More ways to earn points via partnerships. Points for every brand interaction, whether a big brand or a local independent shop. Give a consumer a loyalty hammer, and they’ll turn everything into a nail.
Your POV? Let me know what you think of my hot takes from the week.
STAGE POINTS
Two weeks ago was the first Loyalty Connect in the US. Below are a few nuggets worth repeating…
On Walmart+ Membership Strategy: “Our pricing decision (of Walmart+ membership) reflects the belief that essential loyalty needs to be economically credible- to be a part of everyday life, you must respect the economics of everyday life”. -Deepak Maini, VP & GM of Walmart+ on ensuring the benefits match the price offering and work for their customer base.
On Retail Media + Loyalty: “You can’t just wake up one day and decide to launch <a Commerce Media Network>. It takes the channels, the audience, the measurement capabilities, and also very good salespeople—who are hard to come by.” — Chris Norton, Marriott’s GM of Riott Media, on how brands have to do their homework and get their own tech house in order before jumping into the space.
On how Loyalty is Expanding: “We (Bilt) view loyalty as a continuous journey, not a destination. Programs must continuously evolve to remain relevant to customers on an everyday basis, and avoid the trap of thinking a program is “solved” after launch- Dave Canty, SVP, Head of Loyalty Partnerships at Bilt, on how the program keeps modernizing.
On Personalized Rewards: “Capital One’s strategy is to build brand relationships from the beginning so customers naturally progress to premium products like VentureX rather than having them choose another brand”- Carolyn Fox, Managing Vice President, Capital One Rewards on their path to premium approach.
On Loyalty and the Emotional Brain:
“The critical question for a brand is ‘if you stopped discounting today, which of your customers would stay?'“ and
“There are 4 primary emotional segments: Mercenaries, the high spenders who respond to offers but lack loyalty; Avocates, the true defintiion of loyalty customers who engage and increase order value; Ghosts, who are present but not active enough; Cheerleaders, brand supporters who engage emotionally with the company.”- Jason Smith, CEO & Cofounder of TRIFFT on the Emotional Loyalty Score (ELS)
On Loyalty + AI: “AI agents will increasingly handle redemptions and decision-making automatically for the member. The industry is moving toward hyper-personalization, where every transaction and redemption is tailored.” Dr. David Nguyen, Tech Strategy Lead at Google Cloud Consulting
POINTS WORTH READING
QUICK POINTS
✈️ TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION
Marriott boasted about their total membership growth (to 286 million) in their Q1 earnings report and their cobrand card fees were up 37%, showing no slowdown.
Delta and AirBnB teamed up, and you can now earn Delta Skymiles on AirBnB stays, experiences, and Services. I’m surprised it took AirBnB this long to sync up with an airline.
🍴RESTAURANTS
Pizza Hut relaunched Hut Rewards, but with a bizarre press release headline that says “…evolving loyalty into a membership,” even though it's still a free points program. Yes, they added ‘member-only’ swag drops and made the program a bit more flexible, but it had members before.
Chipotle Rewards aligns with digital consumers 90% of the time, but only 20% of in-store transactions are loyalty-based, representing a big opportunity. Their new program changes also increased enrollment by 25% post release.
YUM Brands touted Taco Bell’s sales success as a result of the growth of their loyalty program. Digital mixis now 63% of sales, a massive #.
⚙ TECH
Martech.org released its 2026 tech landscape, and growth slowed for the first time since the report was released, with less than 1% of providers added. Consolidation is real, and so is AI. The biggest category loser? Content Marketing. The biggest winner? CMS & Web Experience Mgt.