Loyalty Truth

Question of the day: Are you more loyal to your airline or to the snacks they serve?

If you’re a frequent flyer, there is a new game to play while waiting for your next boarding announcement. Have your traveling companion run through a list of favorite snacks and see if you can guess which airline offers it in-flight.

These days, there is not much to differentiate the air travel experience for business travelers and, just like you might look forward to watching some tube on JetBlue, there are people who find the roots of their airline preference in their favorite snack.

Here’s the quiz. Which airline offers the following?

1.
Animal Crackers

2.
Peanuts (old school style)

3.
Biscoff

Look below for answers……

If I were able to listen in on 100 airport conversations and tabulate answers on this little quiz, I’ll bet that Biscoff would be the most easily associated with the airline that put it on our radar.

This little cracker originated in Belgium around the 1930’s and was known by other names until acquired by Gourmet Center, an American company that supplies food to airlines. Renamed Biscoff, it has become a favorite of many travelers. The Grinder describes the cookie’s taste as “Crunchy, sweet with a lovely caramel and butter finish, this is a cookie worth booking a flight for!” I would tend to agree, and when I discovered that I could earn airmiles for eating Biscoff, I was predictably excited.

On a recent flight, while opening my Biscoff, I flipped the package over to read a message “Earn Skymiles with Biscoff….please see www.biscoff.com/delta” (oops, I gave away theanswer!).

Wondering about the offer, I visited the web site to learn more. Unfortunately, the URL would not load and after some Google searching, it seems that the Skymiles partnership with Delta may have come to an end. If I discover differently, I will post further.

I was already skeptical that I would have to eat so many Biscoff, at 60 fat laden calories each, that by the time I accumulated enough points to earn a free flight, I would need a seat belt extension to accommodate the new me!

Before you scoff at my Biscoff premise, remember the “Pudding Guy”, David Phillips, a 35 year old engineer who earned 1.25 Million American Airlines miles through purchase of Healthy Choice pudding products that offered 100 miles for each cup. In the end, he earned enough miles to exchange for 48 free domestic tickets by spending about $3,140 on 12,000 deserts, a pretty good return.

I understand that fare, schedule, and many other factors influence the choice of airline. But with the industry moving to menu style pricing and lowering service quality by the day, the door is opened for travelers to latch on to the most granular of factors as the purchase decision tie-breaker. I may have missed my shot at Biscoff frequent flyer fame, but I still like ‘em.

Did you ever consider that crackers could be a key component of your loyalty program?

……. Bill Hanifin

Quiz Answers!

1. JetBlue
2. American
3. Delta Airlines