WestJet is rolling out changes to their longstanding WestJet Rewards loyalty program come January 1^st, 2025, and—at first glance—several of the new benefits seem appealing: extended expiration on companion vouchers (from one to two years), expanded eligibility for cabin upgrades (for status members and a travel companion on the same booking), exclusive Zone 1 boarding privileges to Platinum members (the highest tier), and a lower threshold to earning a milestone reward (rewards available after $2,000 spend, previously $4,000). What’s not to like? But, upon closer inspection, the changes can feel more company-centric than customer-centric.Did WestJet evaluate their program strategy with customers of all tiers in mind, or just their top-level Platinum members? The new benefits appear to reward highest status customers and preserve exclusivity at the expense of the others.

The reality is, executives must evaluate, iterate, and evolve programs according to the macroeconomic environment, inflation, changing customer habits, and marketplace disruption. But customers, even casual ones—and especially loyal ones—, can spot changes in benefits and value from a mile away.

The Great Tier Divide: The Cost of Exclusivity

When we pull back the curtain on WestJet’s recent changes to their program, there is a clear misalignment of rewards and benefits considering the new spending requirements. To an observer, the changes look to be driven by company needs rather than customer needs. This is a risky strategy on WestJet's part when you consider their reputation and position, historically, in the Canadian market: measured against Aeroplan and Porter, WestJet was once a top performing airline in Canada; unfortunately, it has fallen below the average in the last four years, despite once retaining customer brand loyalty considered second only to Air Canada (The Bond Loyalty Report, Canada).

Top findings from The Bond Loyalty Report—evaluating customer satisfaction and engagement— signalled that the areas WestJet customers were most eager for change in were the following:

• More education on how the program worked and its benefits
• More ease in interacting with the program
• More choice in rewards and benefits
• More relevancy in how their data is being used to personalize their experiences 

Without the introduction of new, relevant, and valuable benefits at the Gold and Silver levels, the program changes appear to decrease in value. For example, Gold and Silver members must now spend 33% more to qualify for the same tier, yet they lose key benefits such as Zone 1 boarding, which is a highly valued, emotional component of the airline travel experience.

While the threshold to earn milestone rewards has been lowered from $4,000 to $2,000, the spending gaps thereafter have increased, making the value perception of the rewards questionable. It’s also worth noting that only the base fare spend will count towards status. Customers can choose between $20 WestJet dollars, $200 in tier-qualifying spend, or a $25 Skip (previously SkipTheDishes) gift card, but they’re likely to brush these rewards off as meaningless and instead focus on the fact that their next chance to earn milestone rewards comes with another $6,000 dollars spent. After spending $8,000, customers will see the meaningful rewards of a companion voucher, advance seat selection vouchers, and guest lounge vouchers—if they can manage to get there. Notably, the Gift of Gold award has also been removed from program offerings altogether.WestJet has seemingly redesigned a program that so firmly protects exclusivity for its Platinum members that it can appear to disenfranchise and marginalize Gold and Silver members—along with prospective customers looking to join. The changes don’t encourage lower tier members to strive for the next best reward or milestone, because the goalpost is so out of reach. Though WestJet has said that they used Member Panel feedback to craft these changes, one has to wonder if the customers involved were over-indexed in their most engaged and/or highest spend categories.

Loyalty that Listens: The True Path to Customer-Centricity

For a brand that is losing ground on loyalty performance metrics, the more positive changes being implemented (longer expiration windows for companion vouchers, ability to redeem on Sunwing vacations, expanded upgrade potentials) don't necessarily outweigh the reduction of key benefits and increased spend to reach status—status that is so paramount to an overall positive customer experience with WestJet.

To help WestJet evaluate program adjustment options and balance financial imperatives while still ensuring customers see value at all levels of their loyalty program, Bond would:

• Engage in design sessions with company and program executives and stakeholders to design a program hypothesis that balances profitability with customer needs and wants;
• Engage with customers of all backgrounds—from non-customers, lower tier, to the most loyal—in customer-specific co-creation sessions to infuse human-centric needs into the redesign process;
• Through quantitative analysis and financial modelling and business casing, we’d prepare multiple iterations of the new table of benefits, analyzing the impact on a customer’s willingness to join, visit, and shop. This would help determine the right combination of benefits and define the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) drivers most critical to program engagement;
• Replace decremented benefits with those that, from a customer's perception, have an equal or better perception of value.

In other words: we would make sure that we clearly show customers we are listening to and value them, the true mark of customer-centricity.

Interested in learning more about how our Loyalty experts can help you with program audits and diagnostics, program design, financial business casing, voice of customer research, and workshopping solutions?  We’d love to chat—email us at info@bondbl.com.