Are you feeling loyal?

Up until about March 2020, I was a typical software industry road warrior, possibly a bit of an overachiever — logging some 250,000 miles per year on American Airlines — and spending more time with Marriott than my family.

This past year, all my travel was, well … zooming around, with zero miles and nights used.  While my kids traditionally did an admirable job of using up all my airline and hotel points, I still had around 750,000 banked miles, which I was recently notified were in danger of expiry due to no activity in my account.

Fortunately, American told me about a number of ways I could log some activity, including just buying stuff I barely needed through the American Airlines Mall. With 750,000 miles at stake, the cost benefit of doing a little shopping was overwhelmingly in favor of buying some stuff or, more to the point, enlisting my daughters’ expert shopping help in keeping my account active.

What transpired was a series of overlapping loyalty benefits that leaves me wondering if today’s loyalty offers are really on target and questioning if the unlucky retailer made even a few cents on the transactions.

Here’s a breakdown:

• $100 purchased, 200 miles awarded, value $4 = four percent discounted
• Paid by Visa, three percent cash back plus two percent extra special and loyal preferred customer = five percent discounted
• Free shipping — say, a $6 value = 6 percent discounted
• Bypassed the “get another 10 percent off” offer by not giving up my email = 10 percent discounted
• Skipped joining the retailer loyalty program = two percent discounted
• Total “loyalty discounts taken” = 15 percent; discounts bypassed = another 12 percent

In the end, I had a happy daughter who expertly saved my 750,000 airline miles. I probably could have financially stressed a local restaurant with this chain of events (and further applied a coupon to the equation) and had dinner with my wife instead.

And yes, the product I bought was on sale, so this wasn’t a margin-rich transaction to begin with. In the end, I didn’t feel any greater attachment to anyone in this elongated loyalty chain and really wondered if the retailer in play would have been better off sending me a check for $5.00 to stay away.