• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.65-94
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• 2015

Since American Airlines launched AAdvantage which was the first Frequent Flyer Program in 1981, many people has accumulated mileage credits, and now, frequent flyer program(FFP) is the universal marketing tool to the airlines. These days, airlines establish a strategic alliance with domestic and foreign companies of various fields ; other airlines, travel agencies, car hire firms, hotels, department stores, even credit card companies. However, more people want to use their mileage credits, more airlines reject to approve that or change frequent flyer program against their customers. Last year, Northwest, Inc. v. Ginsberg, the United State Supreme Court made a decision that the preemption provision of Airlines Deregulation Act(ADA) preempts state laws related to rates, routes and services for air carriers including implied covenant of good faith and fare dealing. Thus, the claim of Ginsberg was canceled, it means that Northwest Inc. could terminated one-sidedly his membership in the frequent flyer program. In the contrast, Korea does not have the statute like ADA. If customers file a claim on FFP like Ginsberg, the courts of Korea judge whether the clauses of standard form contract are unfair or not. Therefore, in this article, Ginsberg would be checked on legal issues and be compared briefly with the courts' ruling in Korea.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.149-160
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• 2010

This paper focuses on frequent flyer programs (FFPs), which have long been used by most airlines as a powerful marketing tool. Since the preference for FFPs reward services and the customer perceived values of mileage points differ among FFPs members, airlines should design a customer-oriented reward service based on customer preference to motivate the use of mileage points. The intention for using mileage points is affected by various kinds of attributes such as reword items, consuming mileage points for rewards and time of usage. In this paper, we focus on evaluating customer perceived values of attributes of FFPs reward services. A conjoint analysis model is applied to get the preference value of each attribute. Some empirical experiments are conducted in relation to Korean customers. From the empirical survey, the preference values of attributes are evaluated for different scenarios with respect to the number of mileage points. With the preference values of attributes, we can find several implications for airlines regarding the development of various FFPs strategies.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.139-162
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• 2010

In terms of the international air transport, the open skies policy implies freedom in the sky or opening the sky. In the normative respect, the open skies policy is a kind of open-door policy which gives various forms of traffic right to other countries, but on the other hand it is a policy of free competition in the international air transport. Since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the United States has signed an open skies agreement with many countries, starting with the Netherlands, so that competitive large airlines can compete in the international air transport market where there exist a lot of business opportunities. South Korea now has an open skies agreement with more than 20 countries. The frequent flyer program (FFP) is part of a broad-based marketing alliance which has been used as an airfare strategy since the U.S. government's airline deregulation. The membership-based program is an incentive plan that provides mileage points to customers for using airline services and rewards customer loyalty in tangible forms based on their accumulated points. In its early stages, the frequent flyer program was focused on marketing efforts to attract customers, but now in the environment of intense competition among airlines, the program is used as an important strategic marketing tool for enhancing business performance. Therefore, airline companies agree that they need to identify customer needs in order to secure loyal customers more effectively. The outcomes from an airline's frequent flyer program can have a variety of effects on international competition. First, the airline can obtain a more dominant position in the air flight market by expanding its air route networks. Second, the availability of flight products for customers can be improved with an increase in flight frequency. Third, the airline can preferentially expand into new markets and thus gain advantages over its competitors. However, there are few empirical studies on the airline frequent flyer program. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the effects of the program on international competition, after reviewing the types of strategic alliance between airlines. Making strategic airline alliances is a worldwide trend resulting from the open skies policy. South Korea also needs to be making open skies agreements more realistic to promote the growth and competition of domestic airlines. The present study is about the performance of the airline frequent flyer program and international competition under the open skies policy. With a sample of five global alliance groups (Star, Oneworld, Wings, Qualiflyer and Skyteam), the study was attempted as an empirical study of the effects that the resource structures and levels of information technology held by airlines in each group have on the type of alliance, and one-way analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. The findings of this study suggest that both large airline companies and small/medium-size airlines in an alliance group with global networks and organizations are able to achieve high performance and secure international competitiveness. Airline passengers earn mileage points by using non-flight services through an alliance network with hotels, car-rental services, duty-free shops, travel agents and more and show high interests in and preferences for related service benefits. Therefore, Korean airline companies should develop more aggressive marketing programs based on multilateral alliances with other services including hotels, as well as with other airlines.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2015

A reduction in search costs is generally believed to make markets more competitive. However, the effect may be mitigated or amplified if consumers must pay costs for switching products. This paper investigates how search costs affect prices in the presence of switching costs using U.S. domestic airfare data for 2000-2010. The airline industry experienced a dramatic decrease in search costs with increasing Internet use in the 2000s. At the same time, the industry is known for its frequent flyer programs (FFPs), which increase switching costs for consumers. We use the average network size of airlines in a market as a proxy for switching costs related to FFPs and Internet usage as a proxy for (the inverse of) search costs. The results show that increasing Internet usage lowers airfares but that the effect is smaller for markets with a larger average network size.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.181-205
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• 2006

After introduced in 1980's, the Frequent Flyer Program(FFP) was one of the most successful marketing tools in the airline industry and it has become a major linkage pin of strategic alliances for airlines despite of legal constraint. Further, the world air transport market progresses rapidly from a one-to-one alliance to a global alliance among groups due to fierce competition of the markets. In this study, I first examine the trends and the characteristics of global alliance groups. Further, I analyze the types of airline strategic alliances in the FFP, and present management strategy of the FFP for national flag carriers based on the collected data. It is suggested that airlines, including the two major Korean airline companies, consider the advantages of strategic alliances on the FFP in a rapidly changing management environment.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.163-199
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• 2010

A frequent flyer program is a loyalty program offered by many airlines. Typically, airline customers enrolled in the program accumulate frequent flyer miles corresponding to the distance flown on that airline or its partners. There are other ways to accumulate miles. In recent years, more miles were awarded for using co-branded credit and debit cards than for air travel. Acquired miles can be redeemed for free air travel; for other goods or services, such as travel class upgrades, airport lounge access or priority bookings. The first modern frequent flyer program was created Texas International Airlines in 1979. This program was also adopted in Korean Air in 1984. Since then, the mileage programs have grown enormously. As of June 2009, the total member of two national airlines in Korea had been over thirty million. However, accumulated miles could be burden of airlines, because the korean corporations should record the annual financial report the accumulate mileage on a liability account by 'the international financial report standards(IFRS)' next year. The korean airlines need to minimize the accumulated miles, so that for instance Korean Airlines SKYPASS-miles expire 5 years after being earned. It means that miles earned on or after July 2008 will expire after five years if unredeemed. Thus, this paper attempt to analyze the unfairness of the mileage rules of korean airlines by examining a specific portion of the conditions relating to consumer protection, because many mileage users has difficulties using mileage programs and complained the amendment of the mileage rules. In conclusion, the contemporary mileage rules in Korea are rather unsatisfactory, because airlines is not only recognizing a mileage into a kind of benefit but also denying inheritance of mileage and the legal nature of mileage as a property right. It is necessary to amend relevant mileage rules in view of consumer protection, because air mileage is not simple benefit but a right of mileage user.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.101-109
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• 2006

This study investigates what criterion airline customers recognize important when evaluating airline firms. Specifically it is surveyed if different criterion are used by different groups of airline customers when choosing an airline firm. In addition customer group with high loyalty to 'K' airline, national carrier of Korea, is differently evaluate 'K' airline for the selection criterion over customer group without loyalty. Frequent flyer program is suggested most important by most of the customers being followed by flight schedule. Flight schedule, in-flight food and air fare of 'K' airline are differently evaluated according to level of royalty to the airline. However there appears no difference in the evaluation of seat and entertainment between two groups, customers with high loyalty and customers without loyalty.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.397-406
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• 2014

Recently, China has expanded enormously its economic trade exchange bilaterally with other nations and developed as the second largest aviation market in the world. While open skies bilateral agreements were signed between China and other countries, the agreement processes influenced the aviation market structure and market sharing heavily. This paper analyzed the Chinese aviation market by such three angles as market scale, competitive situation, and market concentration. It is concluded that the Chinese aviation market is the oligopolistic market structure tested by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Finally, suggestions are given to the airlines operating in China such as joining the air alliance, paying attention to a different frequent flyer program (FFP) etc.