Is an easyJet loyalty scheme – with 1:1 transfers to Virgin Points – the answer we’re looking for?

Pondering the future of the UK frequent flyer sector, as I occasionally do, I had an interesting thought.

The one thing that would really shake things up, and improve competition, would be easyJet finally launching its rumoured loyalty scheme and offering 1:1 points transfers with Virgin Flying Club.

This would have to be done in a very specific way to maximise impact, but I think the upside would be huge.

Our coverage of easyJet’s potential loyalty scheme is here – although, of course, even if it is still happening they’ve left it too late to launch with a British Airways status match.

The logic of a loyalty tie-up between Virgin Atlantic and easyJet has been clear for years.

One has a long-haul network but no short-haul, limiting redemption options for those only taking occasional long-haul flights.

The other has a short-haul network but no aspirational long-haul routes or premium cabins, making it hard for any loyalty scheme to get traction.

In no particular order, this is how I see it.

Virgin Atlantic quitting Gatwick makes this MORE likely

The obvious response to my idea is that it is now pointless. Virgin Atlantic scrapped its Gatwick base during the pandemic, and easyJet’s main UK base is Gatwick.

Here’s the thing. Virgin Atlantic leaving Gatwick makes an easyJet loyalty tie-up easier, not harder.

When both Virgin Atlantic and easyJet were at Gatwick, they tried occasional ways of working together. None succeeded.

If the airlines co-existed at Gatwick, there would be huge pressure for a loyalty tie-up to be expanded to include codeshares, through ticketing, interlining, shared lounge access etc. As well as being incredibly hard to pull off, it’s not something that – at heart – either airline really wanted.

Now that there is virtually no cross-over (except at Manchester) between the two airlines, there is no pressure for any of the above.

Virgin Atlantic and easyJet could launch a points transfer partnership without needing to add any other perks.

It would need to be 1:1 in both directions

For a points transfer scheme between Virgin Atlantic and easyJet to be successful, it would need to be 1:1 in both directions.

It should go without saying that people shouldn’t lose value in a genuine partnership if they move points back and forth. And yet, bizarrely, virtually every travel partnership with 2-way transfers screws over members who do this.

Only intra-Avios airline transfers (BA to Iberia / Qatar Airways / Finnair / Aer Lingus / Loganair) are 1:1 in both directions.

It also needs to be 1:1. Not 2:1 and 1:2 or similar. Unless you make it 1:1, people simply won’t ‘get it’.

This means, assuming that easyJet is working on a points-based scheme, it should align how it awards points – 0.5 per £1, 1 per £1, 2 per £1, 10 per £1? – in such a way that 1:1 transfers to/from Virgin Points would stack up financially.

There is no need to share a common currency

I can’t see a simple way for easyJet and Virgin Atlantic to share the same loyalty currency, as the Avios airlines do.

It’s obvious that easyJet won’t want to issue a currency called Virgin Points. Similar, Virgin Group won’t want to drop the Virgin Points name because it’s a loyalty currency which is meant to – even though, in truth, it doesn’t – bring together the different Virgin Group businesses.

As long as transfers are 1:1 and therefore easy to understand, I don’t think the two programmes would need to share the same currency.

It doesn’t matter if easyJet’s programme is revenue based

If easyJet does launch a frequent flyer scheme, it is likely to be revenue based. No-one loves revenue-based schemes, but I suspect for simplicity this is how it would be.

This shouldn’t be a barrier for launching 1:1 transfers with Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Red is effectively revenue based for spend (90% of non-flight redemptions get you 0.5p per Virgin Point) after all.

It would also put a floor under the value of a Virgin Point (helpful for Virgin Atlantic) and, because you’d be able to get outsize value on a Virgin Atlantic premium redemption, make easyJet points look more valuable (helpful for easyJet).

It would give easyJet a full loyalty infrastructure overnight

If easyJet is serious about a loyalty programme, it will eventually need a wide range of partnerships – primarily credit cards, but also car hire, hotels etc.

Virgin Atlantic already has two attractive UK credit cards. Some easyJet travellers would take out a Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard in order to transfer the points to easyJet.

Similarly, easyJet would become a de facto American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner if there were 1:1 transfers from Virgin Points into easyJet.

Obviously easyJet would prefer to offer its own credit cards, negotiate its own Amex deal etc. This all takes time though, and a transfer partnership with Virgin Atlantic would bring a strong partner infrastructure overnight.

Virgin Money may even be willing to launch an easyJet-branded credit card if the earn rate was the same as the Virgin Atlantic cards and 1:1 transfers were in place.

Conclusion

We don’t know, despite recent hires and the comments I was able to squeeze out of easyJet CEO Kenton Jarvis last year, whether easyJet is serious about launching a loyalty programme.

If it does, the one single thing it could do to ensure it gets traction (now that it is arguably too late to offer a BA status match) would be to offer 1:1 transfers into Virgin Flying Club.

There would be huge upside for both airlines, filling the obvious holes in their networks. It would also have a real chance of becoming the preferred airline loyalty partnership for people outside the Heathrow catchment area but in range of an easyJet base.