USING BRAND LOYALTY TO REDUCE TOUR EXPENSES
I stood by, watching as our tour manager’s friendly demeanor turned cold.
"Yea, that's not going to work. There is no way I'm going to pay that."
The look on her face proved that she was serious and ready to stand her ground.
Together we had just checked in a tour party of ten people, along with more than thirty pieces of luggage and equipment at Jakarta, Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta airport. With well-worn passports and freshly printed boarding passes now in their possession, the band and crew dispersed to entertain themselves. And the tour manager and I headed to pay the checked luggage fee.
This is where our typically easy-going tour manager nearly came unglued when they told her we owed $11,000 to check everything on the flight. She remained calm but made it clear that she was not about to pay that amount.
It’s no secret that touring is expensive. Travel-related costs escalate quickly, even more so when carrying equipment. In an earlier post, I explained how to navigate financial decisions concerning a tour’s budget. This time I’ll discuss a straightforward way to save the tour money when air travel is involved.
To establish a point of reference, imagine your touring party consists of eight people, and everyone has one checked bag. In addition to personal luggage, you must check twenty pieces of equipment. So, all in you’re checking twenty-eight pieces to be split between eight passengers. That's a minimum of three per person, with half the people checking four pieces.
Airlines charge a premium for checked luggage, and these fees increase a fair amount when you get more than two pieces per person. However, you can avoid checked luggage fees if you’re willing to navigate the world of airline loyalty programs. Each program has its own set of rules which you can easily find online, and numerous websites break down and compare the intricacies of each. So, I won’t spend time on that here.
To benefit from loyalty programs, you must, as the name implies, establish loyalty with an air carrier by flying with them as much as possible. And there are a few essential things to consider before committing to an airline.
Start by determining what airport you’ll fly in and out of the most. Bands often live, store their equipment, and rehearse in the same city. You’ll undoubtedly frequent that city's airport. In this situation it’s best to establish this airport as the touring crew’s home base.
Once you’ve chosen a home airport you’ll want to learn what airline(s) use that airport as a hub. The more daily flights an airline offers in and out of your home airport, the more likely you’ll fly that airline regularly.
With an air carrier chosen, everyone must register for an account with that airline’s loyalty program. Once registered, provide your account number to your travel agent, tour manager, or whoever books your flights so that they can add it to every booking.
It’s time to start accruing miles and gaining status.
As you begin to fly regularly, you’ll climb from loyalty club “member” to the first tier of status, and brand loyalty benefits literally start to pay dividends. First-tier means you’ll start receiving one free checked bag. The higher status, the more free checked pieces.
Referring to our example, with everyone now allowed to check one piece for free, you're paying to check twenty instead of twenty-eight items. Multiply those eight pieces times the average fee of $150 that airlines often charge for a third checked piece, and suddenly you’re saving $1,200 per flight. These savings add up quickly if you fly often, and make a noticeable difference for a tour that includes a lot of air travel.
Like anything, there are exceptions. Sometimes flights on another airline are so much cheaper that the money saved on airfare outweighs the reduced luggage fees. When this happens, everyone in your travel party should sign up for an account and begin generating status on that airline too. Every time you fly an airline for the first time, sign up for their loyalty program. It never hurts to accrue miles on an airline, and you may find them useful later on.
The benefits of airline status go beyond reduced tour expenses. Each individual will get perks as well. As a freelancer looking for work, you won’t land a gig simply because you have status with an airline. But the ability to save the tour money will never hurt your cause. And no matter whom you're working for or who pays for the flight, every mile earned is yours and you're free to use them however you’d like. As your status with an airline improves, you’ll start to enjoy perks like lounge access and complimentary upgrades. But the first time you receive an upgrade to first class thanks to your airline status is when you'll really start to feel recognized for brand loyalty.
We’d been touring for several months and had undoubtedly earned at least first-tier airline status by the time we reached Indonesia. But not enough status to cover every checked piece and this particular airline was showing no mercy. I wasn’t aware that checked luggage fees were even up for negotiation, and in reality they probably weren’t supposed to be. But our tour manager refused to pay $11,000 and convinced the airline to reduce the charges. Whatever we did end up spending on this day was still too much. Luckily this was a rare occurrence, and our status proved helpful more often than not.
With air travel expenses increasing exponentially and showing no signs of going back down, there has never been a better time than now to join the world of loyalty programs. By keeping touring expenses in check, you can allot more funds to the most important things, like hiring the right people for the job.