Blind Loyalty Challenge with Chris Staab

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Hi there, I'm Amanda Cromhoe from Truth. Welcome to the Blind Laugherty

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Challenge.

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We interview world experts in loyalty blindly. We're hoping to create insight,

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spontaneity

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and a lot of fun through the challenge. The challenge is about promoting the

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Blind Laugherty

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Trust and my book called Blind Laugherty, a hundred and one loyalty concept

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radically simplified.

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All profits from the book go towards the trust. We hope you enjoy the Blind L

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augherty Challenge.

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For today's Blind Laugherty Challenge, I'm speaking to Chris Starb, who's the

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co-founder of

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AI Events. Before we get going, Chris has already confessed to me that he's

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terribly nervous

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about today because he's had his head in revenue management for the last three

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months. I think

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you said Chris. I have to be gentle on you apparently. Welcome Chris.

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Thank you for having me. I'm happy to support this great cause. I've been

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working in loyalty

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in the Airlats for 30 years and always trying to do charity activity. Glad to

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support this

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initiative. Amazing. Thank you. You're all the way in Panama City and I'm

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sitting down here in Cape

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Town. We're really pushing the Blind Laugherty Challenge around the world,

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which is even more

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exciting. You were tagged by Andy Choi and Andy and I had an amazing discussion

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around doing good

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for through loyalty programs, as you can imagine, would be part of Andy's

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portfolio. My first question

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to you, and I know you're no stranger to the airline industry, so chapter 76 of

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Blind Laugherty

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is about airlines and FFP. What has been your personal favorite loyalty

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experience on an airline

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or with an airline? Well, recently I went to, thanks to another loyalty

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executive, David Felbmann.

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He got me invited to the, I don't know if you know him, he chairs some loyalty

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event,

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well-known guy, Australian, great guy. And he got me invited to the opening of

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the museum in Panama.

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That was the largest collection of model airplanes in the world. So, COPA

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sponsored.

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And they had some of their elite flyers there and COPA is working to use its

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corporate sponsorships

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to take its top elites to similar events. So, I got to talk to them there and

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they've inspired me

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to work to be top elite of the airline so I can, you know, get football match

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tickets and similar

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through their sponsorships. I thought that was something not, not particularly

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related to airlines,

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but related to how they sponsor many activities and leveraging that for their

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top elites.

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Yeah, and what I love about that is, you know, it's, that's the buy invitation

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only and money

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can't buy experiences that we hear about, but you're actually seeing it in

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practice. So,

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well, you've got to get to stay at that elite status there, Chris.

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On the road, I think I'm going to molt it.

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There's one thing I know you and your colleagues are not, uh, not afraid of

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talking about and

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that's loyalty fraud. So, in chapters 85 and 86 of blind loyalty, I touch upon

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it, but very

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lightly, I wouldn't even confess to, to try and go deep into the subject. But

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what has been your,

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from what you've heard in the industry, what is the craziest loyalty fraud

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example you can share with us?

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Well, let me, let me level set first and talk just about the general problem.

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It's gone crazy. So, you know, I have a volunteer job with the loyalty security

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alliance and we,

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we were pretty busy with hotels in the past, but this year we got really busy

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with airlines.

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And basically, the story is that airlines have gotten really good at stopping

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credit card fraud.

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So that, so the fraudsters have, have turned to account takeovers. It's just

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easier for them. So,

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airlines are, airlines are really getting hit by account takeovers. And this

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isn't particularly

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crazy, but one of the, one of the reasons why it's getting attention in

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airlines is

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the executives themselves are the victims. So, the CEO, this SVP or their wife,

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their kids,

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their friends are victims. So, it's becoming personal and that's driving the

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attention. So,

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it's not just that it's happening so much. It's who it's, it's happening so

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much, it's happening

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to the right people to get attention drawn to the, to the issue. So, account

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takeovers,

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it will be on your radar because it's just gone crazy because it's just easier

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for

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fraudsters to do than credit card fraud. Yeah. Honestly, it's such an

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incredible subject for

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every loyalty professional, like I don't know anyone who doesn't want us, just

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everyone wants

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to talk about it because it's just so there, isn't it? It's like, it's really

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happening across

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all sorts of industries. We run a loyalty fraud group that I'm going to talk to

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Michael about

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in South Africa and it's just so difficult for everyone. Okay. So, chapter 60

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is around

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loyalty and doing good and sustainability and that was the bulk of my

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discussion with Andy.

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But do you really, in your opinion, do you think this is really happening?

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In bits and I'm about to, I know I get to tag someone, I'm going to tag someone

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in this space.

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So, stay tuned for that towards the end of our interview. But I do think, but

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one of the challenges

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that I've seen over the years is large companies like airlines, so particularly

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large airlines,

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like I believe your former British Airways or American Airlines or, or, you

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know, Air Canada,

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they tend to have their preferred charitable partners run through our corporate

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social

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responsibility. So, it makes other charities hard to break in when you're not

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that American Red

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Cross or some huge international or national charity, it makes it hard. So, it

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does happen,

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but it's difficult. And we are seeing some green shoots related with some green

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loyalty

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programs like Etihad has where I think it's a challenge because you get accused

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of greenwashing,

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but, you know, there are some things that can be done. Like, if you're not

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going to eat,

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why not give the passenger an option not to get, not get a meal, right? And

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give them the airline

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save some money and give them, you know, 500 points and airline save some money

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and everyone's happy

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all around. So, I think there's some opportunities there. Yeah, absolutely. And

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I guess that's part

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of what I'm trying to achieve through blind loyalty. And yeah, we're getting

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some successes and then

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others would like to do more in. So, well, thank you. You did not need to worry

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as a revenue management

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headspace for the time being. You've answered all my questions beautifully. So,

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thank you. Who would

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you like to tag? So, I would like to tag someone in the charitable loyalty

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space. It's Kevin Crow

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from Giveemout. And I'll let you know, you've got to listen to his story. It's

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just wonderful. So,

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it's someone doing good through loyalty and his personal story of why he's

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doing that good.

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It's just amazing. So, I'd like to tag Kevin Crow from Giveemout. Wow. I feel

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like I really need

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to hear his story. It sounds like a parallel story. So, amazing. Chris, thank

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you. You're an

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absolute superstar. I've loved chatting to you. Thank you. And I wish you the

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best for your

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charitable efforts.