Didn't realise that... I thought they stopped this with petrol years ago, so assumed they didn't do anything in store.
Although hard push to call it a "reward" - 1%...
2 Nectar points per £ is also a pathetic 1% reward as Nectar points face value is 0.5p
Like the EC Rewards, it was good while it lasted but some people seem to think rewards are more of a right than a gold rush derby.
It's not a right, but like catering it's something that made East Coast BETTER than other TOCs such as VTWC, Greater Anglia, etc.
So when 'Virgin' come along and take away something that made EC better then of course passengers are going to be annoyed, particularly when we also lost the online discount and people are saying availability of the cheaper fares seems a lot more scarce.
VTEC was promoted by the government as being able to offer something to the passenger more than what EC could. In the end we're now paying more and getting less.
...
For some though, Nectar points work quite well.
There's no scenario where a rail traveller would be better off with Nectar than East Coast rewards. Even if you only spent £50 in two years you'd still be better off with EC Rewards. (That £50 would get you 50 points which would be worth a one day lounge pass or free WiFi, with Nectar it would be worth 50p, but ONLY if you had enough points from other sources to get it up to £2.50).
If you shop in places that do it. But I think the world has grown on from points based rewards. In the 90s, yes - there were many schemes and many companies got together, but I'm certain Nectar joined the party late, and not many companies signed up. Sainsbury's? Argos? Homebase? Basically, the same parent company.
Actually Sainsbury's and Argos had nothing to do with each other when Nectar started. Argos got involved as a spending partner (you couldn't earn at the beginning due to a previous partnership with BP) Homebase pulled out of Nectar when the Aussies bought it, but Homebase was late to the party and only joined Nectar after it was sold by Sainsbury's.
The original Nectar partners were Sainsbury's, BP, Debenhams and Barclaycard. Debenhams and Barclaycard had the sense to get out of the scheme as soon as their contract allowed.
As for people moving on from points based loyalty schemes it's probably poor schemes like Nectar that has lowered people's opinion of their value. Airline schemes are still popular.
Like the West Coast, Nectar is easy to manage because the TOC doesn't do much with it. It's like out-sourcing catering, or parking facilities. That seems to be the current trend with companies these days. Whether the set fee makes fincial matters easier to manage, or the lack of responsibility from the company is the driver, I don't know.
Despite this both VTEC and VTWC employ a full time loyalty manager (each franchise has their own) and VTEC were advertising for an assistant to the loyalty manager last summer! What they do I don't know. There's ways they could improve the scheme even if they have to stick with Nectar by contract.
Perhaps there is a large amount of choice on the East Coast - but is there really?
From Peterborough to London, is there REALLY a choice? Yes, if you want to spend your day travelling on slow trains.
I would have thought the majority of people who use trains, do so because there is no real viable alternative, and thus rewarding for repeat custom is a bit of a moot point.
For commuters the choice is limited, you either pay for speed or get up earlier and save a bit using Great Northern. Commuters are captive, that's pretty much why VTEC were slow to even give them a small amount of Nectar points (you can get them if you buy your season ticket online).
However as mentioned a lot already there's a lot of DISCRETIONARY spend. Leisure trips (why pick a weekend at an East Coast destination rather than overseas or elsewhere in the UK) and trips that can be done by driving or flying.
I like to use my standard class Edinburgh to London frequent business traveller. Choose to fly BA and you will start to earn status that gives you benefits such as lounge access (which includes complimentary food and drinks, including alcohol) and fast track or travel with VTEC and you'll get a few pence worth of Nectar points and have no lounge access. The points you get with BA can then be used for trips anywhere in the world or on upgrades.
For example, I travelled to America using one airline. They had some sort of reward points, but I am unlikely to use their airline again in the near future so it's not really a tangable reward; I certainly don't feel like I can use the reward.
Well if you travel once it's not loyalty is it? However, airlines have alliances and they allow you to get any benefits you've earned with one airline on their partner airlines as well.
So say if you were this regular business traveller as mentioned above. You fly BA between Edinburgh and London regularly. You could then take advantage of the points you earn or any status benefits such as lounge access when you fly to the US. If you want to fly a route British Airways don't operate you'd get the same benefits booking on their partner American Airlines.
However, even if you choose Flying Club rather than Nectar on VTEC there's no way to earn status benefits on VTEC so there's no way to get benefits such as lounge access. Wouldn't it be nice if you were a regular VTEC traveller to get lounge access on Virgin Atlantic or their partners Delta, KLM and Air France?
This means that the fact business travellers (or other regular travellers) flying between Edinburgh to London can earn real benefits that not only can be used on their business flights domestically but also on any international travel they make either for business or leisure. If you're boarding a busy A380 on an 8+ hour flight it's nice to be able to start the trip with lounge access and then board using fast track.
So real benefits for the most frequent travellers. VTEC seem to forget about their high value customers and seem to be targeting the occasional traveller that's travels so rarely they're over the moon with a first class seat even if the catering is missing and will post loads of selfies with 'first class' on the seat clearly visible.
