Who says airline CEO's don't have a sense of humour ?

[MAN Flyer]

This is a cracker.

I have just been reading that there is a conference next year in KL (doing well following IATA's recent meet) called 'Loyalty 2010', which is (and I quote) 'focused entitely on delivering world class frequent flyer programmes'. Very impressive, one may think.

However, I nearly spat my drink over my monitor when I read who one of the key note speakers will be:

Malaysia Airlines chief executive Idris Jala has confirmed that he will be a keynote speaker at the event and he will lead a line-up of top speakers from the industry and from other industries to share best practices.

MH . The airline that has Enrich ?. By a country mile the worst loyalty programme of any kind I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. This has got to be a wind-up. I had to check it wasn't April 1st when I read this, but it would seem to be true.

Now, I have a lot of time for Idris Jala with regard to what he has done with MH (the airline itself) bearing in mind all the PITA interference he had to deal with with those idiot politicians in Malaysia. But if he is a keynote speaker, where on earth are those lower down from ?.

[KeithMEL]

Probably 'world class frequent flyer programmes' from the airline's POV, rather than the pax's!

[MAN Flyer]

Probably 'world class frequent flyer programmes' from the airline's POV, rather than the pax's!

There is nothing whatsoever 'world class' about Enrich...and if MH think there is, then that is even more worrying than the thought of having to deal with them.

[Kyo]

Looks like they bought into their own 5-star, 'world-class' marketing

[milehighj]

I believe that some middle-management hack from SQ will be delivering a segment entitled "The PPS Club Story: How we destroyed 20 years' of customer loyalty and goodwill, but boosted our bottomline.".

[HUGE AL]

Perhaps some of you can help me out:

Are phrases like, "world class frequent flyer programmes" and "a class beyond first" codewords in SE Asia for, "get ready, we're about to demolish all your perks worse than the Savage25 Effect?"