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Credit cards are indispensable for everyday life, both online and offline. Recently I made some major changes, including how I manage reward points.
Sumitomo Mitsui Card
Until now I had been using the ANA VISA Platinum Card and naturally accumulating V Points. Because I used it mainly for work and flew frequently, I would convert my ANA miles into V Points to spend them. Since I had few chances to use ANA miles outside of work, they—along with the upgrade points—tended to pile up, so V Points were my only practical outlet.
The conversion rate from ANA miles to V Points used to be 1:1, so I never worried about it, but the other day that rate was changed—a devaluation in my view.
ANA Official Site
Specifically, you can exchange up to 20,000 miles at par, but anything beyond that is cut by 50%. In other words, 10,000 miles now yield only 5,000 V Points. I have about 170,000 miles; under the old rules that meant 170,000 V Points, but now it will be just 95,000 V Points.
There may be reasons behind changes like these—lately the downgrades really stand out—but it was disappointing that a core exchange rate that had lasted for years was suddenly altered with almost no advance notice. Given the magnitude of the change, the poor communication and lack of a transition period felt inconsiderate toward users.
For me, this means I’ve lost the main way to use the miles I spent years accumulating. From now on I’ll have to exchange them 20,000 at a time while I look for other ways to spend the rest.
Now that I’ve graduated from Trinity and my domestic and overseas business trips are winding down, I’m not sure how often I’ll fly in the future. I don’t plan to switch from ANA to JAL or another airline, so I’ll probably keep earning miles through flights, but as a long-time customer my loyalty to the brand has definitely declined.
The most effective protest a user can make is not a complaint call but switching to another service. I’ll still respond to surveys to make my voice heard, yet simply ceasing to use the service is the most powerful business signal—though I’m not sure how much impact one person can have.
As mentioned, I’ll have to keep using ANA for flights, but I decided to review and optimize my credit-card usage. After weighing the options, the Rakuten ecosystem turned out to be the best match for my needs.
As noted above, the services I already use alone create a full-fledged Rakuten ecosystem, and the higher point-back rates through SPU (Super Point Up) naturally draw you deeper into Rakuten’s world—a masterful walled garden indeed.
Rakuten Ichiba
I’ve decided to use Rakuten Mobile as my secondary line, shift my securities trading from SBI Securities to Rakuten Securities, and move my hotel bookings from Ikyu to Rakuten Travel (those two services became collateral damage). I also plan to start using Rakuten Bank as a secondary bank account.
I didn’t used to like the Rakuten brand very much. Back when Rakuten Ichiba and Rakuten Travel were its main businesses, their cumbersome e-mail registration system and poor usability put me off. I still feel the design could be improved, but President Mikitani’s bold move with Rakuten Mobile makes me want to root for them, and I see real value in their all-encompassing ecosystem, so I decided to jump in.
Even though I already had an account, I had never bothered to earn Rakuten Points in stores, but from now on I’m going to use them actively. On a smaller scale, I now bring up and show the Rakuten Point screen at places like Yoshinoya and FamilyMart, even though I used to find it a hassle.
Ideally, I’d concentrate all my points in one place, but a complete consolidation isn’t realistic, so for the time being I’ll continue operating with two systems.
★
If ANA hadn’t worsened its mileage exchange rate, I probably wouldn’t have considered making all these changes.
I’ve come to realize that losing customer trust can be triggered by surprisingly small things. I understand there may be various reasons, but for loyal customers who have been saving miles for years (I think 170,000 miles is a sizable amount), they should at least have provided a transition period to the new scheme. They no doubt ran the numbers on exchange fees and other costs, but I wish they had focused not only on short-term profit and loss but also on customer lifetime value (LTV).
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Hossy.orgis a site where Tetsushi Hoshikawa (Hossy) shares information from his various experiences such as entrepreneurship, management, and graduation through blog articles, podcasts, and other activities.
Tetsushi Hoshikawa
Founded Trinity Corporation, which deals with digital life products, and "graduated" after about 20 years of management.
Serves concurrently as the CEO of Eureka Studio Corporation, a company planning and developing casual games for smartphones, and as the CEO of the investment company Cosmo Studio.
I regularly publish blog articles and podcasts on topics such as management, hobbies, and current events. If you subscribe to our news updates, we will send you notifications about new content, so feel free to register.(We do not distribute advertisements or similar content)
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