Loyalty glossary · 3. Tier and status (20)
Soft Landing
Soft landing is a tier retention policy that protects a member from a full demotion when they miss renewal thresholds, typically by dropping them one tier or granting a limited grace period rather than resetting them to base status.
Soft landing is a retention tool, not a benefit. It lets a member keep some status after failing to requalify, usually by granting the next tier down instead of base level. The programme frames this as courtesy, but it is a deliberate decision to protect future revenue from a member who has already stopped earning the status.
Work the numbers, because the discount is explicit. A top tier normally requires 50 stays per year. A soft landing may renew that tier with 40 stays, a 20 percent reduction. The member receives the same elite benefits for four fifths of the required activity. The programme absorbs the difference.
This affects the accrual ledger immediately. A soft-landed member continues to earn bonus points at the higher tier rate, which increases the programme's deferred revenue under ASC 606. The operator books points as if they were earned, but the member did not meet the published threshold.
The policy also distorts award availability. More members at higher tiers means more people competing for the same premium seats and upgrades. A member who would have fallen to base status now claims award space that a fully qualified member expected to book.
Soft landing is a forecast that members will return to full qualification. When that does not happen, the programme has given away status cheaply and diluted its own elite currency. A hard landing is harsher but honest, and it keeps the tier system meaning something.