Loyalty programs sell you a mirror and bill you for the glass

The name is the tell. Nobody calls them frequent-buyer discounts, because the discount is bait and the ledger is the product. You hand over your purchase history, your habits, your Tuesday-afternoon coffee, and in exchange you get points whose most reliable feature is that they expire.

The tier is the clever bit. A discount is a transaction; a tier is an identity. Status costs the company almost nothing to grant and is worth more to you than the cash it replaces — which is why airlines can make you feel decorated for flying in a tube.

The asymmetry is the point: you are loyal to them, and they are loyal to whoever buys the data. The loyalty is real. It's just not mutual.