As I've been trying to understand loyalty, I've come to realize that it includes an element of submission. When we are truely loyal, we submit to the other party's needs. 

Customer Centric Growth: The world's best loyalty program, 2012-Jun-12, by Steven P. Dennis

Many of the world’s most powerful brands–Apple, Four Seasons, Louis Vuitton, just to name a few–have managed to thrive without such programs.

Let’s face it, most “loyalty” programs are some combination of ruses to collect customer data or serve as customer bribery schemes for the most promiscuous shoppers. Worse yet, many are simply me-too efforts that are knee jerk reactions to the competition which end up raising the cost of doing business without engendering true loyalty.

I understand that there are situations where loyalty programs have become competitive necessities. But before embarking on an expensive and complicated launch (or re-design) take a hard look at your underlying value proposition and customer strategy to make sure you are solving for the right problem.