British Airways secretly assigns every loyalty member a hidden numerical score, visible to crew, that ranks them beyond their published elite tier.
Do I know BA gives me a score ? Yes , I know that I have a score of 100 because I am a good fellow and use the Oxford comma .
Back in the day the cvi was printed on the top right corner of the boarding pass
Nowadays every corporation does that. They profile every customer in every which way. There are algos that are focused on finding the gullible consumers where you do the bare minimum to retain loyalty and find ways to make you pay more.
There are algorithms which are focused on finding out how easily you can be enticed. All those retention offers, upgrade offers, they are usually generated by AI algos nowadays. And these algos keep a track of each consumer and how gullible they are and how easily they can be enticed.
So all the retention offers, bonus offers are going to be at the bare minimum level.
That is why its always mind boggling awhen you hear people bragging of accepting the bare minimum offers.
Nowadays can't by a Kelly Bag from Hermès if you're not a well rated returning customer.
This is far more common than you know in a number of industries. In fact upscale restaurant groups have been quietly doing this for a number of years. Also, hotels. It’s not always positive as well. There are top luxury hotel brands that document a lot about you, your stays, and both good and bad aspects of you as a guest that can determine certain factors as to your room assignment. Often loud and have a lot of traffic in your room? Expect less upgrades at any of their properties and being assigned a room in the hinterlands on less desirable floors as just one example. I would not be surprised if the purser on some airlines have more than just scores - but actual data that goes even deeper.
I think your key point here is where can the CIV be used that explicitly can NOT be baked into an algorithm. I'd imagine the answer is mostly when ops aren't flowing smoothly, staff have to make decisions that aren't predetermined by a machine. i.e. Preferred mains dishes are running low, two seats are broken with only one suitable replacement in that class, two people complain simultaneously, then prioritize making the high CIV happy.
I'd also imagine it's meant to instill the awe effect: this is a real VIP, do everything to avoid fucking up with this person, and use any discretionary surprise and delight.
A very useful post! My theory is also that this data, at least in BA's implementation, can better inform a purser and cabin crew on their abilities to 'push back' on unreasonable requests - of course the domain of 'reasonable' being directly proportional to the score and 'other factors' (past behavior, etc.). Organizations need to know who brings the most value and is the 'juice worth the squeeze' when trying to accommodate the uncommon. This is also mentioned in other posters' comments on hotels and restaurants.