Ken Wisnefski spoke with the Washington Post's Christopher Elliott on what's behind customer loyalty programs.

The DOT inspector general audit resonates with frequent fliers like Ken Wisnefski, the founder of a Web marketing firm in Camden, N.J. As a professional marketer, he’s seen any number of loyalty programs up close. But he says that nothing compares with the airline programs, for both their elusiveness and their deceptiveness.

“There are excessive fine print and aspects that make them more and more difficult to navigate,” he says. “I do believe many people are led to believe that the programs will be something great and are, in turn, very discouraged when they find out it wasn’t what they had thought it was. I’ve even heard people refer to these programs as bait-and-switch scenarios.”