Loyalty programs also cost money in the form of the free stuff you give away as benefits. For a company that perennially has trouble turning a profit on razor-s

Loyalty programs also cost money in the form of the free stuff you give away as benefits. For a company that perennially has trouble turning a profit on razor-slim (and most often negative) margins, this would be a problem. There's also a question of if the retention ability of the loyalty program outweighs of the cost of benefits you're giving out. Additionally the shape of the business matters. For some industries (see: hotels, airlines) a lot of the benefits are in the form of things they would've lost money on anyway if they didn't give to the loyal customer. Upgrading room at check-in? That room was pretty much guaranteed to go empty that night anyway. Upgrading airplane seat 24h before departure? That seat was pretty much guaranteed to go empty if they didn't. So the opportunity cost of giving the user the reward is ~zero-ish. This is definitely not true for Uber, where free rides = lost money.