Soft landing changes what happens at requalification when a member falls short. Instead of dropping the member straight to the entry level, the program lowers them by a single tier, preserving some benefits and recognition. The rule acknowledges that a member's activity can dip for reasons unrelated to their loyalty, and that a total loss of status often pushes a wavering member out entirely.
Consider a top-tier hotel member who travels less one year because of a job change and misses requalification. Without soft landing, they would fall to the base level and lose every benefit at once, a jarring signal that may send them shopping. With soft landing, they drop one level, keep meaningful perks, and have a realistic path back to the top.
For an enterprise operator, soft landing is a retention safeguard for members whose value is temporarily down but not gone. It costs the program some benefit spend on members who did not strictly requalify, so the design question is how far to cushion the fall without undermining the incentive to requalify in the first place.
