I think it's been out for 2 months or so now. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, United made the switch to earning miles based on the price of your ticket rather than how far you flew. I believe Delta just made this change to. Can anyone confirm? I haven't flown Delta in years.
Is anyone winning or losing with these changes?
I have been flying more for work recently so I win on work flights. My tickets are usually refundable (so very $$$$) because the meetings are constantly being pushed or cancelled. On personal flights it's been very sad to see a cross country trip only result in a handful of miles because I bought such a cheap ticket. Now that I know I will requalify for gold this year, I may change my personal flights to fly Virgin when possible because its a nicer experience than United and I'm not losing out on many miles. My husband is pretty married to United though because he's not terribly far from million miler status so I don't know if he'll change airlines at all.
For someone like me who only flies a few times a year, it definitely doesn't work in my favor. But DH travels internationally for business on $$$$ tickets so it benefits him greatly.
I flew Delta on Dec 30 and Jan 1 so I got full mileage on the way there and peanuts on the way back.
I'm doing mostly personal travel since I changed jobs last year so I'm really happy to be with AA (and the added bonus this month of all my us air miles moving into my AA account).
I flew Delta on Dec 30 and Jan 1 so I got full mileage on the way there and peanuts on the way back.
I'm doing mostly personal travel since I changed jobs last year so I'm really happy to be with AA (and the added bonus this month of all my us air miles moving into my AA account).
This is what happened to me too, and for a first class flight.
What was even more interesting (I found) was that I got a 'free' 10,000 miles because my flight was canceled due to weather issues. I'm not arguing with this, but this was more than I got for the actual flight from Seattle to Burlington VT! This was Delta.
I flew Delta on Dec 30 and Jan 1 so I got full mileage on the way there and peanuts on the way back.
I'm doing mostly personal travel since I changed jobs last year so I'm really happy to be with AA (and the added bonus this month of all my us air miles moving into my AA account).
Same exact thing happened Feb 28/March 2 for me (which is when United switched) and I was so annoyed as it was a cross country flight. Also, the flight had been cancelled the night before, I was stranded in Newark airport, and everything else in the world went wrong so I was particularly salty about the whole thing.
My husband is raking in the miles this year. He flies mostly with only a day or two's notice so his tickets can be pricey. Definitely not good for the leisure traveler who is always trying to get the best price on their flights.
They are basically taking away the incentive to be loyal to a particular airline for a chunk of the flying population when they do this. So now, they are wanting to heavily favor people who buy expensive tickets. It can make sense that they want to compete for that type of flyer though they were already doing that in various ways.
What this means is that the type of flyers who aren't likely to benefit much from their revised rewards schemes are going to have even less incentive to favor one of these particular airlines. If you don't have a reasonable chance of accruing reward miles then what is the point? Might as well fly whatever airline you want. If you aren't hoping to gain miles then you're probably going to go with an airline with a better price for the ticket. If that airline then has a better rewards program too then it's going to be more competitive.
Basically, this kind of move favors budget airlines especially those with semi-decent rewards programs.
Post by runblondie26 on Apr 16, 2015 13:37:28 GMT -5
The chanage in policy works in favor of business travelers, which is where the airlines make most of their money, so it makes sense they would cater more to them.
Post by Wanderista on Apr 16, 2015 17:04:24 GMT -5
It probably sounds like I prefer flying budget airlines though I don't particularly. I just think that when mainstream airlines become so stingy with their reward programs for economy travelers that the programs become irrelevant then those flyers will be even less loyal then they were in the past. More of them will probably choose based on price and so a number of them will probably gravitate towards the budget airlines. I realize that this has already been happening but moves like this just cement the process.
I know that I used to fly a lot with particular airlines because I was in the mileage programs. If the program isn't going to reward me sufficiently, then I no longer prize flying a particular airline over another. In that case, I'll just pick based on price and itinerary. The old airline that I was loyal to will lose that loyalty. I won't care about paying $100 extra to fly with an airline that I have a membership for.
We fly Delta and we are getting screwed under their new system. We fly them internationally but mostly in coach. If we flew in business class we'd rake in the miles. But we fly for personal travel, not business (mostly), so coach it is. We are platinum/gold members because of last year's flights under the old system. I don't think we'll ever make it back to this level under the new system.
Right now I'm getting 13,600 miles (new system) instead of 26,500 (old system), as an example of my flight home to see family. When we lose our status next year we will get 8,500 mi instead of 13,200. For comparison, we'd currently get 13,600 (new system) for a coach ticket and 40,000 (new system) if we were in business (or more. 40,000 is based on the cheapest business ticket I've seen published for this route).
Post by alleinesein on Apr 17, 2015 0:49:13 GMT -5
Meanwhile American is still offering actual miles and has a promo that allows you to earn up to 3x elite qualifying points per flight for business and first class travel through the end of the year. This promo also includes oneworld partners- Flights eligible for the additional AAdvantage elite-qualifying points include flights marketed and operated by American Airlines or US Airways, and flights operated by the following partner airlines that are marketed by American Airlines or US Airways (sold as an American or US Airways flight number): British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines or Qantas.
I flew 23K+ miles last year but only spent $3000 on my tickets. I'll stick with the FF program that still rewards me in a way that benefits me.
We have very strict policies in place to fly the cheapest discount economy ticket available (on a non-budget airline). The year I flew enough to reach platinum, it was back and forth across the Atlantic every 6 weeks. However, every single one of those trips was a discount fare. I would probably barely make silver in the current version.
If I decide to go back to Star Alliance loyalty, I'll switch my membership to a European airline. Probably SAS, since it's my local hub, even though I prefer Lufthansa.
I kind of wonder if it will actually hurt some companies, since there's now an incentive for their employees to book more expensive tickets. If I had the option, I might "forget" to book my ticket until much later so that the cheapest option would net me more miles.
Honestly, if the airlines really want to attract corporate fliers, they should look at programs like Flying Blue Petroleum. I have plenty of colleagues who go out of their way to fly KLM or Air France, because the corporate program guarantees them perks like lounge access no matter how much or little they fly.
In reality, I think the motivation is just to get people to pay more. Honestly, the loyalty-program perks in the U.S. are so watered-down from all the credit-card perk users that they clearly aren't trying to create a good experience for business travelers.
I hate United, and used to avoid it whenever I could. Which is usually pretty easy for someone who lives in the middle of EWR, LGA, and JFK, particularly because United usually is more expensive than the alternatives.
But now I work near EWR and my coworkers all live in NJ and take United as much as possible, so I'm flying it about once a month. WHICH SUCKS because my trips tend to be short (but expensive for how short they are -- like $700-$800 from EWR to NH or Detroit) and I STILL feel like I'm not getting any benefits from choosing United.
So I've decided that I'm going back to my strategy of not being loyal to any particular airline. I'll never achieve status, but with the new United program I feel like I never would anyway.
So how does the million miler calculation work under the new system? Do they still count the actual number of miles you flew or just what you get awarded? Not that I'm close on either of my two biggest airlines/programs (United and American) since I've historically split my travel between the two.
Mileage flown.
Qualifying for status is also based on mileage flown. It's just the points/miles you accumulate to spend on free flights that is affected by this new system.
So how does the million miler calculation work under the new system? Do they still count the actual number of miles you flew or just what you get awarded? Not that I'm close on either of my two biggest airlines/programs (United and American) since I've historically split my travel between the two.
Mileage flown.
Qualifying for status is also based on mileage flown. It's just the points/miles you accumulate to spend on free flights that is affected by this new system.
So we should still qualify for premier status on United then based on miles flown we just wouldn't be able to use mileage for free flights? How do they separate that?
We we have flown between 25 and 30000 for the past several years so we qualify for premier. I admit I didn't really get how the new system works. Ever since the merge with Continental the Ff program has really gone downhill. We never qualify for business upgrades on transatlantic flights anymore (and you pay $500 a ticket without a guarantee for the upgrade and then get refunded later if you didn't get the upgrade) and we never get the free Economy plus anymore. So all our status is good for is free luggage and using miles for United club. They are really pushing using miles for purchases other than flights. We still fly them since it is most convenient for us.
You still get miles for free flights, it's just based on a multiple of how much the flight cost instead (silver members get 7x the price of a ticket, not including taxes) instead of a multiple of how far you flew (silver members got 1.25x the distance). And I am impressed by anyone who can get an international upgrade!
Qualifying for status is also based on mileage flown. It's just the points/miles you accumulate to spend on free flights that is affected by this new system.
So we should still qualify for premier status on United then based on miles flown we just wouldn't be able to use mileage for free flights? How do they separate that?
We we have flown between 25 and 30000 for the past several years so we qualify for premier. I admit I didn't really get how the new system works. Ever since the merge with Continental the Ff program has really gone downhill. We never qualify for business upgrades on transatlantic flights anymore (and you pay $500 a ticket without a guarantee for the upgrade and then get refunded later if you didn't get the upgrade) and we never get the free Economy plus anymore. So all our status is good for is free luggage and using miles for United club. They are really pushing using miles for purchases other than flights. We still fly them since it is most convenient for us.
The premiere-qualifying miles (PQM) and the redeemable award miles have always differed at the premium levels because of the mileage bonus. For example, if you were silver, I think you got 25% bonus award miles, so for a 1000-mile flight, you would have 1000 PQM for your yearly status qualification, but your account would be credited with 1250 miles to spend.
Now I guess you still get the 1000 PQM, but the miles in your account would be based on how much you paid.
For me, my usual flight route was 10,160 miles roundtrip, so I guess I would still get my 10,160 PQM, but since the fare is usually around $1100, I would get far fewer redeemable award miles. As a platinum member, I would have earned 10,160 + 75% = 17,780 award miles before. Now I'd only get 9 x 1100 = 9900. So even at platinum, I'd still earn half the award miles I used to.
Apparently they really don't want to issue so many award tickets anymore!