33teeth

It will certainly be interesting to see where this goes. I earned most of my miles on Delta flights to Europe last year and this year have lately been using BA and AA for those trips (all miles credited to my AS Mileage Plan account). If Mileage Plan goes in the wrong direction, I sure feel like I'd be better off just crediting my miles to DL. I know redemption would not be likely, but at least I'd get sky priority, lounge access, economy comfort, etc. I want to keep supporting AS, and use them for all flights where I can, but I sure don't have to. With DL offering double MQM's in and out of Seattle, it's hardly even a matter of matching. A few flights and you're up to gold. A few more...

golfingboy

I took part of the survey yesterday, until I reached the point where you had to drag many different ideas into specific columns I could not resume since the interface does not support I-Pad touch then drag and drop.

Anyway, the only appealing thing to me is when they said, "earn on all partner airline flights". I take that to mean every single flight in every single revenue fare class will count. That is appealing to me. I am sick of trying to figure out whether the flight is within the eligible range or whether a fare class is mileage earning. Not all partners are transparent with what fare class you will be in when booking [consequences of the simplification of the booking process].

Another appealing thing for me is pooling miles.

Elite Recognition, if they really want to bolster their elite recognition program, offer free BoB hot meal to 75Ks stuck in Y on flights that are longer than X hours [Maybe over 3 hours], if it is under 3 hours a free snack, along with the free drink of course. That is a huge differentiation.

Add new 75K benefit, international lounge access when flying a partner airline. Strike an agreement with all of your partners and if a 75K is traveling with you, they can show their card and obtain lounge access pass. That is the big benefit gap that AS has with their top tier elites being a stand alone regional airline. Free bags and priority check-in is not really a big deal as international flights tends to allow 1 or 2 free checked bag. Priority check-in/boarding is not a big deal really since overhead space is rarely an issue on those flights [since people can check luggage for free and most do]. At least for me.

For Golds and above, add ability to request upgrade on certain partners [AA, DL?, BA, etc] on international flights using points. I.E. I booked a mid-range fare class on AA to Europe and I can burn 40K points to upgrade to business each way. Saver business/first space needs to be available for the upgrade. This is not particularly a huge benefit for me with the alliances since full fare or close to full fare is required, but it seems to be a benefit that some people actually appreciate. By enabling more fare classes [i.e. similar to UA's W+ requirement for SWUs] could actually differentiate AS from the other majors. Getting the partners to agree to such program that is better than their own might be a challenge though.

slopeboy40

You left out the word "points" in your post. The exact phrase is,

"Earn points based upon all of your spending on Alaska Airlines and partner airline flights, in-flight services, baggage fess and spending on your Alaska Airlines Signature Visa credit card."

Will you earn points if you use your Capital One credit card? My guess is no.

Plus that phrase "mileage earning" appears nowhere in the survey. I just reread both proposals. Forget about miles, they mean nothing. You are earning points based on your spending. Not on how far you fly, not on how many segments you fly, but purely on how much money you spend. Which is why if we can't make status via our spending, we are most definately looking at a new credit card and and new airline. One that offers economy plus, and a real first class.

slopeboy40

And I wonder what happens to those of us already there. Grandfathered in? Kicked to the curb? A relic from a different time and era to be looked upon with wonder and amazement?

golfingboy

I am fine with that as long as every single flight counts. If they can do away with the flight range nonsense or fare class ambiguity.

The only reason this could work for me is everything counts towards to whatever established level. That is doable, if it is restricted to spend with one merchant then it is plain ridiculous just like with DL and UA's programs.

DL is slightly better as the CC waiver applies to all levels while UA is only up to Platinum.

I am by no means a low revenue traveler, I just don't buy full Y fares. If AS's revenue model is more in-line with WN while keeping the burn side the same then that is good. DL's earning side makes absolutely no sense with the caps and not very well thought out elite bonus points structure. Everyone is getting screwed on the DL side unless you buy the upper 25% fares or only fly short hops.

If AS keeps it simple, every single dollar earns X points irregardless of fare breakdown, what metal, what ticket stock, what third party source, etc. That is where I think DL and UA's revenue model is a failure, there is no way to know what to expect until everything posts and then at that point if you feel it is off then it is a crapshoot at that point.

Keep it simple and sweet with tiered points earning structure that makes sense and counts every single $1 inc taxes, inflight purchases, buy ups, bag fees, partner flights booked anywhere in any fare class on any flight, etc.

SamuelS

Notwithstanding that other carriers, e.g. DL, do not include taxes/fees, inflight purchases and bag fees for calculating MQD, even if AS did include - remember that both proposals included a tiered earning structure that seems heavily biased towards purchases on an AS credit card, and from AS online shopping and other non-travel partner purchases.

If Elite Status, as seemingly suggested, could be obtained from online shopping, credit card spend, and other non-flying related sources - it could certainly bloat Elite ranks. Not withstanding that one of the proposals suggested that anyone could simply just buy Elite status on a per flight basis.

The sky is not falling and the world is not ending (yet!) and obviously many of these concepts are trial balloons and this survey is just one way to float some of these ideas out and see the response. That said, there's doubtless a look by AS to revamp MP to become much more integrated with credit cards and third party sponsors which could make Elite status more closely aligned to how much you spend with AS partners and credit cards rather than how much time BIS you spend on AS. Interesting.

golfingboy

That concept is indeed intriguing. I suspect there will be some mechanism in place to protect the elite ranks such as 4 segments on AS metal min for MVP, 8 for Gold, and 12 or 16 for 75K.

This definitely will be interesting, but I hope AS comes up with a couple of ideas first and set up an advisory panel consisting of frequent flyers to debate/discuss their thoughts and experience [based on both knowledge and experience which means including those who also hold elite status with other programs].

Do not bring a panel of those who have no clue of the program or just fly because they are told to fly. Bring someone onboard who is familiar with AS's program and many other programs in North America and can offer a much more in-depth insight of how AS measures up with other airlines.

I actually think a hybrid of WN and DL is what would serve as a good starting point for AS in the idea formulating stage. WN's earn model and DL's burn model.

Sagemo

So, on this new system:
If I buy my adult daughter an AS ticket with my AS BOA CC and we plug in her frequent flyer number, who would get the points?
VS Me buying myself an AS ticket with my AS BOA CC?
VS Me buying myself an AS ticket with brand X CC?

Don't see how this will work. Just say'n...

golfingboy

This is why the concept of pooling points is being discussed in the survey, it can be pooled into one pool or you can chose to credit it to a specific account as opposed to only the traveling passenger's account under the current system.

Assuming the pooling concept is not going to be included, my hypothetical answers:

You will get the points for the AS CC spend [whatever extra bonus such as 3x bonus points per $1] but daughter will get the $ times X points for the trip itself.

You will get all points through $ X points plus the point per $1 spend on the AS visa and any additional bonus.

You will get $ times X points.

missydarlin

For those of you concerned that this is about moving to a revenue based program, here is the official response from Loyalty Marketing:


My personal thoughts are that some of you might be overthinking this a bit. I read through a good number of the survey questions, and if you are looking at them with the mindset that this is all about moving to a revenue based program, then I can see how you were able to find justification for that. But really, this was more about gauging how our members feel about the benefits we currently offer for both the program as a whole and some specifically for the AS Visa, and throwing out ideas for other benefits that they might enjoy in addition or instead of some of the current offerings.

Why didn't they ask about the Gold Change Fee Waivers? Because they already know. I don't think I've ever been to a Gold lunch in the past 8 years where someone didn't bring up how much they appreciate the benefit. It's mentioned here quite a bit as well.

MonThruThurs

I don't believe this. Sorry for being a cynic, but it's unreal to suggest that AS does not know how people to feel about Mileage Plan, considering the awards AS has won in the past.

Also, I don't see how some of these suggested items in the survey would work together with the current features. Specifically CC spend. Do you want a mileage based system or a revenue based system? Commingling of the 2 as they exist today inherently doesn't work as there would be arbitrage opportunities and AS could get taken advantage of.

lg20

There has to be a part of due diligence as well. With Delta making such radical changes, it's only prudent to verify that if AS decides to keep the program the same, that they're not missing out on a huge customer improvement as Delta describes their changes. Having a survey on those topics with a resounding yes or no from customer base makes both radical changes, or maintaining the status quo an easier decision.

I would have been more shocked not to see a survey come from most other carriers after Delta's changes. They need to be able to justify action or non-action, and validate the items they think they already know.

CDKing

With the expansion of free changes with advance notice for non-elite members, that is my indication that this benefit is here to stay

crimsona

I for one would like to see some token miles earned for non-earning fare buckets on partners.

It is inevitable that Delta miles earning will drop for low fare buckets in 2015 - it would be nice to see 25% and 100% buckets rather than 0% and 100% only. O fares on AA earning nothing and a good chunk of Cathay earning nothing pretty much forces me to open up a BA account just to extract some benefit back.

AS is pretty much all or nothing. Some token mileage would be nice for all fare buckets on partners (10,25,50,100 maybe?)

davew-krdm

Thanks for your response.

I have to admit that part of my visceral response to the survey is based on living through multiple devaluations during my 2.5 years as a Delta Platinum Medallion, some of which are the very ideas listed in the "potential changes" portions of the survey.

Also, as others have mentioned - the survey was very limiting in forcing you to vote for one of two very similar choices of an "idealized" program, both of which were points-based rather than miles-based with heavy emphasis on non-flying earn and spend opportunities. There was zero opportunity to say "hey, neither of these are what I want" other than limited comment fields, all of which were supposed to contain responses to targeted questions.

I'll hope for the best, and I've had my say in both the survey and in follow-up comments via the feedback link. And that's all I can ask for which, as mentioned, is more than Delta offered .

Dave