On my way out of the C class lounge in Zurich today (31 December) I noticed a pile of leaflets about the new Swiss Travel Club.
The reason they kept quiet about it was that the points required for many flights has gone up considerably.
Below are the points for a free ticket from Europe in Y/C/F (all thousand points)
Europe/ North Africa 20/30/NA
Near East 50/75/100
North America 70/105/140
Middle East 80/120/160
Africa 90/135/180
South Asia 90/135/180
Rest of Asia 100/150/200
South America 110/165/220
Australia 160/240/320
The increases seem to be for C class travel although the cost of F to North America seems to have gone down.
The cost of upgrades has risen too (eg internal European has gone from 5K to 10K one way). Essentially now two one way upgrades are the same cost as an economy return.
No mention of the old RTW award and there is no information on other routings (eg travel other than from Europe or local travel on partner airlines).
Stephen
digisup
Dec 31, 02, 1:37 pm
As of 2.31 EST, I can not access the qualiflyer website anymore,
they say the respective website (LX,TP,SN) will be up starting jan 2
Was hoping to read more info on the new rules of the game!
sjharte
Dec 31, 02, 2:05 pm
From what I have read in the guide I picked up thsi korning in Zurich, the Swiss Travel Club rules appear to be the same as Qualiflyer (eg you can do the 8 segment trick) it is just that there are fewer airlines with which to do it and it costs more miles!!
Stephen
airoli
Jan 1, 03, 10:57 am
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by digisup:
Was hoping to read more info on the new rules of the game!</font>
The entire point of this thing is - as has been discussed before - that you don't know what you're getting until it's too late!
------------------
airOli (http://www.olimade.com/airoli), the Swiss Air Line. ;)
rorschi
Jan 1, 03, 4:01 pm
Hello,
I also picked up the new Travel-Club-Guide at the C-Class-Lounge at ZRH today. For me, the new FFP is nothing else than a big disappointement: The required miles for an upgrade are now considerably doubled!!!
For example, an upgrade from Y to C to the South East (India) costs now 45'000 Miles (with Qualiflyer 25'000), to the Far East (China, Japan) 50'000!!! (no idea how much miles are required for an upgrade from C to F).
So, an upgrade on this beautiful new FFP costs more than an upgrade on miles&more! If some LX-frequent flyer will move to Lufthansa? I will perhaps do so.
Best Regards Patrick (now in ACC).
digisup
Jan 1, 03, 5:47 pm
What does Y->C to cost from EUR to US ?
sjharte
Jan 1, 03, 7:21 pm
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by digisup:
What does Y->C to cost from EUR to US ?</font>
35K one way
digisup
Jan 1, 03, 9:21 pm
guess this will be my last year as a TCGM
digisup
Jan 1, 03, 9:25 pm
thank god I recently burned 420.000 miles on upgrades and F/C tickets
Roger
Jan 2, 03, 4:27 am
Swiss Travel Club website still not up and running in spite of the promise that it would be up today.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rorschi:
So, an upgrade on this beautiful new FFP costs more than an upgrade on miles&more! If some LX-frequent flyer will move to Lufthansa? I will perhaps do so.
Best Regards Patrick (now in ACC).</font>
Not to mention that all awards to Africa and Australia are cheaper with M&M! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif
beepee
Jan 2, 03, 10:06 am
no launching offers? wonder what the charts will be at the 2 other programs?
digisup
Jan 2, 03, 3:50 pm
"...At present no miles can be earned on the ticket categories ID, AD, BP, DG, DM, GE, IN, RG or UD as defined by the IATA standards..."
Who has got more info on these classes ?
beepee
Jan 2, 03, 4:02 pm
DM was the class mentioned on the EZE tickets
digisup
Jan 2, 03, 4:04 pm
is BP a cheap economy ticket ?
huegli
Jan 2, 03, 4:14 pm
If they credited the full miles for EZE tickets so far, I would say they have to credit those miles to everybody who booked the ticket before the changes to the program were made. Nobody told us that no miles could be collected on those flights. Do they really think they can make the company profitable by not giving miles to a few savvy FTers ? Quite the opposite I would think...
Roger
Jan 3, 03, 2:58 am
Huegli's points is a good one.
For those deciding to vote with their feet, would the DM fare give credit in AA or other programmes?
After all, AA allows 125% credit for business class Swiss flights in C, D, J, R, and W. AA's T+C's state You may accrue mileage only for purchased, eligible, published-fare tickets on qualifying routes used in accordance with all applicable conditions of carriage, tariffs, rules and terms of ticketing and travel which would suggest that AA credit would be OK.
huegli
Jan 3, 03, 3:14 am
Roger, I already had the same idea. I guess we'll have to wait and see if anyone taking the trip from now on gets the miles on STC. If not, someone should try AA. If they credit the miles and STC doesn't, guess where my business will go....
Roger
Jan 3, 03, 3:31 am
Huegli: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
My dilemma (not really a serious one - it's a no brainer) is that BA ask 13,000 miles for LHR-ZRH/GVA roundtrip in Y, and offer 200% mileage for C/J flights. LX and AA require 20,000 miles, and offer 1.5x and 1.25x for C/J flights. That's not difficult for those (like me) who travel between LHR and ZRH/GVA.
The dilemma arises only because I already have a chunk of BA, AA and LX miles. BA and AA miles automatically extend their 3-year life each time the account is used, while LX stop after three years (unless you pay for them to be extended). I think it's getting easier ...
Of course, easyJet prices are sometimes cheaper than the taxes/fees on 'free' tickets, but that's another question all together!
teahan
Jan 3, 03, 10:02 am
Am I right in reading that from now on we wonīt get miles for EZE? Probably explains why "NO FFP CREDIT" is still in my reservation log....
I think some of those fares MAY stand for government, journalist etc. fares but donīt have the slightest idea about DM.
Jer
[This message has been edited by teahan (edited 01-03-2003).]