Weatherboy

While they haven't gone through any specific detail at the 'Do yet, CO (a member of the OnePass team) did say that international rewad and upgrade travel will see significant mileage increases for the 2006 program year.

It sounds like Y upgrades to BF to Hawaii will jump to 15,000 miles while discount economy upgrades will cost 35,000 miles in addition to any required fees. Upgrades to Asia will jump to 50,000 miles for discount economy tickets (plus fees) and 25,000 for full Y. Europe will jump to 40,000 and 20,000 respectively.

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like offered inventory will change much ...nor will the fee for the mileage option on discount economy tickets. Mark Bergsrud mentioned at a Q&A at the 'Do today that they don't expect any changes with the system and inventories.

So perhaps as the mileage redemption requirement increases, less people will buy upgrades ...thereby making trans-oceanic upgrades more available ...albeit for a higher price.

MileKing

Thanks for posting Weatherboy. Nothing like announcing such changes as the CO brass wines, dines, and coddles FlyerTalkers. The changes are totally uncompetitive with just about anything offered by other airlines. Coupled with no increase in inventory (for awards or upgrades), NonePass is still alive and well!

gleff

I don't mean to troll but what POSSIBLE reason is there to accumulate CO miles?

I mean, ok, so maybe if you live in Houston you'll find yourself flying CO metal. But even then you could earn status on NW (which is only a MARGINALLY better program, but it is better). And if you're NOT going to earn elite status via your CO flights, then you might as well credit those flights to a program like AS.

Okay, having given it some thought I can come up with only one reason to actually credit miles to the CO program -- if you fly CO metal regularly (because you live in one of their hubs) and you book discounted fares and you do all your bookings at CO.com you'll want to earn CO miles so you get full elite credit I suppose.

But that's the only scenario I can come up with.

35k miles AND $$$ to upgrade to Hawaii? Compare that to United @ 15k miles and no $$$ from any published fare.

bocastephen

I just want to make sure I have the math right...so are you saying that upgrades to Asia for a H fare will be 50,000 miles each way, or a total of 100,000 miles?? That is outrageous! For 20,000 more miles I can just redeem a free ticket. Or will that be jumping to 200,000 for a standard reward and 400,000 for easypass?

Outrageous! Totally noncompetitive.

Live4Upgrade

This report better be wrong. 100,000 miles + $700 bucks to upgrade a R/T ticket to Asia is way out of line vs other airlines.

Yes, BusinessFirst is nice. But, it isn't THAT nice.

If this report is true, CO can kiss my 100,000 miles/yr for past 10-yrs running good bye.

Guess the non-revs and CO Brass want to ensure there are always plenty of seats for them.

Spiff

CO's redemption levels for upgrade and premium class travel are frankly insane as they are. Now CO wants to increase them?

Why would anyone pay into CO's bizarro miles + fees upgrade insanity when nearly every other airline offers easier upgrade ability. Their BF seats and service are definitely not worth the difference.

It's your money. (Or your company's) Why waste it?

ssullivan

First of all, before getting all worked up, keep this in context. It was NOT something that was announced in the main Q&A session this afternoon. There was NO official announcement from CO on this. It was something mentioned by an exec during a smaller Q&A session on one of the morning tours. And as Weatherboy says in his original post, no official announcement has been made. He also said "It sounds like..." before throwing out numbers. I don't like these changes all that much either, but what's the point about getting so worked up about it when no official announcement has been made?

And just with every other issue, if CO's program and product no longer meet your needs, nobody is making you fly them.

Spiff

No argument from me on that one!

senatorgirth

Sounds to me like this is a purported enhancement in the CO tradition...

UAL_Rulez

1. Agreed 1000%.
2. It's quite obvious CO doesn't want people using their FF program to secure upgraded/free premium class travel *already* due to the extremely limited inventory. This move is just a further extension of their apparent fantasy of emulating SQ and BA's programs - best translated as, "Our premium international cabins are for people who pay full fare. FF schemers need not apply, except when we have the odd unsaleable seat, in which case be prepared to fork over the miles earned from 20 paid flights in the cabin and city pair you wish to travel." Unfortunately for CO, (a) their product isn't anywhere near that of BA/SQ/CX and (b) they don't exist in a market where paid premium cabin travel on every flight is the norm for the frequent (USA-based corporate business) traveller.

As much as I really want to like CO, they just have it wrong - if I'm going to pay premium prices to fly around the USA on business travel in your sorry ERJs and narrowbody Boeings with bottom-of-the-barrel coach seats, then by God when I want to use my FF miles to go on vacation, it's gonna be for readily available BF seats to interesting foreign/Hawaii destinations when I want to go on vacation. And that means I can get four to six of us in the same flights/cabin/award categories.

This is just a further move of the NonePass program AWAY from appropriate and enticing reward structures and a further reinforcement of my decision to quit flying CO.

Colin

This might work out ok because fewer people will be seeking mileage upgrades into J which will mean better availability for those people willing to spend $2000(ish) plus 80/100K miles for a trans-atlantic/pacific flight in J. If the alternative to $2000 plus 80,000 miles is a $6,000 D fare, then your miles are worth $0.05 - that's still good value.

getrandom

The fees and tight availability are still the killer on this one. The mileage increase would suck, but would still be a good value if you could use it without the other issues.

SPN Lifer

Perhaps this will mean more competition for 25K coach award tickets?

gleff

Don't you mean more competition for awards on AS and other partners that actually offer up inventory?

gleff

A good value, seriously?? If the report in this thread is true, upgrades to Hawaii would be as much as $900 + 70k miles on top of the cost of the ticket. How is that a reasonable value in any dimension, compared to a paid ticket?