Programs: Mileage Plus 2P, Hilton HHonors Gold, NW Worldperks GE, Flying Blue GE, Gulf Air FF
Posts: 69
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gajan
Qualifying with NW/DL will mean that you are "only" Elite and not Elite Plus anymore, so it might be worth taking that into consideration.
For me, not much difference between Elite and Elite Plus. The biggest advantage of a FF program is the ability to chose my seats in advance and board the aircraft quickly. Not many complimentary upgrades for longhauls, and lots of my fares can't get upgraded with miles.
With the new system, I may well be able to make Platinum and Elite Plus on NW/DL at 75K miles as quickly as I would make Gold and Elite Plus on FB - if all my flights were routed at 15K miles, it would take 5 R/Ts to make it on NW/DL vs. 6 to make it on FB (with those 50 percent earning rates).
Also, I know it seems odd to compliment FB on this forum, but I think they're doing a favor to those with high FB mileage accounts - by making miles harder to get, they avoided the easy way out of inflating miles earnings and thereby devaluing people's existing account balances. The DL board is full of posts about how easy it is to get miles, and how therefore it makes those already holding miles relatively worse off. FB avoided that and gave us enough notice to switch our flying/earning patterns at the start of the earning year.
Programs: Flying Blue Plat, CO OnePass (former Plat), BA ExClub (former Silver), LH M&M (forever base soldier)
Posts: 513
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tartar21
by making miles harder to get, they avoided the easy way out of inflating miles earnings and thereby devaluing people's existing account balances.
They make miles harder to get and harder to redeem and more expensive since the new fare class structure will be PF JCDIZM*O* YBKHTVR*LQNX*UG. Gone is the current A Première reward booking class. The current W coach reward class (between H and T) for Elites only is gone and replaced with an R coach reward, which will cost 15% more miles and stand between V and L, exactly were is the current X coach reward for non-Elites.
So under the new scheme no one wins, although admittedly some (premium fare frequent flyers) loose much less than others.
So under the new scheme no one wins, although admittedly some (premium fare frequent flyers) loose much less than others.
Albireo, may I respectfully disagree as a "premium fare frequent flyer"? I feel that I have been vastly hit by the change. Mostly fly longhaul. When in business I purchase the Z fare which is flexible when bought out of France (actually, all my French colleagues do that from HKG), so we are losing 25% miles from the change. As many, I used the A award (First class) for me and my family as a "reward" for giving money to AFKL on biz travel. That is now gone (except for the new farcical P award). I have periodically used the E bucket (reserved for elite) for TATL because A award are usually unavailable on TATL. It offered plenty of seats at similar miles cost as O (often not available). Now E will increase 28% on TATL to 115Km (2x50+15%) from 90KM. If I use this "special elite" class for biz award to HKG, it will be an increase of 53%, from 120Km currenlty to 160Km+15%. Alltogether, award miles for my pattern are increasing by a ridiculously-huge amount. I checked the AF awards I redeemed in the past couple of years and the amount of miles now required more than doubles.
My characterization of the new scheme si that coach-flyers lose enormously on their accruals and premium-flyers lose enormously on their redemptions. At least this is how it is perceived in the (fairly-large) French community in Hong Kong and CX is delighted about it.
Programs: Flying Blue Plat, CO OnePass (former Plat), BA ExClub (former Silver), LH M&M (forever base soldier)
Posts: 513
Quote:
Originally Posted by brunos
AMy characterization of the new scheme si that coach-flyers lose enormously on their accruals and premium-flyers lose enormously on their redemptions.
Agreed. And coach flyers like me who redeem in long-haul business tickets (a pattern fairly common among AF frequent flyers) doubly feel the pain... not to mention the likely downgrade of status next year which will result in even fewer miles.
Agreed. And coach flyers like me who redeem in long-haul business tickets (a pattern fairly common among AF frequent flyers) doubly feel the pain... not to mention the likely downgrade of status next year which will result in even fewer miles.
Indeed!!! If you live in France you can use the AMEX card to gain status more easily (which I am sure you allready do). But I expect that they have some "improvement" on the AMEX miles too... Like 0.5 miles for each euro spent. Or no more status miles. Willing to take a bet?
Indeed!!! If you live in France you can use the AMEX card to gain status more easily (which I am sure you allready do). But I expect that they have some "improvement" on the AMEX miles too... Like 0.5 miles for each euro spent. Or no more status miles. Willing to take a bet?
That wouldn’t be surprising!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I reckon that the AFKL Amex Gold card is the only co-branded airline credit card earning Elite/Status miles.
Programs: Flying Blue Plat, CO OnePass (former Plat), BA ExClub (former Silver), LH M&M (forever base soldier)
Posts: 513
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malonda
That wouldn’t be surprising!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I reckon that the AFKL Amex Gold card is the only co-branded airline credit card earning Elite/Status miles.
I recall that someone mentioned on a forum somewhere (sorry I don't have the exact reference) that the Amex/FB agreement would expire in 2011.
However, would not it be FB's interest to renew it since from their perspective, Amex is a customer generating revenue (by buying miles)?
So any "improvement" is rather to come at the initiative of Amex.
I recall that someone mentioned on a forum somewhere (sorry I don't have the exact reference) that the Amex/FB agreement would expire in 2011.
However, would not it be FB's interest to renew it since from their perspective, Amex is a customer generating revenue (by buying miles)?
So any "improvement" is rather to come at the initiative of Amex.
Dont know for 2011, but I doubt that the agreement freezes the quantitative terms.
You are quite right that the miles are a cost to AMEX. But I was thinking that AF could increase the cost of the miles paid by AMEX just as they are doing for FB members (you need to fly more to get the same number of miles). And AMEX would then transfer the increased cost inreducing the ratio of miles per euro spent. I doubt that they have not raised the issue with AMEX.
After October 24th, I'll never fly AF again...YEAH! CO will be leaving ST and joining *A, and I''ll never have to suffer the indignation of AF's customer abuse again. I've had it all, on AF, lost luggage, bumped from flight, downgraded class of service, EVERY flight has been a MINIMUM of 30 minutes late, and they just don't care. I have found with AF the only thing they do care about, is taking your money, and even that I've had one AF agent tell me "American's like to fly AF because they ((the American's)) are cheep".
For the past few years, I've made FB Gold through a combination of paid business trips and private flights I pay myself (ratio 80-20%). I also collect quite some miles through Amex.
These changes from 1 April are a good reason to stop being loyal to FB. The business trips are less this year, and I simply do not wish to pay myself for the 100% miles rates in economy. I have some KLM gift cards, but I will get rid of them asap.
The guiding principle for me will be schedule and price, and not Sky Team unless. Concerning the 400K miles I have collected: let's pray they keep the Promo@wards. It makes no sense using the miles for short hops (taxes are more than the total flight cost of other cheaper companies), but perhaps there are some really expensive exotic destinations to go to. Bye, bye!
I am not based in a SkyTeam city, but I have held on to over 250,000 miles, flying SkyTeam at least once a year in the hope of using those miles for good promo awards, keeping an emergency stash to get back to the US in case of a medical crisis (my mom is 80) and thinking about the time I might move back to a place that was more convenient for Flying Blue and AF. But I have given up. As already mentioned by may, AF no longer seems to offer promo awards (it's just KLM and I'm not a huge fan of the KLM product and, besides, they have no flights whatsoever to Croatia) and with redemption rates increasing in April, it just seemed like the time to cut my ties and say goodbye permanently. So I cashed in my miles for two biz class ticekts to Tokyo and I'm done with FB. The taxes and fuel surcharges came to over 800 Euros, so they got something, but it just doesn't seem to be worth the wait anymore. Good luck to those who decide to stay!
Programs: BD *G, NW PE (back home :)), FD RW (no more), HH Gold, MR Gold, some Amex
Posts: 7,186
I guess they really want us gone ... still no info on partner earnings after 4/1/09. Let's see, no more skyteam bookings after 4/1 and a few UA bookings intra-US and well as Swiss TATL.
![changes on 4/1/09: Who is leaving and when [merged]](/forum/iconimages/flying-blue-air-france-klm/changes-4-1-09-who-leaving-when-merged_ltr.gif)
is rather to come at the initiative of Amex.
I'm gone too
