The Richest Program in the World?"

Old May 7, 2006, 2:51 pm
  #1  
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"The Richest Program in the World?"

Stacked up against the competition,
the new US Airways Dividend Miles
program is being hailed as
“...the richest program
in the world.”

Randy Petersen, Inside Flyer

Looks like the new program is about to be rolled out.....

You can decide for yourself. Page has links to other aspects of the new program.

Richest Program in the World

Last edited by longing4piedmont; May 7, 2006 at 5:59 pm
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Old May 7, 2006, 2:55 pm
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<Barf> What hubris
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Old May 7, 2006, 3:23 pm
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One way upgrades 10K. Good move. The star alliace/partner award chart (which is now readable) had no shocking bad news that I saw. Qantas still at 105K/135K for BC/FC. Royal Jordanian is expensive but there are other options. I actually think they did a good job on the presentation of the chart.

In trolling around the site, I didn't see any really bad news that we haven't heard about before. I'm sure it is there somewhere though.
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Old May 7, 2006, 3:55 pm
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One more thing. Note that it is the new site. I don't know if I've just been dense not to see this, but I assume this is the new usairways.com. Not too attractive, but not horrible either. Let's hope functionality is good.

P.S. Why couldn't they have gone with that usairwaysinfo.com design. That was one of the best I've seen!
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Old May 7, 2006, 4:01 pm
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Regarding award tickets:

"# A quick ticketing fee of $50 will apply to all award reservations purchased within 14 days of travel."

Shame FT does not have an "FU" smiley, if you know what I mean.

The list of blackout dates is as long as BBB's last game of risk.

Off-peak awards are history (altough this may have already happened and I missed it).

The gofirst thing is now legit, and you can assume it's being peddled before your upgrades are clearing at the gate.


And I just booked off another 120k of award travel. As I'd have to stretch go get silver, I see no point in trying to hoard these miles anymore, and I figure I'd book them before they spring the rule changes.
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Old May 7, 2006, 4:06 pm
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Hey Doug??????


BITE ME

Try answering an e-mail!! You and your sycophant Scott. Just remember without customers you aren't worth a crap!
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Old May 7, 2006, 4:16 pm
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You can tell this site was designed by the HP people. The left-descending banner, left column, and pulldowns all scream America West.
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Old May 7, 2006, 4:32 pm
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UGH !?!&@&%#@ look what's coming!!

http://www2.usairways.com/awa/default.aspx (new US website)

http://www.usairways.com/ (old US website)

http://www.americawest.com/awa/ (old HP website)


OH, for crying in the sink.........I hate the old HP online checkin process. It takes too friggin long and involves too many pages. I can only hope this has been streamlined like the original US online checkin. Maybe they need to look at every airlines online checkin webpages to create a user friendly version, but somehow I doubt that they would.

FYI.....I figured I see if I could access my DM account on the new website. NOPE. Not ready yet.

I'm going to miss the old US website. Atleast I could use it without wanting to strangle someone.
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Old May 7, 2006, 4:39 pm
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The good news ? Free Club memberships.

The bad news ? You need to fly 150k miles....or 150 segments...

I pity the guy/gal that flies 149,000 miles this year. 49k miles will not roll over...and you won't even get a club membership out of it.

No reduced $$$ rate for CP's....and no ability to cash in miles for membership.

I echo the sentiments expressed earlier.
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Old May 7, 2006, 5:24 pm
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Originally Posted by longing4piedmont
Stacked up against the competition,
the new US Airways Dividend Miles
program is being hailed as
“...the richest program
in the world.”

Randy Petersen, Inside Flyer


Sometimes I really have to wonder about Randy.


and no ability to cash in miles for membership
Gotta love AA on this one.

Level -- New/Renewal

Dirt --- 70k/60k
Gold -- 55k/50k
Plat --- 50k/45k
EXP --- 45kk/35k

In addition, they have this 25th Anniversary offer.

Last edited by ByrdluvsAWACO; May 7, 2006 at 7:55 pm
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Old May 7, 2006, 5:28 pm
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I don't care if the site is attractive or not. I just want the darn thing to work correctly. I see a place on there that we will be able to bring our profile over from the OLD US Airways site. Let's see if that will work in the future. Where in the heck did the terminal maps go? I hope they pull that over.

T

Last edited by US AIRWAYS FAN; May 7, 2006 at 5:41 pm
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Old May 7, 2006, 8:54 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by ClueByFour
Regarding award tickets:

"# A quick ticketing fee of $50 will apply to all award reservations purchased within 14 days of travel."

Shame FT does not have an "FU" smiley, if you know what I mean.

The list of blackout dates is as long as BBB's last game of risk.

Off-peak awards are history (altough this may have already happened and I missed it).

The gofirst thing is now legit, and you can assume it's being peddled before your upgrades are clearing at the gate.


And I just booked off another 120k of award travel. As I'd have to stretch go get silver, I see no point in trying to hoard these miles anymore, and I figure I'd book them before they spring the rule changes.
Anybody yet see whether Elites are still not abused by blackout dates? Or, are they for the 19th time now screwing us in that regard as well?

Of course, up until now there has been nothing for standard award availablity...not one...on otherwise blacked out dates for elites. 100% of them have, interestingly, been at premium mileage levels. So, if US has canceled this elite benefit it will be because "usage was too low to continue this elite benefit". Once again, redeeming twice as many miles for something that is worth have as much is a sign of ignorance.

Some day they will learn...or another better airline will before them...that they soon need to choose a couple of FF populations that they are just not going to screw with under any circumstance. No blackout dates, no capacity controls, no nickles and dimes, no change fees, no miuimum fare for upgrades, no nothing. Then whatever airline that is will learn that their revenue, P & L and margin will improve by 8% to 14%. Then, they will stop screwing with all passengers and improve things by a little more than twice that.

I don't think that Doug has the brains or the guts to do that, so it is likely that it willl be AA. Doug and his team are still thinking in the calcified terms that have created so many bancruptcies in the airline sector, including in the companies that have employed him and them.

I like Randy generally and find him to be a good source of valid information so I certainly hope that his view is not driven by ad revenue with so many other advertisers on this sight. But, he apparently doesn't fly US much, has not tried to book an Envoy or standard mileage ticket in the last 3 months, has not researched the newly tripled capacity controls and blackout dates, has not waited for one of these "rich" upgrades to clear at the window, has not dined on US, has never spoken to Lufthansa, Air New Zealand or 2 other star alliance carriers who now drastically restrict DM redemption on their systems because of tripled lack of availability on US for the customers of those carriers, and has never sent a suggestive letter to US so that he can see the ignorance that ensues on the part of US.

Awards with newly tripled capacity controls and blackout dates, and awards that are simply never available even when no seats are yet sold on a given flight are not awards at all. They are simply false advertising and marketing that is fraudulently intended to mislead flyers.

The US program is, in a very quiet way, now bordering on the worst one out there...even at the CP level unfortunately.

Last edited by Phoenix Flyer; May 7, 2006 at 10:39 pm
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Old May 7, 2006, 9:06 pm
  #13  
 
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[QUOTE=ByrdluvsAWACO]

Sometimes I really have to wonder about Randy.[QUOTE]

Leave Randy alone!

He happens to be a "Stand Up Guy". Does he have to from time to time deal with the realities of his business? Of course he does, just like all of us.

Randy and I have had a somewhat rancorous relationship, but when push came to shove he did the right thing and I'm on his side. Did he say what he needed to say to keep US's ad dollars flowing so this site could be free? Probably and I'm OK with that.
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Old May 8, 2006, 12:50 am
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Originally Posted by PineyBob
Did he say what he needed to say to keep US's ad dollars flowing so this site could be free? Probably and I'm OK with that.
That's what I was wondering about. You just answered it.
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Old May 8, 2006, 1:24 am
  #15  
 
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I said that!

Not Randy. Mellow out OK? Let's see what happens.
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