New US policy: No more 500 mile minimum per segment

[stockmanjr]

So I just got this in an email from US
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Glad I jumped ship to DL!
Cheers!
Howie

[Johnny Rocket]

Dividend Miles program changes
As part of our continuing efforts to provide valuable benefits to our frequent flyers, US Airways is making a change to our Dividend Miles program. We're making these changes to offset record fuel prices and rising airline related expenses while maintaining the benefits you've come to expect. Beginning May 1, 2008, Dividend Miles will award the actual number of miles flown rather than a minimum number of miles flown for each segment. Also, members who redeem miles for award travel within 14-days of departure on usairways.com will be assessed a quick ticketing fee.

Here's a summary of the policy changes:

Accrual
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Redemption
Members redeeming miles for award travel online within 14-days of departure will be assessed a quick ticketing fee of $50 per ticket.
A quick ticketing fee of $75 per award ticket will continue to apply for award tickets purchased from US Airways Reservations. Chairman's and Platinum Preferred members booking within 14-days (both online and by phone) are exempt from the fee.

Dividend Miles members still get award travel for as low as 25,000 miles. And, we offer the most generous Preferred upgrade windows in the industry. Earn miles when you fly to any of our 230 destinations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. You can also earn and redeem miles to the nearly 900 destinations served by the Star Alliance.

Thanks for continuing to fly with US.

[ytjk]

I'm so excited-- now I can get my 35 miles or whatever from ABE to PHL---

If I credit to United, now I get about a 2400% bonus on the leg....!

(35 miles + 25% silver) = 42 miles

v

500 miles + 100% = 1000 miles.

That's right, fly US and get 4% of the miles everyone else will give!
















Dividend Miles program changes
As part of our continuing efforts to provide valuable benefits to our frequent flyers, US Airways is making a change to our Dividend Miles program. We're making these changes to offset record fuel prices and rising airline related expenses while maintaining the benefits you've come to expect. Beginning May 1, 2008, Dividend Miles will award the actual number of miles flown rather than a minimum number of miles flown for each segment. Also, members who redeem miles for award travel within 14-days of departure on usairways.com will be assessed a quick ticketing fee.

Here's a summary of the policy changes:

Accrual
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Redemption
Members redeeming miles for award travel online within 14-days of departure will be assessed a quick ticketing fee of $50 per ticket.
A quick ticketing fee of $75 per award ticket will continue to apply for award tickets purchased from US Airways Reservations. Chairman's and Platinum Preferred members booking within 14-days (both online and by phone) are exempt from the fee.

Dividend Miles members still get award travel for as low as 25,000 miles. And, we offer the most generous Preferred upgrade windows in the industry. Earn miles when you fly to any of our 230 destinations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. You can also earn and redeem miles to the nearly 900 destinations served by the Star Alliance.

Thanks for continuing to fly with US.

[stockmanjr]

What I found ironic about this is that short haul flyers in alot of cases produce the most profit for them since the fares can be extremely high in relation to the mileage traveled!
Cheers!
Howie

[zrs70]

I remember a time when the minimum miles on most carrier was 1000 per segment!

[AZ Travels the World]

Originally Posted by stockmanjr

What I found ironic about this is that short haul flyers in alot of cases produce the most profit for them since the fares can be extremely high in relation to the mileage traveled!

Exactly!

Among stupid decisions that US management has made, this ranks right up near the top. Further nickel and dime your most profitable customers -- that you are already raping with ridiculous fares in many instances, especially in the east. Truly unbelievable.

[vysean]

Is it time to organize a protest like when DL and earlier US east shenanigans were pulled?

Paging easties who are familiar with the 0 miles issue

And yeah, this is total BS.

[findingneema]

This is ####ing retarded. This does it for me, I'm going to UA.

[AZ Travels the World]

Originally Posted by vysean

Is it time to organize a protest like when DL and earlier US east shenanigans were pulled?

Yes, it absolutely is!

I've put up with a lot of their "continuing efforts to provide valuable benefits to ... frequent flyers," but this could well be the nail in the coffin for me if this sticks.

US will be the ONLY carrier in the world that I'm aware of with this policy. It's shocking how clueless these people can be.

[OnePassMan]

Originally Posted by vysean

Is it time to organize a protest like when DL and earlier US east shenanigans were pulled?

Paging easties who are familiar with the 0 miles issue

And yeah, this is total BS.

I'm down for a protest.

Is there some kind of prize for running the least competitive FF program?

[BNAChairman]

This smells like the test they tried several years ago where anything less than full fare tickets would not count toward preferred status. They yanked that fairly quickly when no other airlines jumped on board. What a bunch of @ssholes.

[DCAorBust]

Seriously, I can't believe this. One can often fly TC or even TA for the same price or less than some of the small hops in the Northeast. Unrestricted fare from DCA>ALB is roughly the same as from DCA>YVR. This is infuriating.

Airline of choice, my eye. I've nearly burned all my miles on *A awards. I think it's time to limp along, scatter more biz to other carriers and make some decisions once the consolidation dice have rolled.

[vysean]

One thing I can't tell from the email (sorry if I just missed it):

Does this change affect only RDMs or also EQMs?

I'd love to hear US' answer to this, as their lame excuse of "offsetting higher fuel costs" has nothing to do with EQMs.

[ClueByFour]

This is going to piss off a number of high yield markets, particularly the shuttle.

It also really only works if everyone else does it. If US is the only major that pulls this crap, it's really unlikely to stick.

Oh, and a "quick ticketing" fee? Why don't they just say that they are fishing for revenue--it costs no more to ticket an award reservation 2 days before than it does 2 months before. And they know it.

The ultimate kick in the teeth is the remainder of the e-mail. Apparently, Tempe takes people for idiots. To wit:

Dividend Miles members still get award travel for as low as 25,000
miles.

As does everyone else. And, as a matter of fact, Dividend Miles members used to be able to travel for as little as 20,000 miles. Or did they think our memory was that short?

And, we offer the most generous Preferred upgrade windows in
the industry.

For the worst product. And, putting that aside, they are really putting the screws to the people who fly a lot of RJs under 500 miles--you won't ever see an upgrade, nor now will you have the miles to upgrade even if you wanted to. Brilliant!

Earn miles when you fly to any of our 230 destinations
in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. You can
also earn and redeem miles to the nearly 900 destinations served by
the Star Alliance.

Just don't plan on doing it tomorrow. That'll cost you.

Thanks for continuing to fly with US.

Not bloody likely. The only question worth knowing the answer to here is if one still gets 500 miles to credit a Star alliance partner (notably United). If that's the case, I predict a whole slew of new 1P/2P/1K this year and next.

Of course, Tempe being the typical underhanded organization that it is, they announce this after people have been racking up miles and segments for 6 weeks. I'm betting there are a ton of folks who either would not have flown nor credited DM with their flights in January had they known this before the 1st of the year.

[mooper]

Originally Posted by AZ Travels the World

Among stupid decisions that US management has made, this ranks right up near the top. Further nickel and dime your most profitable customers -- that you are already raping with ridiculous fares in many instances, especially in the east. Truly unbelievable.

Raping? A bit of an extreme description, don't you think, given that no one has to buy a ticket if they don't like the price? If I don't like what the local burger joint is charging for lunch, I either go elsewhere or make my own.

The reality is that airlines are for profit and they are perfectly entitled to do things that they feel wlll generate more profit. I suspect US weighed their options and felt that this move was superior to raising prices, charging more miles per award ticket, or other options. It certainly could be that US is taking a decision that will cost them more than it will save them (because of the plethora of reasons that I'm sure will be posted here within minutes), but accusing them victimizing customers is absurd. Free markets give you choices - they don't owe you anything.