Let me illustrate a prime example of how badly CO's changes will impact me and how they make it all but impossible to justify choosing CO over WN on one of my main routes. I travel from San Antonio to Edinburg, Texas, very frequently to attend hearings and take depositions. Many other lawyers in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Dallas do the same. My flights are also chock full with doctors, pharmaceutical sales representatives, engineers, and other professionals traveling to "the Valley," many of whom, like me, make day trips or have single-night stays. Here is how my options stack up:
Now, how can I justify giving CO my business? It costs my clients more money, takes me twice as long door-to-door, and I'll wind up with roughly half the elite qualifying miles and less than half the redeemable miles. Yeah, I'll be in first class, but a one-hour flight on WN with seemingly endless drink coupons ain't that much worse. And instead of being a Platinum, I might be a Silver, and now OnePass awards effectively become twice as expensive as they were before.