Originally Posted by
javabytes
I don't doubt it. The death of FFPs is upon us. I've got another couple thousand miles before having enough to cash out on my final redemption, one last trip for two in J. In the past three months I've opened three new credit cards, 2 cash back and 1 hotel card. The day this drops is the day I cancel my DL AmEx and mail my PM card, snipped in half, to Virginia Ave. It's a matter of when, not if. It won't be a surprise, and I refuse to suffer the pain those who have millions of banked miles will feel. Maybe DL FFs will be lucky and have the miles be grandfathered as opposed to converted, but when that's best case... all signs point to bail out now.
+1
Revenue based earn is not a big deal, that is fine and makes sense (e.g. with general CC spend 1-1.5 mile/$, but with CC spend on airline ticket say 4-10 miles/$ combined from cc and airline directly - same as with hotel co-branded cards). It's the FBATR (fare-based award travel redemption) that is the real problem that will really FUBAR it beyound all recognition, and make business class award travel no longer a realistic possibility for most. So indeed, enjoy it while you can...I am travelling now more frequently and am using (have used up) most of the miles I have as best I can, for travel all booked for the next 10+ months out. And I am next month flying to ATL on UA, not DL direct, as no point to accure more DL soon-to-be-worthless SMs anyway.
I just wonder do all (or most) of the major airlines plan to introduce this around the same time, as I am sure that no one wants to be the first to do it. Smell a cartel, anyone? Any gov't regulatory intervention then likely? Sadly, no...