Originally Posted by
tng11
AS is an airline much smaller in scale. If they were say, losing $1,000/ticket, a sudden run on EK redemptions over one week, one month or two months could have been an absolute disaster for their finances this year. This of course, assumes that 1) EK raised reimbursement rates and 2) This took AS by surprise. If AS knew in advance that the rates were going to increase at a later date and didn't tell their members, that is a very underhanded move that undermine the credibility of their program a la Delta.
I see your point. Regardless of scale, they shouldn't be naïve to the behaviors of frequent fliers. If they were, then financial pain is one way to learn your lesson, but don't take it out on your frequent fliers to save your own butt. This is where greed hurts them in reality, but not in their mind.
Further, if the segment that this affects this the most is as small as you originally indicated, then I question how disastrous a 30-day notice would have been for their financials. I'll agree with you that even 24-hour notice would have been better than NO notice whatsoever.
Again, it's not the increase itself, but rather how AS has poorly handled the situation that upsets me the most.