I am at the end of my tether with airline FF programmes and am wondering, why bother anymore. The only saving grace I had was my ability with Aer Lingus to avail of my status for lounge access, fast check in, priority boarding etc
The recent changes to the Aer Lingus programme have just about pushed me over the edge. I have been a FF with EI for 35 years now, From TAB, to Gold Circle and now AerClub. I have gone from the bottom to the top tier, stayed there for a number of years and am now "down" at Gold. My account is so old, that my online points balance is about 3,000 less than my statements say ( I believe this is common with those older accounts)
Gold gave me everything I wanted, but now with being moved to Silver, I cannot bring Mrs Flame into the lounges with me and other benefits are gone too
So far, I have not received any email or snailmail from Aer Lingus about the change to Aerclub. I called today and was told my account did not migrate over and to apply manually online for a new account number. I am loathe to do this as my missing points will most likely disappear and feel my years of loyalty will not be seen
Aer Lingus now flies to more airports in Europe with NO lounge access and I guess this will not improve.
At this stage, I have no idea how many avios will be awarded for any given flight, how to maintain any sort of status or progress.
Coupled with all the other airline FF programme changes introduced recently, is there any point any more of being loyal to any carrier ..... unless you are on expenses all the time when you travel, I guess not