Originally Posted by
JVPhoto
I haven't found it to be that big of a problem if you're just flying around in Thailand. You can fly TG from BKK to USM, HKT, CNX & KBV. It's cheap enough and didn't really need any benefits flying Bangkok Air USM-CNX, Kaan Hua Hin-CNX or Nok CNX-Udon Thani.
I fly to true secondary cities...UTH (Udon Thani), CEI (Chiang Rai), etc. You just can't have these as a destination when booking 016 tickets, either revenue nor award. So now I am exposed to irrops risk, which is a much bigger deal to me than the $30 USD airfare.
And forget using excursionist perk, even though all these destinations are in the same region.
The degradation of Star Alliance network has many facets...