Originally Posted by
Q-STO
First of all, thanks to all the previous posts that tried to bring some clarity in this (at least for me) confusing revamp!
With these new rules I still wonder which customers AFKL want to attract and/or retain.
Looking at my own travel pattern:
- I have been Plat for 7 years now
- I have always qualified through number of segments - mainly ultra-short European flights: CDG-ZRH, CDG-BSL, CDG-MAN.
- Due to company budget restrictions, I must always choose the lowest Economy fare i.e. Light.
If I understand correctly, I will now need 300XP i.e. 60 medium-haul Y segments to maintain Platinum. That’s the same requirement as earlier.
However, from a revenue point of view, I guess I am not “attractive” to AFKL as I am travelling on dirt cheap fares.
So isn’it contradictory to the goal of revenue-based earning or targetting premium travellers?
If you go back to the speculation thread you'll see a discussion on this very subject. FB focusing on premium PAX was what most on FT expected, with some arguing this made commercial sense, others saying that I'd didn't, and that they may then as well just close the whole programme down as people will move to low costs.
This was not what I expected and I'm pleasantly surprised. Considering how a corporation can screw things up, they did kind of nailed it:
- XP status system, once you get your head around it, and once they clarify couple of things, will be dead easy, simple, and focused on getting as many regular people as possible to fly AFKLM.
- huge devaluation in award miles. If you want to get your miles, you really have to pay for it
- they won't have to worry about discounted business class loophole, J error fares miles accumulation, etc. You can fly to Irkutsk as many times as you want now, it's not gonna get you far miles wise
- so when it comes to premium class - fly for the PRODUCT, not the miles. Which is something huge majority does anyway.
There are some downsides, it will be slightly more difficult to keep, or rather - to achieve status, but come on, considering what majority of people were expecting just last weekend, it's nothing!
To sum up - "miles people" got their devaluation, which they had expected anyway, and which does cut costs, "segment people" will continue to enjoy their smooth way of travel and won't move elsewhere.
They seemed to have killed 2 birds with one stone! I'm impressed.