Braniff, it all depends on where you live. For you and others in Europe and Iceland who fly Icelandair on a regular basis, it seems like these changes will benefit you. But if you live past the east coast of North America, as I do, these changes are devastating

But first, I'd like to thank cyberwolf777 for an excellent initial post that really does explain the changes. As he/she mentioned, this change came without warning, due to problems such a major change like this will cause.

It is not just the elimination of the Economy Comfort class/fare, it is the total change that FI has made to their fare structure and FF program.

I'm in Seattle, and the cheapest Saga class fare has gone from $2600 SEA-ARN (return fare) to over $4000 (with a 42 day advance purchase requirement, and change fees). And this fare earns the same points as a $2100 Saga fare out of EWR.

Talk about a game changer...at least for those of us on the west coast of NA. If I were to sum it up, for us out here, it is "A lot less, for a lot more".

I still have my Saga Gold status, and will appreciate the upgrades, as I have for 20+ years, but I sense this is coming to an end, at least for the west coast stations.

What I find so very strange with the changes to the FF program, in addition to making all NA stations the same point value, is that Alaska airlines flights now earn card points, the points needed for Gold card status. I can make Gold Card next year much cheaper by flying a lot on Alaska, rather than FI. This makes no sense to me.

But neither does anything FI has accomplished with this change. Unless their intention is to concentrate on Europe-Iceland and East Coast-Iceland, which is why, Braniff, we have such differing feelings about the changes.

I really hope Icelandair has not made a bad decision with this change, but in the US/Canada, if you are not on the East Coast, this is just a change that results in, for the consumer, less for more.

But this does affect me in a way I never expected. I have worked hard to maintain Saga Gold card status over the decades.I hate to see this go, but things do change


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