Originally Posted by
SenSCL
No doubt it is the mid-tier elites who are taking the biggest hit! Increasing the Black threshold by almost 70% and expecting that you spend close to the average Chilean GDP per capita on flights with basically one carrier, who have decided to continue their race to the bottom service and amenity wise, is just INSANE!
Spot on ! ^ What LATAM is doing now is absolute insanity. Increasing qualification thresholds to probably the highest levels in OW world (adjusted per capita) is truly astonishing. I totally get that airlines business is not a charity by any stretch, but I am struggling to understand the logic behind such drastic changes. The proposed new qualification criteria is anything but a loyalty program. I believe this is rather a short sighted measure designed to cut the operational costs and to boost short time profit by any means. I don't really see long term strategy here.
Chilean market cannot be compared to the ones like USA, Europe, Asia. But even over there with abundance of wealthy travelers (and general traveling audience), the rules for FFs are much more reasonable. I don't know the real numbers but I can guess the number of Execute Platinums (Emeralds) on AA is at least by order of magnitude larger than those Blacks in B.Signatures on LATAM.
Status benefits:
1. Lounges. This is just ridiculous. LATAM has basically just two really great lounges (please, correct me if I am wrong here): SCL and GRU. Lounge in LIM is non existent. Domestic lounges within Chile ? Jokes ! How much LATAM is saving by cutting off majority of flyers ? Now, one of the really nice benefits for Black was (and still is) access to great First class lounges around the world. Majority of Blacks travel international a lot (my personal observation from conversations with other Blacks). With the new rules LATAM basically discourage those who mostly travel internationally. This is insane ! Who needs Black status if you travel 100% domestically ?! There are simply no good lounges on domestic market !
2. Unlimited upgrades. Amazing perk ! Probably the best in the OW. I am 100% sure it's a matter of time it will go as well. With the new criteria it will be close to impossible to reach Black without frequent flights in J. Of course, I am sure there are folks out there who fly twice a week during 12 months, but I guess they are more of an exception. Why wouldn't LATAM regulate upgrade policy instead of dramatically cutting the whole thing ?
I don't know what to say. This is pure insanity, unless we deeply misunderstand the current market.
As SenSCL, I am also self-payer (for myself and for my workers). Until recently we were trying to stick with LATAM. It's easy to do on domestic market, where alternative to LATAM is still pretty weak. But it was really difficult to do on international routes. LATAM fares, especially in business have been mostly higher than the competitors lately. Sometimes I was taking a decision to choose LATAM anyway just to keep the status. Not anymore. I'll take advantage of my Black status in 2019 for the last time, and the same time we'll be migrating to another carriers.
We definitely do more stronger and healthy competition down here !