I just can say that me and Mrs. Size could travel for years mainly to BKK in J and it was either paid, upgraded by points or vouchers or pure awards, for more then 10 years that was possible, a simple phone call, play a little around with the dates and seats been cleared (sommetimes on need to call "the other department"). During this time we each collect about 2,5 million points and we could finally spend most of them. My flexibility was like this "a need a 12 - 14 days trip to BKK in any give period in lets say Feb 2023. Most of the time I booked max 6 weeks ahead, sometimes 12 weeks but that was the most of flexibility I need to have.

Now I m calling and ask can you give me any given 10 - 14 day period in the next 330 days where I can spend my vouchers - and the answer is just "No, but I can put you on the waitlist". What really frustrates me ist that there are destinations where you can get Upgrades and Awards so it is not the new system, they just deceided that some destinations won t get instant upgrades/awards anymore. Fair enough, my next flights to ORD and DFW are booked.

But since I need to go to BKK it makes no sense to me anymore to stay loyal to AY since my incentive been the awards and upgrades to BKK, thats why I paid more for AY tickets then needed on my dates. And funny enough maybe my next paid flights will be on AY again since they will be the cheapest as it looks like in the moment. So I don t say "I will never fly AY again" but I m saying "I will only book the cheapest tickets for my needs, no problem if it s. AY again".