Originally Posted by
RayG
Well if you accruing regardless how many miles, it won’t in the case of SQ. As you have Access Awards for immediate confirmation. That’s the point.
You have ways of gaining more miles in US….think how folks in some other geographies feel where you don’t have credit card sign-on bonuses and accelerated accrual mechanisms (eg SG, CH etc).
How miles inelastic are you? If miles are for jam and million plus credit card points is easy for you to come by, you should have no problem.
And if SQ is restricting U and Advantage availability for the their elites, fair enough. This is their way of rewarding loyalty. Why should they not?
SQ is too small to kill the miles game in the US as there are plenty of other options for US folk to redeem.
Access awards are an absolute last resort, and represent a pretty terrible value. Could I redeem 320,000 miles for SIN-SYD in F, sure, but do I want to? Of course not. What is that - 3 cents per point? Not good value.
Just because I can redeem a certain number of miles doesn't mean I want to. The glory days of the U.S. miles game was a decade ago. It's gotten a lot harder and so replenishing a balance isn't as automatic as it use to be.
SQ alone won't kill the game. But you made the point that other programs were already restricting.. Lufthansa, Emirates, Air France, Swiss, now Singapore. If enough do it (frankly if JAL and ANA did it), that might do it. People aren't going to be racking up miles only to be told sorry, it's economy for you.
As far as why shouldn't loyalty programs restrict awards? They can do whatever they want but then their credit card partners need to make it known that F isn't going to happen.