Randy, could you have a closer look at the new scheme? It seems to me that this is a very serious matter, perhaps even fraud:
- under the new 'miles for money' scheme, you can use your miles to purchase tickets on any airline. A 300 dollar ticket will cost you 42K GP miles. Very poor return, but if bonus miles could be used for this, then I would not mind so much.
- in order to be able to use one mile from the LP bonus, you need to generate one 'ordinary' GP mile. Using the GP travel agency will generate 4 GP miles per dollar spent on air fare. Thus, in order to have 42K miles, you need to spend 5250 dollars on air fares (5250 dollars generate 21 GP miles which allows you to free 21K miles from your bonus, for a total of 42K miles). This is bad enough, but it gets worse:
- fares purchased through the online agency seem to be between 20 and 75 dollars more expensive than purchased directly from the airline, based on identical fares (i.e. same fare basis). Assuming your average ticket fare is 500 dollars, you will have to pay GP between 200 and 750 dollars in hidden fees in order to be able to use your miles to buy a 300 dollar ticket. If you have no LP bonus and simply use the travel agency, in the overwhelming majority of cases, you will pay GP more in hidden fees than you will get back from them in tickets using GP miles. Even if you have an LP bonus, you would still probably end up paying GP at least as much in hidden fees that you get back in tickets.
Now, in my book, this is a scam, not in the emphatic sense sometimes used but in the pure sense of the word, i.e. implying fraud. Unless they change their attitude towards the bonus and allow it to be used without the requirement to generate the same amount of 'new' GP miles, it seems to me that these guys should be shut down as soon as possible.