I agree with drtravels note above. Despite the new 250K limit, if we can get Awards it is a good deal. (I did get my Oct. US Airways trip to Europe confirmed with dates I wanted in about 20 days - not great but an improvement from earlier requests.)
Of course no one knows, but I think LP is facing financial difficulty. Pushing them to hire lawyers to fight court cases [expensive] and forcing them to give out all Awards at once could lead to bankruptcy (or hasten the date).
And I don't think we have much of a leg to stand on as rules state they can change requirments without notice. If the changes are unreasonable, i.e. 100,000 miles for a domestic US coach ticket, then one could argue the point.
Others state that the major airline programs cannot make such changes. But I know the problems I and others have faced when we cannot get Upgrades or award flights to popular places, etc. Is not being able to use Awards in fact a "de facto" changing of the rules.
Enough of the soapbox. I think LP needs to improve their processes so Awards are granted quickly (within 7 days) and without having to follow up. To me, that is the most frustrating problem. I can live with the 250K per year restriction, especially if the Jan and prior requests do not count for 2001.
I hope we do not apply so much pressure they just throw in the towel and we lose whatever miles we have left.
A unified FlyerTalk solution would be great. But we all have different agendas (one can see comments above), so not sure we could come up with one. I just wish LP had talked to 3 or 4 of those that post here and asked us about an acceptable solution before making their decision.
Other thought? Anyone want to propose a unifed solution to submit to LP?
[This message has been edited by SAPMAN (edited 02-10-2001).]