Originally Posted by
beaubo
United offers weekly 'e-fares', usually deeply discounted fares that require travel within a short window and with a little advance notice, presumably on routings that have plenty of excess supply.
A logical and beneficial extension of 'e-fares' should be 'e-awards', the ability to redeem discounted awards (25-50% off) on targeted routes with excess seat inventory.
KLM's FFP and now its merged KLM/AF FFP offer 'Web Awards', whereby for a30-90 day window, certain routes allow award redemption for 50% in both Coach and Business cabins in many instances.
So, the precedent exists. Is it time for the US FFPs to emulate this customer-friendly strategy that doesn't hurt the FFPs or airlines bottom line?
Make sense. I know a lot of them do it via published promotions (e.g., Bermuda for 20k this summer on United), but what you're talking about is a regularly updated list of discounted awards. I'd love to see that. (CO is the one U.S. airline I know little about, so if they're already doing it, kudos to them.)
The only catch, of course, would be that these routes probably wouldn't have a very high ROI in terms of value for your miles. By definition, they'd be off-peak destinations where airfares are also low. (Although the UA example is running during a good season for Bermuda, so maybe it doesn't always have to be this way!) But...if they threw some discounted J/F awards in there, I might still bite.