Originally Posted by
RustyC
Compared to 7 or 8 years ago there aren't many categories of FFers that are doing better now; it's mainly degrees to which they're doing worse. Airlines have made one cut after another to service at all levels, and the two-tier awards are essentially a stealth devaluation. The future viability is threatened mainly by all the non-flying miles that are sold causing the balances to get out of whack.
Agree with you on service - there's no question that the F/C products today aren't what they once were. Anybody who managed to save an int'l F winelist from 10 or 15 years ago can attest to that.
But on the FF side of things, I'm still getting the main components of the programs that I look for: 25k to Canada in Y, 80-120k to Europe in J or F, occasional 30-35k trip to Central America or the Caribbean. (Heck, next week we're redeeming 5 award seats to Bermuda for 20k a pop.
) Also occasionally a 25k domestic trip, but since I live in a strong WN city, the 25k domestics don't make much sense for me because I can usually find a good airfare - even when I fly AA/UA.
In some ways, it's actually
easier - because I, uhhhh, rack up a lot of points/miles from credit cards.
And other partner sources, promotions, etc...
To date, the only times I've had to redeem the "rulebuster" award levels have been on a couple of last-minute domestic trips where the choice was a 50k award or a $1000 ticket. But I haven't done one of those in about 5 years - even last-minute tickets out of MCI on any airline tend to cap out at the WN full fare. (No surprise there...)
Having access to miles across both *A and OW definitely helps.
At some point in the next 2-3 years, we'll probably splurge and throw a lot of miles at some J seats to Asia. I know that trip will take some planning, but with flexibility I expect we'll get it one way or another.