I have to say that this is a lot of nothing to me. I don't book slEasy Pass, and if I did need last seat availability on a flight EWR-HKG spending 300K miles seems like a much better deal than the $11K that the J fare costs. That is 3.75cpm value, which is pretty high.

If you're using your 50K miles to book IAH-MSY in F the $484 fare is a bad redemption value, but doing it on a transcon is going to get you back up near the 3+cpm value point.

The QF redemption increase is something that probably should've happened a couple years back when QF changed their process - it was a nice run while we had it. I always thought I'd end up booking one of those, but I've found RTW rewards to be more my cup of tea for the big redemptions.

Yes, increasing the price of the awards is "bad," but if it only is "bad" for other people and the things I do aren't affected as much, I find it hard to get worked up about it.

The 500 RDM booking bonus will cost me a few thousand miles, and I suppose that'll be something I deal with, but I can't see that as a sufficient competitive advantage to push me one way or the other in my bookings. For everyone who is saying that it will drive you to Orbitz, why? You can always book the mixed carrier options using CO's call center if you want, and you'll still need to book at co.com for the low fares to get your 100% EQMs. I guess not worrying about the 500 RDMs makes it easier to shop when mixing carriers on expensive fares, but those engines all charge a booking fee, so you're going to pay for the luxury to go that route. I'm sure CO won't mind that too much.