Klrduks

Curious if anyone who has gotten credited the enhanced EQM noticed if the total EQM applied to MM accumulation? I am only 40 K away and am considering taking a few trips before 4/11.

Eastbay1K

OMG. I am just about to need to restart my physical therapy and get another low spine epidural just reading this. I'll just survive with my SFO/HNL/SFO with a nice 24+ hours on the ground for $700-ish and "only" score about 12K+ EQMs.

Flying for Fun

The EQM bonus offer does NOT increase your MM counter. Still 700K to go for me....

James

Eastbay1K

So glad to hear. It will avoid that "dilution of the MM ranks thread!"

milypan

I suspect you hit the nail on the head here (perhaps inadvertently). This is kind of brilliant on AS's part if you think through it.

If the COVID pandemic moderates more quickly than expected, then the EQM bonus imposes only a modest cost on them — maybe a few flights in Nov/Dec to hit tier thresholds don't happen. No big deal. If the pandemic continues on its current trajectory, then they seriously consider status extensions, in which case the current EQM bonus literally costs them nothing, while apparently generating at least a little revenue right now.

This is the best kind of investment AS can make according to basic CAPM theory, as the return is negatively correlated with the travel sector/overall market. It dominates a RDM bonus, because a status extension has no impact on the resulting RDM liabilities from such a bonus.

Flying for Fun

In my case, these were already booked flights so the extra EQM didn't generate any additional revenue for AS. While I did say that I didn't need the EQM for requalification, I wasn't being negative in that regard. It is yet to be determined if EQM earnings hold any additional benefits in a New OW Mileage Plan much like in AA where the highest spender gets priority over an Elite Tier pier.

I have effectively qualified for MVP & MVPG twice on AS+Partners all in the same year in 2018 & 2019. 125K EQM. I'll happily take the additional EQM on prebooked flights as a "hedge" to what could be, there is no risk to me and it may be liability neutral for AS. No harm, no foul.

I would agree that EQM is dominant over RDM in this scenario but there is an inherent future liability on Elite Bonus RDM especially during a period of supressed fares. Those that routinely achieve MVP may, with the current cheaper fares, dole out some dollars to reach MVPG at an excellerated rate and receive 100% more Elite Bonus miles (50٪ to 100% of base) for the next 12 to 20 months.

If at some point AS decides to extend current status for an additional year, the ebb & flow of Elites from year to year would be static at 2019 qualification levels plus all new higher level elites who qualified in 2020, many of whom earned their new status at down to 67% of 2019 requirements. That could be a huge RDM liability for AS. Granted, a significant drop in Elites could have a much greater negative impact in the long-term.

I am sure there are many other considerations too with the constantly changing environment. Are Elites currently on a status challenge also getting the EQM bonus towards their challenge requirements? If they successfully complete the challenge would their status be extended for another year too? A five week promo on EQM earnings will get a few more butts in seats and the current change/cancel fee waiver on new bookings will help on revenue streams in the now, time will tell how it all plays out.

James

travelinmanS

It may be brilliant for their business but not so much for a society trying to stop the spread of a virus. Encouraging people to travel more now is not brilliant at all IMHO.

Sometimes we need to step back and realize there are things more important to society than hitting our EBITDA numbers for the quarter.

Eurynom0s

Does the class of service bonus for F count toward million miler?

milypan

Oh I completely agree with you. I am just thinking through it from the perspective of AS management, who have done nothing that suggests they care about public health. They, like the management teams at all the other airlines, are clearly in the “how do we keep the share price from collapsing even more?” mode.

Flying for Fun

I have never purchased an F ticket before on AS so I can't say if the COS on paif F also accumulates additional EQM for MM Status. While I have purchased Main fares that also have a COS component (Y, S, B or M fares) I haven't paid attention to the MM counter since I am many flights away from achieving that nor am I actively pursuing it.

The websites says "fly 1,000,00 miles" with us. However, that is ambiguous in regards to the 500 mile minimum EQM accumulation on flights shorter than 500 miles. I have illustrated before that you can reach MM status while flying as little as 184,000 miles in the contiguous USA and, as pointed out to me, even fewer on some routes in Alaska.

Perhaps a MM or one soon to be, watching the counter more closely, will chime in.

Fun fact: The route is SEA-BLI, 92 miles.You can reach MVPG75K on 90 segments (45 returns) earning 45,000 EQM and actually only flying 8,280 miles. MVPG could be achieved on 60 segments (30 returns) earning 30,000 EQM and flying only 5,520 miles. You would need to fly SEA-KOA; KOA-SEA back & forth (2688 miles) 15 times and commit to about 90 hours of flying to achieve MVPG (40,320 miles = 8! ) on that route.

8! Is 8 Factorial = 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 40,320 Factorials are used in combinations & permutations. I recognized the number as 8! so had to throw it in..... Our pursuit of status is a numbers game anyway, isn't it?

Get your EQM bonuses B4UR2L8.

Cheers everyone,

James

notquiteaff

So... got a link to a CDC statement?

rune87

Literally just pulled straight word from word on the CDC document. If you can't understand those bullet points, I can't help you. If you don't believe.. I really don't care. You do you. I'll continue to fly and live my life normally with some added precautions.

ab2013

You might be an asymptomatic carrier but that could hurt some of the folks around you, especially the more senior folks.

That said, I'm tempted to book some cheap flights to do a mileage run towards the end of the promo time window, assuming Covid dies down a bit as the weather warms up.

Calculon

Am I the only one who thinks this thread about bonus EQM has gone way off topic?

PDXpress

Well yes, but there's a reason AS is offering bonus EQM?