hockey7711

It would be nice if they extended this offer! The whole state of California is on lockdown now.

RAD_PDX

Yeah, probably not gonna happen, at least not in the current form. It seems like they�ve stopped advertising it as well. I�m honestly surprised that a media outlet didn�t pick up on this. It was a pretty terrible idea to begin with, and I say that as someone who has benefited from it. It actively encourages people to fly who shouldn�t be flying.

JALOO5-Flyer

Maybe the person in charge of Mileage Plan thought the virus will be in control by end of March. Maybe they think people will still fly despite the virus, but load factor says the opposite.
ANA is giving double EQM for any ANA-operated flight from Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2020.

Eastbay1K

When the promo started, the world (or at least the USA) as most of us knew it, was different.

nearlysober

Yeah - when they started the promo, they were seeing a dip in sales but no one was talking about "shelter in place" or city lock downs at that point.

It did become pretty apparent that it was not socially responsible to encourage people to take non-necessary flights and they were still pushing it for awhile, but good to see they've removed it from the home page at least.

It's selfish of me, but I really want to keep my SEA-PDX out & back next week, not really for the miles but just out of curiosity... As someone who likes to geek out on aviation stuff (like all of us) I'm just so curious what the airport & plane experience is like right now. I'm literally the only person booked in F both ways...

I'll probably do the right thing and cancel, but leaving it booked for now gives me a little hope to daydream about what might be

Eastbay1K

I'm supposed to be landing @ HNL within the hour. When I checked yesterday (after having canceled), there was 1 F seat reserved. While I was curious as you are, I'm glad I'm home. Instead of foraging for take out food in a nearly vacant Waikiki Beach and breathing recycled air in a high rise building, I'll be using my Amex UBER credit for some Eats tonight, accompanied by wine far better than what AS would have served me, and grilling lamb chops tomorrow (with more wine, some artichokes, and other fresh vegetables).

As the song goes (and it spontaneously combusted in my head this morning)...
♫Mary had a little lamb that wasn't quarantined.
Unfortunately for Mary's lamb, she end up guillotined.♫

isaac.chambers

Its responsible to encourage people not to fly needlessly at the moment.

California is under lockdown for the immediate future. Its the right thing to do and i hope in the coming days we see the effects in the Bay Area (we are on day 4 already here).

I suspect that there will be some sort of promo till the end of the year;

lets just take care of each other; help us all get through it....stay calm and i think we will be better after this as a country. There are more important things right now than my MVP gold status for next year.

flyupfrnt

I realize I could get flamed for this but I'll share anyway.

I bought a Cheap Roundtrip SEA-LAX last night on a whim T-1.5 hours to departure. Instantly UG'd. Nice. I wanted to see first hand how the whole airport and flight experience has changed since my last flights 3/7&3/8. Also, Obviously to score some additional EQM.

While en route to Airport the California lockdown news makes its way to me. Hmmm. I'll take my chances. literally as FC Boarding was opened. I got a notification from AS my return flight was canceled. That was enough for me to call it off as I had responsibilities this morning and couldn't be "off the grid" in a plane too far into business hours. Boy was the Airport unlike anything I have Ever Seen. Totally Surreal.

Alaska was nice and credited everything back to original form of payment. Hilton allowed me to cancel the Hotel Points stay without penalty due to the Airline Cancellation. I did have a fun conversation with a person I learned to be a Lurker here that is truly into Mileage Runs and Redemption Value's. Flies a lot of AS and EQ. We shared some neat stories (in open air at about a 3-4 foot distance) which concluded with an Elbow Bump.

Now, I Still have a Transcon tomorrow morning and a MidCon RT Sunday. I want to go but am considering foregoing them. As well a similar flights next weekend.

Decisions Decisions.

MDtR-Chicago

Please don't. Respectfully, no yelling, no anger, but just... please don't.

I'm stuck at home with someone in a high-risk category until this is over. Every vector counts.

EDIT: To add some value for those who are curious about flying right now... I had to fly early this week to get home and it was a surreal experience. Probably 1/3 full flight EWR-SFO. Got an upgrade a day out as an MVP (never happens). Probably 1/3 of the FC cabin was actively sanitizing everything with wipes. Lots of masks. And everyone in the terminal trying to keep distance from each other.

But not at all fun. Overall low level of tension in every interaction. Especially security. Very quiet. Very fast boarding process.

Just glad I could get back home (apparently) without catching anything.

Eastbay1K

No flame from me. A good lesson on "you could get stuck" or otherwise have travel plans go awry. Had you been in the air when your return canceled, even more fun for you.

chrisl137

That's about the biggest risk for me this week with PDX. I'm expecting to stay a week as long as air travel doesn't get shut down. If I get stuck, I'm still at home in PDX, but would have to pay the LA petsitters for longer.

milypan

Data points: QF, VS, and NZ have all announced status extensions. Oceania is not (yet) at the same point as the US, but travel demand there has still fallen significantly. The important distinction is that all their programs use rolling 12-month windows or "membership years" that do not align with the calendar year, so it was already end-of-year for some subset of their elites. My understanding is that QF and VS are doing straight-up extensions, while NZ is doing an extension plus a bankable year if you earn status during 2020 under the normal rules. But the NZ program already features bankable years anyway, so effectively all three are doing simple extensions.

The best forecast for US programs at this point would be an extension or challenge announced during the second half of the year. Nothing is guaranteed, but if you were betting on it that's certainly where the smart money would go, at least until the odds hit 6/1 or more against.

TL;DR, here is how I would value 2020 EQMs at this point for current elites:

• Current MVPG75K: ~10% of your normal EQM valuation
• Current MVPG/MVP intending to requalify at same level or below: ~10% of your normal EQM valuation
• Current MVPG/MVP who might jump a level: ~20% of your normal EQM valuation

lensovet

The biggest risk for you, maybe. The biggest risk for the population as a whole and all the people you cross paths with?

Just…why? I had booked SFO-EWR for the first weekend in March when the promo was first announced because it wasn't obvious to me that this was for the long haul. But today? Really?

saw your posts in the other threads so i see there's a reason.

chrisl137

It was originally planned as a vacation, but that's out and something unrelated came up that's something of a family semi-emergency. I almost changed it to earlier this week because of it, but decided not to because I already had the flights booked that would be sufficient.

diver858

Promo helped get me to 19.23k miles as of 3/17, just as all all hell started to break loose.

Going to stay put for now, hope things calm sufficiently for a biz trip SAN-HNL, originally scheduled for May 19.