beckoa

Nothing has been published thus far = employees don't know. Not sure that AS has made the decision on this one yet. Would not be surprised if this started with 100K EQM earned in 2022 due to the amount of rollover and the 50% bonus EQM until the end of June 2021.

anteater

AS' estimate for when it will launch is early 2022. AS also hasn't decided if it would be based upon 2021 EQM, but when I asked about that, AS' response was not likely. It is still very fluid and the new tier is not solidified yet, including the launch date.

Personally, if the tier launches in 2022 and is based upon 2021 activity then I hope it is based upon 2021 BIS miles rather than EQM. With the generous EQM bonuses in 2021, there is an abundance of MP members who are exceeding 100K EQM and would not normally reach that threshold. In a normal year, EQM bonuses would not be as pronounced and EQM would be a closer reflection of BIS miles.

brentyb

One could argue it would be better for them to base it on 2021 miles, with the bonuses and rollovers there are sure to be many people who wouldnt normally be able to hit 100k.

Would it be better to give people a taste of the tier in the hopes that they increase their travel to maintain the following year?

beckoa

Well, with overinflated ranks, it would be difficult to have a true sample.

Flying for Fun

Let's be careful! Are you suggesting the Tier should be based on Butt in Seat Miles only? If not based on EQM then you are eliminating COS bonus on high Y and F fares. Essentially you would be asking someone to attain 1/10 of MM status in a given year to qualify. Why not take it a step further and eliminate 500 mile EQM minimums because your true BIS on SEA-BLI is 92 miles?

I like the "give a taste" approach. It may bloat the Tier in the first year but that will thin out very quickly. Not everyone is doing MRs in F/Y for a quick escalation to 75K+ with the bonuses even if there is a larger percentage vying for OWE (for up to 21 months) and will stop flying MRs once achieving 75K.

James

TravelingZoomer

Are people really suggesting 100K BIS miles for a domestic airline who’s longest route is a touch over 2.7k miles?

AS is already more stingy with their COS EQM bonuses compared to the legacy carriers, and they have long haul and ultra long haul routes to assist with achieving road warrior status. 100k AS only BIS miles is ALOOOOOT

eponymous_coward

AS's traffic/load factor is still not THAT close to 2019 (though certainly bounced off the floor of spring 2020), and my Fortune 500 company is still banning corporate travel without C-level sanction. Corporate travel is a lot of those potential MP members, no?

(I know my leisure time isn't spent on airplanes so I can sit more on airplanes in order to sit on airplanes.)

Yes, I know, because we live on FT we're assuming everyone is flying SEA-FLL-SAN-SEA-ANC-OGG-SFO-PDX-BOI-SJC-LAX and back 17 times a month so they can get OW Emerald, but I'm a bit skeptical that this really means typical high-volume travelers are really doing their typical pre-pandemic travel levels, as opposed to the usual FT opportunistic "OMG, I'll fly CX F 4 EVA with a bunch of $99 transcons" action. I don't know if the FT crowd snarfing up inventory is going to be sustainable once ticket pricing is more normal (and we're through airdropping billions of dollars of taxpayer cash on airlines).

bmvaughn

Feel bad for the young kid I met on SEA-ORD that was adamant the new status starts in 2022 and that he already had enough flights booked to qualify for it.

flytoeat

Comments about inflated tiers are not dealing with reality. Load factors are way down, and business travel is not returning yet. Bonus eqms are being given in an effort to staunch the bleeding. Subjective analysis based on one's own outlier experience is not accurate. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing additional eqm bonuses at the beginning of 2022 to drive the numbers.

FloridaFlyers

I don't know about you, but in my travels through SEATAC, the airport security queue times have gone up significantly over the past few weeks, and many of my recent AS flights are at or near capacity. People are starting to travel again, and the recent disbursal of stimulus checks and availability of covid vaccines seem to be enticing people to return to the skies.

TravelingZoomer

The plural of anecdote is not the same as data

eponymous_coward

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...-covid-crisis/

70% isn't 100%, and people who do 100k a year of vacation travel a year not for business are fairly rare. Granted, this is FT so we're assuming everyone does SAN-FLL-SAN immediate turns for seventeen weeks in a row to get status because they're just like us.

(Frankly I don't like airplanes enough to do five digits of mileage runs a year. I'd rather just pay for what I do or do longhaul travel less frequently. I haven't gotten close to a year of flying 100k BIS on leisure- and I've done multiple RTWs since joining FT.)

I think the mix post-pandemic is going to be considerably different because yes, there will be business travel, but companies are going to realize some significant savings from not doing as much travel and they're going to capture that. So I'm not buying "OMG, there will be TOO MANY ELITES HELP PANIC IN THE STREETS". If anything I suspect that longhaul premium class travel (the stuff we all drool over, Krug, showers, lie-flat seats, caviar) is going to be impacted in a world where corporations significantly cut back how much they want to spend sending people over to Shanghai, Frankfurt and Bangalore in lie-flats... and that might take some award inventory away from us mileage hounds...

anteater

I plan to play it safe for 2021-2022.

My plan is to continue to book 12+ months of trips during 30%+ discount promotions, book into F, and accrue 100K EQM (optionally 100K BIS).

If MVP 100K does get based on 2021 activity I’ll make it. If it’s on 2022 I’ll make it. Either way, I’ll enjoy the savings, contribute to a fantastic company, and get to enjoy my legroom.

🤙🏻

DeltaFlyingProf

From my experience of how airlines (DL/AA) have handled the introduction of a new tier in the past, I would bet (though not too heavily) on having AS give 100k status to those who've achieved 100k EQM in 2021, including rollover and bonuses. And, like anteater, whether they do or not, I'll make it either in 2021 or 2022 and continue enjoying flying AS.

FloridaFlyers

10 min TSA-Pre lines vs two people a couple of weeks ago. 95% full flights, putting people in premium middle seats, horrible upgrade availability, and numerous gate announcements about very full or totally full flights. Call it anecdotal, but there IS a distinct change in volume.