tarheelnj

That was the plan, anyway, but it backfired on the PPlats. By having the stated target, many of us directed J travel to CO that could have gone to other *A carriers. No sooner had we qualified than CO started giving higher upgrade status to mileage upgraders and non-PPlats on higher fares (despite the much-quoted claim of "highest priority"). Now the ELR seats are available for sale to non-Elites at booking. So your statement is correct from CO's standpoint but not the flyers.

petesamprs

Actually, I was thinking more about this...why aren't all status tiers on all airlines based on revenue? In what way does the number of miles or segments one has flown directly benefit CO?

Why not just say for example:
- silver: $5k spend
- gold: $10k spend
- plat: $20k spend
- GS: undisclosed spend + DYKWIAs (invitation only)

CO shouldn't care about losing the plat that has spent $3k flying 75k eqms.

What am I missing?

seacarl

I am not sure that money spent is necessarily always a better measure of value to CO. It might be part of the mix, but miles traveled also has value as a measure. Assuming that CO does a good job of inventory management and pricing, travelers who travel on cheaper fares might be traveling on days when demand is lower and filling inventory that would otherwise go unsold, while higher fare travelers might be going on a day when the flight would have been sold out anyway. Further, if CO is holding back seats to sell at higher fares, there is a risk those travelers might not materialize, or request a refund or rebook another flight, and the seat goes empty, while a lower fare traveler has purchased a non-refundable ticket in advance, and CO has use of the cash earlier and can plan inventory better.

I am not saying higher fare travelers aren't valuable and should not be a factor in the equation, just that someone buying earlier or unsold inventory also has value, and miles provide a measure of that.

Further, if you link benefits too closely to dollars spent, it becomes easier and easier for corporate customers to demand discounts instead of FF benefits, and maybe the IRS to try to tax the benefits. By having the linkage be more indirect and harder to quantify, the FF program can achieve its goals of rewarding loyalty and influencing travelers behavior.

I think UA actually has a pretty interesting model which gives very high status based on actual travel (1K) and then another mysterious super elite level (GS) which is in theory based on the total profits the traveler directs to UA.

meFIRST

Delta tried this and it backfired While it is easy to hit $20K if you fly INTL, it can be challenging on short haul domestic.

Those people will get shortchanged.

petesamprs

You bring up a good point about non-peak travelers. Maybe the right answer is to have the thresholds be based on x miles or y segments or z $ spend. That would encourage everybody to be traveling.

Interesting re: corporate discounts and the IRS...didn't consider that.


I agree $20k is tough on short-haul domestic. But 75k is also tough given that constraint. And my thresholds were just an example. Maybe silver is $2k, gold $5k and plat $10k.

emcsweeney

I represent that

by the way, it's $4K...

petesamprs

impressive!

archie999

It hasn't vanished, but due to banking regulation changes, it has taken on new form. For the PPMC annual fee in 2010, for example if your card renews between Setember and December, they give you a TravelBank credit of $400 because they cannot credit the annual fee back to you. When it renews in 2011, the fee can and will be waived. That's how it was explained to me. Note, that I had to call and ask about it before the initiated the TravelBank credit, but hey, I got it.

timg

In my mind, CO has completely dropped the ball on this program. For the rest of the year, I will not be working to consolidate my travels on CO, instead flying on the star alliance partner that is best for me at the time (could be CO, SQ, LH, or AC depending on where I am going).

The final straw for me was my travel last week - I was in PVG, and concerned about getting back to IAH due to the storm in the north east. I was scheduled to go out at 5pm, connecting in EWR, but Co.com said that travel via EWR could be problematic due to the storm. While it was likely the 777 would fly, my concern was the connecting flight from EWR to IAH that had me worried.

I contacted CO about changing the routing. My preferred option was catching an NH flight to NRT (I expected to pay for this flight. Tickets were available for $400), then NRT - IAH, but I was also open to the idea of a slightly earlier departure - PVG-SFO-IAH on United. This last option would also get me home at 7pm instead of midnight.

I am a presidential platinum, and was traveling on a business class fare.

CO was unwilling or unable to make these changes. Despite my nearly $10,000 original ticket, if I wanted to make these changes, they wanted me to pay another $6000 to purchase a new one-way ticket. I talked to multiple reps, and they all said they'd help if the flight was cancelled, but unless it was cancelled, there wasn't much they could do, because the routing is different.

I find this unacceptable. I am not adding meetings in another city, just wanting to get from A to B to C. I don't care where "B" is - NRT, EWR, SFO, ORD. But since CO advised passengers to avoid EWR if possible, it seems to me like a resonable solution to reroute.

My questions to other members of this forum - What is the value of the program, if it isn't to help out in instances like this? Given the circumstances around weather in EWR last week, was this an unresonable request on my part?

Put differently, lets take weather out of this - you are overseas, and a meeting is cancelled, and you have a chance to fly home a few hours earlier. All things considered, is the expectation of allowing a change in routing, especially when space is available, a resonable one?

cbechdel

I totally agree with you. Totally UNDERWHELMED with the program and have no intentions to consolidate my flying with CO/UA this year as I did last year to get PP status - will still stay with *A though. Nothing of value has presented itself to me yet. And still waiting for a single flight attendant, BF Concierge or checkin attendant to recognize the status. NOT ONE TIME. Last flight, the crew actually asked me to vacate the coveted seat 1E on the 777 so they could use the row as a pass thru aisle to do meal service to make it easier for them.

They told me reason why AFTER I moved. I moved assuming a family or something needed accommodated, and then after takeoff I saw the row sit empty, I asked about it....

To answer your question, I'd say it's totally an expectation to allow changes to be simpler with the status.

btravel112

I believe GS Qualification is something like 100k of spend in Y/C/F. Re qualification is lower.

jr_weaver

I would have to say my experience as a PPlat has been mixed (upgrades have declined/overall service pretty good); however I did just have a good experience with the PPlat service desk.

I was scheduled on CO 254 from SFO – CLE last Thursday. I had been hovering around #4 on the upgrade list then overnight (somewhere inside of T -24) I received a confirmed upgrade, seat assignment and a new mobile boarding pass ^. I checked the reservation around 5:00 a.m. and everything looked good. About an hour later, I re-checked the flight status and took a look at the upgrade list – to my surprise I was back on the upgrade list at position #4 .

I then called the PPlat line and was informed there had been an equipment change and there were now fewer FC seats and lucky me as one of the last upgrades got bumped out. No one really knew how the reseating algorithm works but I was definitely seated in Y . The big problem was in the thrashing, I had lost my original seat 7A and was now in a middle seat, limited recline, in front of the exit row with nothing else available.

The PPlat rep was very apologetic and volunteered called the airport PC lounge and had them contact the gate agent/planning group to see what could be done. She also called my back to confirm she had made contact with someone at SFO ^. Given the situation I had decided to head to the airport early as I knew the only other routings that might be available all left before my direct flight. When I got to the lounge, I had been re-seated in Y toward the back in a window seat with full recline; however I was told I could not get back into 7A. The seats 7A//7C had been given to a couple with a lap child and 7B was being held open (I could have it if I wanted it) .

I decided to call PPlat line to see if any alternative routing was available. The PPlat rep put me on an earlier flight with FC available through IAH with a connection to CLE in Y . The routing was scheduled to get me in about 15 mins earlier than the direct flight .

We had a monster tailwind into IAH and arrived about 40 minutes early ^ so I decided to see if I could get on an earlier flight to CLE. I had about 30 mins to make the gate for the earlier flight so I switched my plight via my iPhone but could not get a seat assignment – although I could see the exit row aisle was open. When I arrived at the gate I was initially given 12B and I inquired about the exit row. I was told those were only available for purchase. When I said I was PPlat I was given the exit row aisle and would up getting home an hour and ½ earlier than originally scheduled.

Overall a pretty good result – too bad I used us so much travel karma this early in the year.

:-:Lastly, I did get my EAU at T-120 (K fare) for the flight back to CLE this Thursday.

UA-NYC

Sounds like absolute BS - weather waivers are put in place (I'm guessing you were impacted by the latest Snopacolypse) in order to avoid affected cities - thus, a change in routing. No need for your flight to actually be cancelled to do so.

The good news is that if you were to qualify for GS going forward (and assuming they keep the GS protocols/benefits, not the Plat + 1% that PPlat is), they would have made this change for you in about 2 minutes, no questions asked. But as many other PPlats have said, if this is all they're getting for their $30K plus, why would they spend that going forward?

IGoogledU

When we, the underwhelmed PP's, requalify in 2012 as GS, will it be at a lower threshhold?

UA-NYC

Nobody knows - it's the beauty (or ugliness) of GS. Allows them to tailor it by market, which does make some sense.

Bunch of multi-year, 50K+ full fare mileage 2010 GS' got ix-nayed for 2011.