EasyPass: Good thing or bad thing?
 

Would be interested to hear what people with more redemption experience than I have think about EasyPass. Is it a help to have it, or is it keeping people from getting seats that otherwise would/should go to awards at "standard" levels?

I switched from Delta Skymiles to OnePass at gold-elite level in 1998 after Delta's no-L-upgrades misstep. I'm generally very happy with OnePass, but it does often seem harder to redeem. With Delta you either got the seat at the standard level or you didn't, and they were good at trying to get something to work.

With OnePass there seems, so far at least, to be a fair number of cases where they have no standard-award seats but can offer one for twice the miles (as if that were a great alternative). Makes me wonder if they're trying to "yield-manage" award seats and if the EasyPass seats are being set aside at the expense of more standard seats.

Also makes me wonder if they keep EasyPass seats locked up for advance bookings but then release them to regular awards at x time before the flight.

Let me put it this way: I am Gold Elite with CO going from IAH-HNL on 1/21.

It is 1/14 and seat map shows 21 empty seats (out of 38) in Business First, and Gold Elite agents tell me there are no seats available at the Standard Reward level.

Only way to get in F is to pay the 120K..

Give me a break - it is 1 week before departure..

It would seem, that if the same people who benefit from keeping the number of regular award seats low, benefit from you burning your miles twice as fast, there's a patently unfair system at work. But no one ever said it would be fair.

It would be acceptable if there was a way to figure out where yield management plays into this. Will seats open on a particular flight? Were there ever any seats on it to begin with? Which flights have award seats, and which do not? Pay no attention to the men behind the curtian.
www.denycontinentalthefreddie.com

Paying double the standard rate for a mileage award is a bad thing. CO has never been in the same category as AA or UA for award availability. At best, they are middle of the pack, sometimes OK, sometimes awful. Another reason to deny CO the Freddie this year.

I agree - I find CO's award availability policy just grossly unfair -