Maybe the thrill is gone...
Been a FF since '87.(remember People's,Eastern,Braniff...)I'm at the point where I rarely chase miles for non-travel promos unless the offer is 5k or greater.My miles are earned mainly through int'l leisure flights and some transcon domestic runs.(Also a few quickie weekenders to HKG to maintain status.)
My point is that it has really lost it's appeal of late.Customer service seems to be at an all time low.We are treated like sheep.Don't they understand that a flight cancellation, delay, lost seat assignment on long flights affect us? And a FF travelling on an award ticket didn't find that ticket on the ground they showed allegiance to a company and spent the money intentionally with that airline. Recent changes to airline programs - after they got me to play their game they changed the rules- is another example.Security at domestic airports has no conformity and I don't feel any safer since 'changes' have been implementd.
So I'm thinking it's time to stay away for awhile till the dust settles.I'm planning my leisure travel for the rest of the year using my banked miles.My DL miles will be for another trip to Africa,UA to the Cook Islands,and CO for a trip to So. America.I'll save only enough in my accounts for a couple of emergency domestic flights that may pop up.
Really frustrated and saddened with the current state of the airline industry.Any thoughts?

[This message has been edited by kikokona (edited 03-30-2002).]

To an extent, I agree. Although flying has never been as demeaning or frustrating as it is today, I will probably end up flying about 100k miles again in 2002. Business calls. What does change for me is this: I'm not nearly so focused on loyalty as before -- to OnePass or any other program.

When -- in OP's case -- the miles are devalued without notice, the partnerships and earning/spending options are so sharply curtailed, and all pax are treated poorly regardless of loyalty tier, what's the point of requalifying... for Plat or any other level? So I guess I don't care if I do or not. If it happens, it happens... but I won't be sweating over an OAG to make it so.

THERE'S your "significant problem," Continental. Not that we know what's going on... but that we care less and less.

You know, BearX220, I have been thinking something very similar lately. That is, that I need to simply change my whole schemata with respect to airline affinity.

I am so "set" on keeping my travel on CO/NW...I need to break that. To realize, its a new ballgame now. Time to shift it around. The pricing has become so variable, the service so poor on CO. It used to be that I could pay 0-20% more to fly CO, and get great service. Now, CO is sometimes 100% more. I get crappy service. Its time to just start flying with the low cost carrier on my route (keeping within some sort of network of a few carriers - like UA, AA, DL, NW, CO, US) and just get whatever elite benefits I can. I fly enough every year to get at least middle status on four or five carriers. Why not?

I think the advice often given - "concentrate everything on onecarrier or allegiance of carriers" - its shifting. Bettwe to shift with the sea change than continue feeling so much angst towards Continental. I think they are super, huge, really big blowing it. I'll just speak with my wallet, and carry my business to the people who want me, and want to give me a good price.

Well said.

My two cents:

At one time it was easy grabbing an international upgrade to BF. Now it's next to impossible.

At one time it was a lock that I (CO-Gold)was gonna sit up front every time I flew CO. Now, the only way to assure it is to use miles. Which makes my elite status next to useless.

At one time, you could find amazing specials at continental.com. Now, there is nothing but trips to Rochester and Cleveland.

At one time it was fun to accrue and save miles. Now, I can't wait to get rid of them.

Sadly, all great things must come to an end and for CO the end is near. Or maybe it's already here.

Don't even count on booking mileage upgrades, especially on transcons, unless you want to buy EasyPass awards at double the standard mileage. Remember, standard reward tickets are taken out of the F bucket. And more and more, CO isn't dumping the seats to F until 2 hours prior to flight at the airport. And by then, its likely that an elite will get the upgrade before you will.

Having just spent 400,000 miles for two Concorde tickets, I had no problem getting either the Concorde segments or the continuing AF segments in BC to SVO. But I had to book transcons on HP to guarantee FC. On CO I would have had to waitlist, and the odds weren't good on their transcon.



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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

FC reward tickets come out of the "E" class bucket, which is much less common then "F" class. There have been a number of times that I have been booked in coach on a FC reward, waitlisted for First, and have been unable to get moved up when "F" has availability.

Just to clarify this: FC tickets paid fully with miles come out of E. FC tickets based on a paid coach ticket plus miles for the upgrade come out of F. I know you didn't say otherwise in your message, but it could be interpreted either way.

IOW, an Elite can get a free EUA upgrade prior to someone willing to burn miles for the upgrade! That makes no sense at all!!!



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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

Is this really true? I know we're all upset up HoKeY, but if you decide to buy a HKY fare, or a lower fare and pay the upgrade surcharge, are they really that difficult to get? Considering the number of people that are firm about not playing the new game, it would seem that BF upgrades would actually be easier to get these days.

This is confirmed second-hand by someone who posted here about speaking to a OnePass higher-up who said that the complaints from customers not being able to get BF upgrades have gone essentially to zero.

Steve, that is absolutely ludicrous! If a product is scarce, you can make it widely available every time by dramatically raising the price! (from ECON 201) That isn't a solution!!!

But to claim that one can get an upgrade with an "AllPass Reward" is downright deceitful when one is limited to $1000-1500+ fares!

Now, let's look at the competition...DL excluded, they're even worse than CO! AA upgrades on all published fares, UA restricts upgradeable fares, but much less severely, much like CO's pre-HoKeY fares. And if you lose out on the upgrade, you get either AA's MRTC or UA's E+. What do you get with CO???...gangrene of the gluteus maximus!!!

Uh, huh! And Larry Kellner stated that CO offers "a very comfortable coach product."
If you keep taking CO press releases as fact, we're gonna get nowhere!!!



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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

SemiElite writes: In one case it was more then my being willing to burn miles, I had used required miles for a FC ticket, when a Platinum sitting next to me was called to the front before departure.

Steve M writes:
Just to clarify, I consider a "FC reward" ticket to be one bought with miles, while a "Reward Upgrade" would be miles applied to a paid published fare.

Actually, its my personal, non scientific perception that R class (is that right - Z class maybe? The allpass int'l upgrade class) has become more scarce, at least at my way-out-times-of-booking my paid ticket. I do have to say, R class has cleared for me in just about every case where I was waiting for it. But it has been held until maybe 3-7 days prior to departure, every time.

To me, that's a huge change, because while I mostly do end up getting BF when I play HoKeY, I am not assured of my upgrade until very close to departure. That's much less fulfilling for me - I'd like to know my options at time of purchase.

[This message has been edited by thesilb (edited 03-31-2002).]