We fired our travel agent 4 years ago for all company travelers because of the service fee they imposed on all airline tickets - $19.

That, and I kept finding cheaper fares/routings.

The company I work for tried to make us use a travel management agency. That lasted a year before the salespeople and other frequent flyers forced the execs to back down. Now the only mandate is that we must book air travel online. Fine by me.

Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem for those of us, who prefer to accumulate their miles on CO's partner carrier. Even if we book it at continental.com, we still only get 50% EQM on discounted fares toward our frequent flyer programs.

That's a minority voice unfortunately.

Jiburi

I'm against 50% EQM and made a swtich but its mostly personal reasons. I agree with the previous posters though - CO put in enough mitigation to keep a mass exodus of Elites from occurring including:

1. The CO.com or Bus Mgr exection.
2. The actual levels of Fare class that get EQM - If you are booking CO flts or even a CO designated flt (so long as its CO on your ticket) then the reality is that only the most deeply discounted fares get hit with 50%.
3. Competitiveness of other carriers - With apologies to the other flyers out there - most of the other programs just aren't as good as CO's - particularly with upgrade privileges for all but the top tiers.
4. Skytem limits - Skyteam members won't status match CO and Skyteam members hit CO flts with 50% EQM too so you can't switch to NW or DL and fly CO to get around the limit.

That being said the 50% EQM does really push travelers that have:
1. Companies that insist on working with travel agencies. Larger companies (I work for a DOW 30) typically insist on booking through a designated agency. They dimiss the idea of better fares on the internet due to questionable faith in their contracts. What's important to them is a travel agency that consolidates travel do get volume discount rebates and similar arrangements.
2. Needs to fly CO partners - the CO 50% EQM hits at much higher fare classes when flying a partner.

This year I've made a switch to NW but I'm not sure how much my case applies to the general population of Elite flyer. What pushed me were:
1. My company uses the designated travel agency.
2. My company has a relentless policy of always booking the lowest possible fare which is enforced by the agency.
3. I have to fly partners a lot of the time - either because of going where CO won't or because a partner has a lower fare.
4. NW 2X EQM promo - NW ran a promo where you could earn 2X EQM for a few months this year - making a switch a lot easier.

So now I'm a NW Gold instead of a CO Silver and that's with only a few months of flying as a NW member. If I had stayed with CO I'd still be a Silver.

Bottom line: CO's policy has probably hurt some flyers but I don't think its enough the CO is very concerned. However, I wonder if its going to be sustainable in the long term. Cost cutting is today's coporate mantra - more and more travelers are going to be in the same place I was. Additionally, if CO does much more to degrade their program it could start to add up.

As a WP member, I've voted with my $$ avoiding CO until this past month or so since they instituted the 50% EQM policy. Even if I book on co.com, I only get 50% EQM in NW WP. I'm only flying CO for the holidays as I've requalified for this year and they have quite a bit cheaper tickets....come Jan 1, I"m back on NW and DL only again....

The reason I hate the 50% rule is probably the very reason CO likes it--the inability to book cheaper fares on most CO partners, regardless of whether it is booked online or not. CO can still claim to be a member of Sky-team while dis-incenting One Pass members from using Sky-Team partners. I don't understand why DL and NW, expecially, put up with it.

The other part of the 50% EQMs that doesn't make sense to me is that the policy penalizes only those passengers I would think CO would want to keep--the frequent flyer. Sure they, may be lower fares (though on the routes I fly, CO's "low" fares are ususally higher than anyone else's), but most frequent flyers fly on a mix of fares.

The twice a year flyer doesn't give a rip about EQMs. They just want to earn enough general miles to take the kids to Disney World someday. They're not affected at all by the 50% EQMs.

If you think about it, any decent FFP should be doing that to some degree - the airline doesn't make money unless you're sitting in a paid seat on its metal. CO does not want you to fly NW or DL if a CO flight is an option.

True except that make some incremental revenue when DL or NW buys some Onepass miles for the flight.

Now the way I see the best CO/DL/NW strategy is really to keep as many passengers amongst themselves with the true competitors are AA UA US and the LCCs. The move to shared lounges and access to all is a step towards this. To lose a passenger to a friend is better than losing it to an enemy. Skyteam is weak overall, but in the US domestically, it's great IMHO