CLEHillbilly

I am not complaining but wondering what other CO FF's have recieved for flying CO an immense amount over the past few years.

I just looked and 9/4/06-10/4/06 I aquired 51,345 CO miles (20k EQM (Damn 50% EQMs)), have been platnium the last 3 years by March ech year, and have another 65k in miles scheduled until 10/30/06....148 EQM segments as of today, 26 during September even.

Not even a phone call thank you or email thank you from CO? Heck I probably paid for a downpayment on an RJ for them at this point....is a simple thank you out of the question?

What have others expected or recieved is my question.

channa

In the event an AS MVP gets stuck in coach on AS, the FA can give them a comp drink.

I agree, a little special treatment in the back would go a long way.

entropy

it used to be with CO that agents and FA's were empowered. If some situation arose (like someone being downgraded), they could give them a free drink. It goes a long way to soothing angry customers. These days, CO has removed most discretion from airport operations. These days they would rather invol people rather than giving more than $300 in CO money, when another $100 in funny money would save CO the need for giving CASH + reaccommodating people under DOT rules.

cobrax333

i opened this thread specifically for the canned chasbondy response, however, i am early

channa

I always thought chasbondy was an automated bot. I guess the system is down.

mollyhatchet

Does the gas station that you use do anything "special" or "extra" for you? Does the grocery store where you buy your food do anything "special" or "extra" for you? You spend plenty of money in those places too.

channa

Yes. Safeway is great at this. Every time you spend $50, you get a fuel discount. Every time you spend a cumulative $250, you get United miles. Every time you buy your 6th Starbucks, the 7th is free. Every time you buy your 7th deli sandwich, your 8th is free. Whenever you buy 6 bottles of wine or liquor, you get 10% off.

mollyhatchet

Continental already gives FREE upgrades!

CALfly5

I think channa gives CO a LOT more money than he does to Safeway. Comparing the 2 is probably not that useful, because with supermarkets, distance from home/work to the market is a large determinant of choice of supermarket. No such thing in the airline world - if I can get to SFO, I can choose to fly ANYBODY.

I agree with a prev poster who said that a "simple thank you" would be great!

CO used to have something very much like this. They had a very simple page printed in year-end OP statements showing you how many segs you flew, how many upgrades you were given, and maybe a couple of other stats, and then a (form letter) message from the director of marketing thanking you for your patronage. Yes, I know nobody actually called me at home and said "thanks Mr. CAL, for flying us so much this year" but this little message really said to me that the airline was looking at me and appreciated me.

I cannot understand why CO doesn't do this anymore. Now, with so many people using e-statements instead of paper, there wouldn't even be an extra paper cost for the extra page.

And FWIW, I do think that once people fly over 100K miles, or over some high dollar amount, someone from the Chairman's office or the President's office should make a phone call to that OP member. I can't imagine it would be that many people they'd have to call, but the goodwill they'd generate, and word of mouth advertising that would follow, would pay for hundreds of those ubiquitous billboards CO puts up across the country.

(PS> CO Insider, I'd really love to see something like this back in the program.)

sbm12

And you get those valuable OnePass miles that you can redeem for future travel on Continental or any other SkyTeam partner.

Seriously, if you are flying those numbers, you pretty much are on the buy x get one free plan. Admittedly it is more difficult to redeem a FF ticket than cashing in your starbucks card, but they are all just loyalty programs in the end.

S.

dolcevita

I would settle for them no deleting my emails to the Elite desk without them being read.

Early this year I contacted the Elite desk inquiring if it would be possible to extend my status (then Plat) or grant me temporary Elite status for 3 months, until I can re-qualify for 2006. Apparently the fact that I’d been spending close to $50K/year and being Plat/Gold the last 6 years (except for 2005) doesn’t even earn me a proper response. Instead, I received a “Deleted without being read” notification within a few days.

Showing a modicum of respect to the loyal customer would be nice. Yes, I am bitter, and I have a good reason to be so. I realize that this is probably not a typical experience but that’s a rather cold comfort for me.

coplatua1k

MORE???

I prefer LESS. I know everytime I buy a last minute ticket paying TOP dollar and I end up in Y with other elites with less status are up front.

CO 1E

The only way this would happen is if the lower-tiered elites bought full Y fares or you purchased your ticket at the very last minute - i.e., after EUA had run and other elites had been upgraded. You can't expect CO to kick upgraded Gold or Silvers out of F simply because you needed to buy a last minute ticket.

dolcevita

What about Elites like myself who fly almost exclusively on H or Y fares on ERJs only?

I do think there should be some sort of incentive for Elites who are stuck on ERJ only routes. I haven't received a single EUA in the last 3 years because CO doesn't fly any mainline aircraft to BNA and my other destination(s), primarily EWR. I do however routinely pay between $700-1200/week for the privilege of flying said (rather uncomfortable) aircraft.

The current elite system doesn't offer anything for me other than faster times through security, yet I pay as much and probably more than flyers on mainline flights. I do agree that they should come up with better reward schemes, especially for high-yield, ERJ only flyers like me. As it is, I'll be switching airlines as soon as my project in EWR is over, unless they can offer me something that DL, AA and UA can't.

carpboy

I agree a tailored thank you would be nice but I have to comment on your 50% EQM comment. If you've qual'ed by march each year what do you care about the EQM's? The only thing I can think of is you see a decrease in travel in the future or that by having to go all the way into March you reduce time to reach status somehwere else for the remainder of the year.