While the changes don't effect me a whole lot, I want to thank Scott for letting us know in advance of the announcement on co.com.

Now what are the goodies we can expect?

I would suspect that most elite CO members are booking travel through their corporate travel agencies - so they would get no booking bonuses and unfortunately lower EQMs. But it is a double whammy - reducing the ability to earn miles while at the same time increasing award levels.

Every one of these changes is negative.

Agreed about the 10-15 year cycle. And it is certainly not inconceivable that the next generation J class will be something revolutionary (not inconceivable but unlikely based on Larry Kellner's record).

But there is so much more to the airline product than international business class. What about a better economy class with more legroom (as every other U.S. carrier has)? How about really, seriously updating the IT systems? How about creating a new revenue opportunity for CO's considerable and increasingly dissatisfied elite passengers, something akin to E+?

It's interesting to note the rigidity and narrowness of Larry Kellner's business model. Any enhancement a la E+ is automatically seen as nothing more than a loss of revenue (fewer seats = fewer revenue opportunities). The fact is, if CO really wants to do something revolutionary, the next product is enhanced premium economy, where the additional space and amenities are directly tied to additional revenue.

There is absolutely no reason to believe, given the current levels of demand and supply, that such a product would represent anything but lots of additional revenue.

I would suspect that most elite CO members are booking travel through their corporate travel agencies - so they would get no booking bonuses and unfortunately lower EQMs.
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For me, I personally book the travel of the 8 people in our group. We fly about 300 days per year with 90% of it being domestic travel. In our group, more or less all of us are top tier, or close to top tier elite on all the major carriers except for American and US Airways. We (I) basically decide at the beginning of the year who we will choose to get status on in the upcoming year (we chose one from CO/NW/DL / one from US/UA / and then just fly the others whenever the nonstop option is better.)

American called me to ask why the star in our group does not fly them anymore (used to be EXP, and I basically told them that while it is nice for him to have status, unless they were willing comp status to the others in the group, it makes no sense to me to have him the only one with status while the rest suffer)...

AA declined, and as such do not get the business, so be it

We are all loyal Blue Carpet flyers

COInsider, is it possible for you to say whether, when the QF levels are increased, there will be some advanced warning and a chance to book at the now effective level? Or should we be getting prepared for a no-notice change? Thanks!

What's frustrating for me--and I've been with CO long before they rolled out BF--is that I can remember when OnePass was revolutionary and innovative. It isn't anymore.

Thank you, Scott, for posting the upcoming OnePass program changes without spin. ^

to the loss of the 500 RDM co.com booking bonus. But, I cannot say that I did not expect it either this year or next, given the current competitive landscape.

Overall, we will see some interesting changes this year:

Million Miler Program (launch date TBD) - ^
"Added value" to each OnePass mile that should result in more Standard (SaverPass) availability - ^

20% increase in redemption rates for certain BF EasyPass rewards - if you like to redeem EasyPass rewards
Increase in redemption rate for Standard domestic F rewards from 45k to 50k (and to 100k for EasyPass) -
Elimination of 500 RDM co.com booking bonus -

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/archi...p/t-41688.html

Not only have the off-peaks been eliminated, they now call the standard rewards, "savers" and the premiums "standard."

The off-peaks were great values. I think that I had 2 round-trip coach to Hawaii for 45,000 miles, and a hotel discount and free car? My last off-peak used was in November, 2002. Got two business class tickets to Cairns, Australia, with a stopover in Japan, flying NW to Japan in business, then CO down to Cairns. I think it was 80,000 miles for a business class ticket.

Does anyone have the off-peak chart that was eliminated in 2002?

We have been told (warned) by various magazines and newspapers and web sites that the value of our miles are constantly and consistently being devalued and will continue to be so over the years. The FF program as originally designed by AA and copied by all got completely out of control in terms of numbers of ways to accumulate miles and numbers of miles out there. I personally in a 5 year period never flew DL and was able to get over 195K miles thru various other promotions. Is that the original intention of the Skymiles program. No. Are they happy about it. I don't lnow but I guess maybe no. Am I happy that I used those miles for a 90K J seat to Europe and 3 Y seats to PTY (on CO metal) Yes. Was I upset when they raised their levels. Of course. Can I do anything about it? No.

While I may not be happy about these CO changes they really do not effect the vast amount of us in terms of redemption. I will miss the 500 mile booking bonus as that was about 5K a year for doing what I normally do anyway. I always use my CO MC so I get the 5% so I will continue to book on CO. com even without the bonus.

I will be less happy if the Standard Awards keep getting harded to find and if they get raised to higher levels for redemption. My accumulated miles on UA go much further than on CO and I am rapidly burning thru the UA miles before they get devalued. That will leave me with about 400K on CO and a lot of membership reward miles to transfer. CO works best for me out of EWR and I will stay with them.

Thanks COinsider as always for your sharing of information.

Cheers

Funny how the bad changes are sorted out so quickly while we wait and wait wait for the promised improvements. The �improvements are coming, we just have to finalize them� song has been sung many times over the past few years, and we are still waiting.

I seriously doubt the supposed improvements are announced by December 1, or by February 1. Just more vague words of �they are coming, we just have to finalize them�. The bad stuff can be told before it goes �live�, but not the good stuff.

Scott, if you�re not going to give me 500 miles for booking on co.com, will you finally start listing partner metal flights for full itineraries? Or is this part of the secret �coming improvements�?

Thank you for the advance on the news you did bring. If it ain�t on continental.com, does that mean the 60 or 30 days notice hasn�t started yet, since, surely, not every OnePass�er is a FlyerTalk member?

One last question, Scott - will reward booking of Emirates flights also be streamlined and transparent to CO�s agents?

No question. The fact is that one of the major causes of these devaluations is the breadth of the ST Alliance and the tremendous added demand (and cost) of integrating these frequent flyers.

It has been written many times how the ST Alliance is a two-way street, how CO ff's also benefit because we can book travel on so many other ST airlines. That is, in some respects self evident, except to the extent that not all passengers require itineraries on many of the international carriers.

In other words, many passengers from ST airlines are taking CO inventory while many CO passengers, now shut out of this CO inventory will never have a need for inventory on the ST partners.

At least there is some advance notice. On Feb. 25 I booked two business awards using US Airways miles to Southeast Asia for 90K each. Three days later the mileage went to 120K with no advance notice. This devaluation has been occurring since at least 1993 on all airlines. A problem with CO is that I rarely find an international business seat at what was the standard level. The past 5 years I used about a million CO miles for NW & KLM business award seats. Not once was I able to snag a seat on CO.

I agree that E+ can be a revenue bonanza, as witnessed by the healthy premium on such fares that I have seen on BA, VS, and SK, as well as rumblings that both BA and VS are looking to expand these cabins. However, their remains the open question about whether CO has the route and fleet mix to make this work. I struggle to see how CO could offer a meaningful upgrade in space on the 757s, without going 2-2. At that point, how do you differentiate BF? And will CO see a huge rush to E+ for what are often 6-7 hour TATL flights? At least to me, the $700 premium for E+ makes a lot more sense for a SFO-LHR leg than for a EWR-DUB leg.

And the above avoids the million-dollar question, which is whether CO's BF is good enough to prevent E+ from poaching BF customers. To offer something that would be competitive with BA or VS, you are looking at close to 40" of legroom and 20" of width. With BA or VS, they can dangle the flat bed carrot, which probably minimizes the impact somewhat, but CO can only offer a better product - not one as completely different as a flat bed.

I can think of a few ways they can keep the 757s 3-3 and still have E+. For one, more legroom. They lose a few rows but have 2-3 rows of extra legroom (I'd pay the premium). CO could also have more comfortable seats (leather maybe) and slightly better food.