sbm12

I'd say that it just dropped exactly $200.

Seriously, though, the co-pays are a tough bullet to bite. They basically price almost every discount European BF experience the same, be it an X++, and H++ or the R sales. All of them come out to be about $1600-2500, depending on the route, plus a lot of miles on the upgrade approach. I don't think that the price is entirely unreasonable, even with the increases. Then again, I'm flying Y on my upcoming trip to/from Europe, so my opinion might not actually count as much.

craz

The 1 good thing about that $150 redeposit fee on free tkts, is after 8/17 people wont simply cash in figuring if they dont use it they will simply redeposit or change dates etc. Now when someone cashs in they will want to be 100% sure they will actually use what they book or they wont book. Assuming CO doesnt play around with offering less award seats, then we should be seeing in time more availability.

The $100 for an 'H' isnt the end of the World especially if they leave the 150% EQMs intact, dont know how anyone could earn 50% of the EQMs paying only $100 for the same amount of EQMs on a reg tkt.I dont think CO has any fare with all the txs that is $100 and if they do Im sure all a person will earn is the min of 500 miles. OK a r/t is $200 but even at $200 theres no many places that will earn you as many EQMs for that same $200, Im talking about Intl routings

As a Plat that already requalified for '09 these changes wont cost me much if anything at all. But Im sure it wont be too long before CO starts with Fees that will cost everyone and dearly to boot

Vulcan

Actually, the rise in in-cabin pet fees to $125/pet/OW will impact me more. I can live with the newly announced OP changes, but the new pet fees are something else

Edited to add:
Since the incabin pet fee is now $250 RT, it is more than I pay for my seat to/from Florida. So, why should I not get a seat for each of the cats? At least all 4 of 'us' will be a little more comfortable?

PSU Mudder

assuming it's must-go travel. I've cleared 100K out of my account before for spontaneous weekend getaways for the family. Now those seats will go empty and the 100K will remain on the books. But if their math shows they gain more from the must-gos than they lose from the can-gos, so be it, I understand that.

bocastephen

Good grief - let's not take a jump off the deep end here. I don't like the fee increases either, even though I'm exempt from most of them. I especially don't like the H fare BF surcharge, as any thoughts I had around an Asia trip were predicated on finding a H fare-based upgrade. Now that ticket just jumped by $200 OTOH, it might make finding said upgrade easier.

CO isn't doing anything all of it's competition hasn't already done - and frankly, most of these changes are less draconian than some of the competition. If I was paying these fees and getting a US-style product, I'd probably be upset and find other pastures - but I'd rather see a small set of fees added than not do the fees and find out some of the key tenets of our program are overhauled, like copays for domestic upgrades, or a loss of other benefits/product value.

All things considered, it could have been worse. Again, I'm not happy with these changes even though most of them don't affect me - with CO's joining the fee-fray, it's probably the final nail in the coffin of any industry resistance to this new pricing model.

I DO think that Golds should have been either exempt from some of the fees or offered a lower pricing tier - Plats and Golds as a combined community are still the meat and potatoes of CO's consistent revenue stream.

baglady

Scott, thank you for posting despite it being bad news. CO, thanks for protecting PLATS the best you can and giving something for our loyalty. I hate all the fees and hope there are not more to come.

CO 1E

If the choice is between taking an international vacation in J using miles but waiting until a few weeks before to pick the actual flights, and not going at all or shelling out quite a bit of cash for tickets on short notice, I would imagine the vast majority of people would be willing to pay the close-in fees.

Totoro

When the new policy states that fees "will increase effective Aug. 17, 2008," am I interpreting correctly that these changes take effect that day regardless of reward travel ticketing date?

I too am not happy about the new $150 reward travel change/redeposit fee.

In any case, I gleaned 2 small positive aspects of the OP program preserved in the new rules. (1) no fuel surcharge, and (2) no ticketing fee for reward travel 21 days in advance. While we will end up paying more on the other fees, at least OP still offers the opportunity of completely free travel. Compare this with other airlines' ticketing fees and fuel surcharges on ALL reward travel.

channa

Agreed. This is significant.

While the higher fees aren't pleasant, it's good they did it this way.

bocastephen

Very good point! This change is a not a complete match of, or validation of the changes implemented by other carriers - CO will still continue to offer totally free reward travel (except taxes/govt fees), while much of the competition will not.

I hope once implemented, CO looks into the potential for marketing this product differentiation. Obviously they can't make the same 'no fee' claim that WN does, but they can still point out that miles actually equal free travel on CO.

PSU Mudder

Agreed -- strategically speaking, this is the time for CO to slam the competition. They've shown they can outperform the legacies by essentially breaking even while maintaining higher service and lower fees as everyone else is hemorrhaging. Time to at least launch a national ad campaign and maybe see if there is an airline (cough US cough) where they can go in for the kill and reduce industry capacity.

OptionsCLE

I'm very disappointed by the additional close-in ticketing fees and the change/redeposit fees. This news comes only 3 days after I booked $500+ worth of CO flights before year end to keep my Elite status. To me, Silver was worth it for the upgrades (I've done quite well,) priority boarding, reduced bag fees, and primarily the additional reward inventory/reduced fees. Now that those are gone, I’m wishing I’d taken the cheaper flights on Delta and NW and ditched CO’s 100% EQM’s.

I understand that fees need to rise, but CO has just alienated all of its Silvers and Golds. I’ll have to take a closer look at DL’s fees now and consider a status match.

From NYC

I, too, am disappointed by the H fare upgrade co-pay. If CO had some sort of SWU system for Plats, which I am, or for a higher level, which I probably wouldn’t make consistently, then I wouldn’t mind. I do appreciate the sparing of Plats on some of the new fees.

Perhaps a reduced BF upgrade co-pay for Plats, at some or all fare levels, as recognition for all the flying and spending we do on CO, if you’re not going to give out SWU’s?

Just a thought. Might give some folks a little additional incentive to get to Plat.

Thanks, Scott, for continuing to give us the scoop, good or bad.

nycnnj

Please remember that silver and gold elites are loyal and high-spending customers, too, and that they shouldn't be squeezed too hard. It seems now that elite perks are being reduced except for platinums, but many of us other elites have maintained status for a long time and continue to fill the coffers. It is understandable that the airline industry is facing serious challenges, but don't bite the hands that feed you, or you'll be left with only platinums and non-loyal and non-high-spending customers.

ConciergeMike

I like this idea too...hotel points are not getting slaughtered like airline miles are as far as value. IMO, the solution is to have your hotel card of choice, and something like a Discover Miles card.