USAir even allows routing changes for no fee, as long as U keep the same airline(s). But on an award ticket involving another *A airline, once U fly the outbound, no changes are allowed to the return--full stop! :td:

I'm so happy that I now have goose-egged my CO acct. :D! Got rid of my last 5K in May to my tCC--TP's AGR!

The $150 change fee is really going to hurt on a saver level domestic 25K ticket, as that'll be half or more the cost of most. Also, seems like if you go with easypass and pay double miles, you should be able to make changes for free like you can on most full fares. FF miles are clearly depreciating assets in today's times, and it's hard to fault CO for following the lead of others in responding to the challenging economics of the increased value of what FF miles are paying for these days. At least they are not leading the way.

Drain those accounts fast before OnePass is bye bye.
I predict 2011 it's gone or maybe even before then.

Hope you don't have money riding on that prediction :)

I predict the World will come to an end on Dec 21 ,2012 so yes, drain those OnePass accounts :p

The more I read about the various FF program changes, the more I think that US based airlines MUST move toward a program that rewards $ spent and not miles flown.

I know, I know, it's been debated ad nauseum but it's really the only way. Every other affinity program (read SPG, AMEX, etc) gives you a point per dollar and no-one complains. It's the only logical way to reward loyalty.

I've gone from zero to Global Services on UA in 7 months. There are real and tangible benefits to the GS program level, and it's based SOLELY on my spend. And yes, it should bump me to the front of the line for just about everything.

I vacillated for a long time whether to allocate my July 1 - Dec 31 spend on CO this year. I would easily make Platinum. However, the COPAY is completely bogus for top-spenders. I purchase front cabin every time so the domestic upgrades are immaterial.

However, when Mr & Mrs climmy travel for liesure, we buy coach and I can't justify the added expense of upgrading.

So here's a thought, COinsider:

• ADD a fourth level for high-spenders (that way you keep the masses happy having a mile-based program).
• Give the top spenders a few SWU's or, if you prefer to call it as such, vouchers redeemable for the copay.

There are simply no downsides to a change such as this. You're potentially adding $50K+ spenders to the onepass ranks by offering, say, 3-4K in upgrade incentives. That's a pretty good ROI.

:confused: How so? They let you upgrade any fare class. NW, DL and UA are much more restrictive in this sense.

I just meant that they offer no free upgrade instruments whatsoever. UA, AA, DL, and I think also NW at high mileage levels, all offer some form of SWU.

Sure, you can always upgrade with miles+cash, but this is something that doesn't really reward elite status at all -- anyone can do it. Further, it's really expensive: $500 + 20,000 miles each way is a total cost (if you figure say 1.5c/mile) of $1600 for a r/t upgrade. So sure, you can upgrade from any fare class, but it costs so much that it's basically the same as having just bought an H or R fare to begin with. In other words, the basic effect of the copay is to force you to buy up from that cheap fare to a more expensive one -- i.e. make it such that there are really no upgrades from cheap fares.

No, the problem, IMHO has nothing to do with the SPG Amex. It's the fact that, for example, hotels that were Category 5 and required 12,000 points per night last year were "upgraded" to Category 6 this year and now require 20,000 points per night. The cash room rates did NOT increase 67% year-over-year, so the points are worth less now.

Are you really that blind to think those miles can't similarly be devalued? The hotel industry has only just begun to enter a period of pain; fortunately for them the direct impact of fuel costs is small, but now the demand side of the equation is really starting to weaken. Of course the dynamics are different as most of the hotel brands don't actually own many hotels (Marriott owns only five hotels today out of 3,000 in the system), but enough screaming from the owners and we're likely to see more of the same.

Well, technically you're wrong. On CO there ARE upgrades from cheap fares, they just end up costing the same $ as an upgrade from an expensive fare. On UA/DL/NW, if you or your company previously purchased a cheap fare then you CAN'T UPGRADE AT ALL. If you want to up-fare to a higher upgradeable class, they're likely to try and extract a change fee on top of the implicit co-pay. CO definitely seems more flexible to me. And on AA, the upgrade co-fee is not tiered, so if you are on a very expensive but still non-Y/B fare, you pay the same co-pay as someone on a cheapo (though there are a few fares that are not upgradeable at all).

SWUs are a whole other topic, IMHO. I think announcing SWUs for Plats now would be like poking another stick in the eye of Golds and Silvers... ;)
Keep in mind that CO Plats do have expanded award availability (I know AA has this as well for ExecPlats, not sure about the others). It's definitely come in handy for me to get 3 family members into BusinessFirst for free, while I just buy the $2,000 "R" fare to Europe. Really hard to complain when AA/DL wanted $2,700 for the same route.

Ugs is useless,as I get those same bennies as an ac super elite' ua rcc's suck and so do most of their f lounges. They realized that 1k's were so valubale that they brought back a large % of the bennies they lost because ugs werent a high enough % of revenue. All you get is a special number and card saying how gullible you are to pay full board on a below average airline.

That almost sounds like a personal attack but no matter.

Either way, your post sounds pretty personal in nature. Have you been a GS member? If you haven't I would contend you can't possibly speak to the benefits.

This entire thread is about just that: FF benefits. Who mentioned anything about RCC's or first lounges?

Please start a new thread if you need to but stay on topic.

IMHO, one of the best benefits for UA UGS is the ability to upgrade award tickets using the CR-1 and SWU vouchers.

I can remember when NW extended Platinum upgrades to award tickets. Do they still do this or has that been removed?

Yes, an NW PE is still eligible for EUA on an award ticket. It is one of the nicer perks. Safe travels!:)