craz, good call on the TLV changes. I heard once that the EWR-TLV route is either the most profitable or one of the most profitable for CO. I guess they want to lose fewer seats to FF's or at least make the mileage threshold for the award level on par with the apparent value of the ticket. It's too bad though- it's a big jump!

i agree...even ma and pa kettle know that 'connection' can mean trouble, although they may not know the difference between 'direct' and 'non-stop'.

[QOUTE/

I do think the disappearance of the 500 mile minimum is rather extreme (though I can't recall the last such flight I took). If you're unhappy, let CO know more directly than by posting here![/QUOTE]

The 500 mile minimum is essentially saying to the folks who commute through Continental (particularly IAH to DFW, AUS, SAT, etc) that you would be better off flying Southwest. I know that's unpopular but over the last 6 months I've had schedule dictate Southwest and Frontier on two separate occasions and found them to be far easier and more convenient. I stay on CO for the FF benefits, but those are dropping fast. I usually fly Y or H fares for everything but am not a particularly long haul flyer. If I flew international a lot CO would be straight out due to the upgrade policy.

interesting point. do you really think it is the fare for most folks or convenience? i live in the ewr area and in fll. i'm pretty sure co is the only non stop between the two. also i fly ewr-las every six weeks. i believe co is the only non stop there also. i fly for pleasure so convenience is key. i would imagine business travelers might look to pinch pennies but they have schedules to keep. with fares changing so often and taxes for this, fees and surcharges for that, do you think most travelers(not educated members of this forum) would know the difference? i am not being sarcastic. this is a serious question.

Fast forward to today. AA no longer serves all those destinations. Only Chicago, Dallas, LAX, San Jose and Saint Louis.

STL is all eagle these days.

I can live with all but the Elite bonus for Plat being equal to Gold. No road warrior would give their bag to an airline anyway without it being absolutely necessary so the checked bag thing isn't that bad, at least for me.

Only getting miles flown only has little effect on me but
I find making the bonus miles for Plat and Gold the same insulting. Why become a Plat? Maybe just to get slightly ahead in the upgrade queue.

Theories on CO's reasoning have been discussed here but as a long time Plat member my intention is to write an email to CO to voice my displeasure with the change. Such petty changes make it harder to choose CO since the benefits of doing such are disappearing fast.

The new level is 90K for coach and 120K for businessFirst.

What I don't understand, though, is why they didn't eliminate series 10B altogether. Isn't it essentially the same as series 10 now?

I'm sure CO would be happy jettisoning most service to competitive markets (as it has with OAK, for example) and focusing on hub to high fare markets and hub to spoke city pairs where it has a monopoly.

Thanks for catching that, I was looking at EP for Asia, and also meant to say it was bad enough at 140k for a Coach EP when AA is 130k for Biz, of cause CO was 70k for coach now 90k.

yet Asia remains at 60k and 120k EP

so between the 25% less in bonus miles and having to be ripped off for 20k more in miles. It doesnt make sense to fly CO any longer if a person will be doing X # of trips to TLV.

This has been my position on bag fees all along. But the airlines are convinced that they have to do it on the back end, rather than up front.

And yes, the airline that doesn't tack on tons of fees is going to look like the good guy and come out ahead. Right now that airline is WN, and I think it will continue to be. But I sure wish it was CO that would use some common sense and be that airline.

They could have reduced the little amount of seats they already have on it as free seats.

CO is lucky that they are dealing with Israelis , who live for today, and have personal debts, that would cause any normal American to take a jump. So they might not care as much.Although I know a few peopel who amassed a sizeable amount of Miles and due to never being able to get a free BF seat at the Standard levels (BTW they flew in paid BF accuring the miles) left and are flying on other Carriers. But they fly on their own Dime or should I say their companys Dime but they are the company so its the same pocket.

Once it gets around that they will earn less miles due to less bonus miles and need to cough up more miles for the freebe, I expect a number will revert back to LY or any other carrier

Totally agree.

"...focusing on hub to markets where it doesn't have to compete* with a LCC."

I actually don't think DL is going to cave:

1) DL is already trying to make up for the $0 First bag charge by charging $50 for the 2nd bag. If one checks 2 bags, the fee is $50, compared to $40 at others like CO ($15 for 1st + $25 for 2nd).

2) DL does not allow elite qualification by segments; if they took the 500 mile min away, the short-haul traveler will have absolutely zero incentive to fly DL.

You should check your math, it's not a 25% reduction in the number of RDM's, it's only about 11%. If you fly 1000 BIS miles, as a Plat you earn 2250 RDMs today. With the changes you will earn 2000. 11% less. Oh, and by the way, this change makes your existing miles more valuable. Less currency out in the marketplace. Lower inflation over time.

I stand corrected.