larry, maybe you and your thousands of co-workers should value platinums as we spend hundreds of hours on your planes and thousands of dollars paying your salaries

It was interesting that CO Insider, the OP, said that this change could not be rolled out in August with the other changes. My question is WHY????? All sorts of answers come to mind.

I guess I thought CO was above the stupidity of taking a big fat dump on their best customers.

I guess I was wrong.

Why airlines think saving nickels per flight (which is what we're talking when we're talking miles) is going to do anything when they could be offering some sort of value added service that people will pay for is beyond me.

Airlines created the mess that they're in. And, apparently, they're not smart enough to get themselves out of it.

Dig up CO. Dig up.

Hi nycnnj, to clarify, the first bag fee applies to tickets purchased on or after Sep. 5 (and for travel on or after Oct. 7), so any tickets you bought before this date won’t be subject to the first bag fee.

Hi yellow77, unless otherwise noted, the elimination of the 500-mile minimum applies to all OnePass partners. Flights operated by Copa Airlines, Aero República, Hawaiian Air, Island Air, U.S. Helicopter and SNCF Rail will continue to earn a minimum of 500 miles. Amtrak minimum earnings will remain the same as well. I have updated my original post to make this clarification.

Actually, craz, for now we are (and at least we didn't call them "enhancements" this time). I can't say that we won't make minor adjustments over the next year (for better and for worse in the eyes of our customers). Such is the nature of this volatile business. I will say that based on the current environment, we have no further major program changes anticipated in the near future.

Hi CO 1E, I wouldn't bet any money on that.

Hi mht_flyer, we currently have no plans to do any of the above.

Hi radonc1, if you're eligible for the exemption, then everyone in your reservation will be given the exemption as well.

Hi CopperSteve, the first bag fee exemption applies to EliteAccess customers (e.g. Elites and Presidential Plus cardmembers) and any travel companions in the same reservation (excluding groups of 10 or more). The one exception is when your travel companions get divided out of your reservation (for example, to process your Elite upgrade). In these cases, we'll still allow the exemption.

Hi gbryan84, to clarify, the changes to the Elite bonus miles don't take effect until Mar. 1, 2009, so this particular trip shouldn't be impacted.

Believe it or not, spin88, our SaverPass reward redemption is at record levels (up more than 30% versus last year). Upgrade rewards are up significantly as well. As for reward availability on our partners, this isn't something we control or throttle. If one of our partners has reward availability to offer, we'll extend it to our OnePass members without exception.

As for systemwide upgrades (SWUs), we have no current plans. Nor do we have any current plans to discontinue unlimited free upgrades for all Elite tiers or raise our top Elite tier to 100,000 Elite Qualifying Miles.

As I sit at the IAH PC and read this doing a MR to ensure Plat status next year, I have the same question, just go for gold. Actually, I think it does'nt matter what airline you fly because in the end they will all be the same. CO had a great product that standed out but now they are like every other airline and being faithful doesn't matter.

CO - why not charge these fees to folks buying only the lowest fares? It's insulting to pay $700 to fly between EWR and DCA and then have to pay $15 to check my bag.

Then people would, maybe, purchase higher fares instead of always choosing the lowest fare. @:-)

Same with mileage bonuses and minimums. CO does this to an extent to drive bookings directly through CO - why not take it a slight step further?

Or, offer a JK like model. I know they're not a great example when it comes to a profitable airline, but they're onto something.

And, by the way, brilliant timing, announcing this on a day when oil is down 8% for the week. You guys must have really bad hedges.

Larry seems like a cool guy to me..Larry is having to make some hard choices and its not allways popular,but I think he is doing what he has to do to stay in business..Larry,if your reading this..I support your choices even though change can be hard to accept,I think your making prudent choices given what you have to work with..

Would have been nice to get at least one days notice before the changes came into effect so you could have planned your travel around it. Would be extremely poor form if you had someone book a ticket at 7am this morning for a flight in November and then find out 3 hours later they will be getting stung a $15 fee as well on the day they fly.

While I do not support the changes, especially the mileage bonus without adjusting for the golds. This could end up causing a thinning of the herd of plats. Since I am CLE based I am stuck, so I will look forward to more opportunities at EUAs in 2009 and 2010 from this.

I'm trying to come up with reasons, at the margin, to bother reaching Plat and only come up with 2:

1. Higher priority for upgrades. Might matter for:
a. Routes that are super elite-heavy
b. People who buy tickets between the Plat and Gold upgrade windows

2. No change fees on award tickets (I think) and some minor things. Matters for people who need to make a lot of dummy or frequently-changing award bookings.

In all seriousness, I think there are a few people who would benefit from the above, but not that many.

Hi radonc1, if you're eligible for the exemption, then everyone in your reservation will be given the exemption as well.


Thank you Scott for the quick response

Radonc1

Absolutely YES. I will be FedEx'ing my letter to Larry's attention to the 1600 Smith St address.

We certainly know Scott reads this forum (and perhaps Larry). While that's great, here's my challenge to everyone who has voiced their displeasue today--

Send a letter via courier to Larry's attention. We'll get more traction from a courier based letter campaign than simply posting here.

larry is a good guy, thats why i am baffled by the kick to plats. It is just a bad decision to lower the 125% bonus to 100% for platinums. I have no problem paying higher fares or fuel surcharges. However, to keep your best customers loyal it is a bad decision to give minimal benefits for achieving platinum status over gold. As you can see above many platinums are questioning the advantage of going for platinum vs. gold. my 2 cents

As annoyed I am by these changes, there are more changes that CO could have implemented but thankfully didn't. (maybe they will in the future! )

-eliminate meals at meal time for the Y cabin (I haven't seen many ads lately boasting this feature)

-eliminate pillows and blankets in Y;

-eliminate free booze and free wireless in the PC;

-increase redeposit fees to $100;

-eliminate mixing and matching of awards (saver Y award going out, EasyPass J coming home, for example). Lots of airlines currently don't allow this;

-eliminate elite bonuses when flying partners;

-reduce BF catering (one less main course choice maybe, downsize the cheese course, drop the grand marnier, for example);

So, although today's actions really left a bad taste in my mouth, I'm trying to keep things in perspective. They did, after all, throw us a few bones recently:

--Flyertalk DO
--PDA feature
--Million Miler program
--upcoming inflight internet access
--elimination of the dreaded BF 24 hour rule.

if 15 bucks 2 months from now is gonna cause problems then maybe that person shouldnt fly. i do not like the nickel and dime game either but we as flyers are to blame somewhat. as an athlete i can remember when flying was a way of life. didnt really care if we got our upgrades. didnt really care if i got 4 shrimp instead of 5, or the drink was in a plastic cup. it was a big step up from a bus. now the airlines are nothing more than busses with wings. everyone and their brother still wants to be treated like a king but god forbid they pay more than 99 bucks to fly to vegas. pay a little more expect a little less. i think that is what we are all gonna have to get used to. i have been flying steady for 26 years and have seen many changes. i honestly believe we will come to the point when an average joe cannot afford to fly. i think the industry has known this all along and this is why these events unfold like they do.