That suggests the two of you fly a combined 300,000 butt-in-seat miles on CO per year. (25% * 300k = 75k). You can actually earn Platinum status with as few as 50k per person if you are fly on Y/H or first class fares. I would suggest you spread your business around to other carriers, that way when one of them makes an adverse change to their frequent flier program, you won't be so impacted.

Easy:
I try to be very cost conscious with my clients' travel dollars. I've applied discount codes, when eligible, and taken carriers that I otherwise would not prefer (i.e. US to CLT). I stay at mid-range hotels and use multiple search engines to find the best price. I apply discount codes to my car rentals and almost always rent compact cars. So I resent a suggestion that I am acting in my own interest instead of my clients'. All I was trying to illustrate is how, in many ways, CO has become uncompetitive in the intraTexas market.

CO's Y-fare used to always be the same MFE-AUS/SAT and vice versa. Now it seems, for some reason, they have recently raised it significantly to/from SAT but the Y-fare to/from AUS is still VERY competitive with WN's.

OT: I am assuming you are working soley at the county court house and not the federal court in McAllen?

On this I agree and for whatever reason it seems CO is willing to let everyone go WNs way. Or maybe CO thinks that people like you will be willing to Stick it to their Clients (not that that is what youd do) since its not them who will be paying out of their pockets for the flight/s.

All too often when a person is flying or staying at a Hotel on their Clients Dime, they will do whatever will benefit them w/o looking out if they could have done it cheaper and saved the Client any $$. Be it from flying WN over CO. Or staying at a Marriott instead of a *W Hotel, to renting from Thrifty instead of Hertz. I guess CO is betting that most people will still fly with them if CO is their preferred carrier no matter the cost, since its the Clients Dime

1. Because we are IAH based CO is far more convenient. 2. The MM program has given me reason to give CO more business. 3. I do have status on one other domestic and intl carrier. 4. I'm not going to start flying WN anytime soon
Trust me, I can handle the changes; I'm just not happy about it.

CO's YUP strategy does at times seem to be directed at shifting passengers into higher fares at client and company expense. Although the vast majority of my business flying is for the entity of which I am the owner, I do have a policy that when I am billing a trip to a client, I never buy non-refundable tickets. That policy is clearly stated on our engagement letters. Funny, I have never had a client call and tell me that it is willing to pay for non-refundable ticket and the penalties when I have to cancel or reschedule. I have seen routings for which CO's sole completely refundable fare is the YUP fare.

Even in those instances in which CO is selling a refundable B or H fare on the short haul Texas routes, frequently the difference between the refundable fare and the YUP is not significant.

Bottom line, I don't see that many opportunties for client or boss chiseling on CO on the short hauls out of IAH, unless the client / boss is willing to eat the cost of unused, non-fundable fares or the penalties for changes.

I made the mistake of buying a non-refundable fare one time for an out-of-state deposition. The refundable fares were absurdly high, so I thought I was doing the client a service by springing for the much less expensive non-refundable fare. Of course, as Murphy's Law would dictate, the deposition eventually got rescheduled because of a medical emergency involving the witness. My client was good enough to pay the change fees (which still would up being less expensive than the refundable fare), thanked me for being cost conscious, and then instructed me that I was always to purchase fully refundable fares no matter how expensive or how gross the discrepancy between the refundable fare and the lowest available fare.

I think those differences were from another era. CO kept those at a time when fixed costs were the most significant component of their total costs, and it made sense to chase market share. I don't believe that is any longer the case. Given their capacity cuts, I suspect CO agrees.

What I'm arguing is that these things could conceivably bring passengers, but they don't bring incremental revenue per passenger, or at least not as much incremental revenue as charging separately. With loads as high as they are, CO doesn't need more passengers right now, they need to raise the revenue from the passengers they do carry.

Very funny.

I agree. And I would be shocked if CO and the other carriers didn't move toward this method in the near future.

Im sure Larry thanks you for the future "cut" ideas

Ok so let me get this straight? We'll get the same bonuses at a Gold member and will now have to use more miles to fly to Hawaii? Seroiusly...i'm failing to see the increased costs anymore as Oil is going down and CO has reduced the flying just about everywhere? Is this more about aligning with UA?
No matter the fact, both of us are considering going to Delta this year...we don't like Star and we're not liking the "scr*w the customer" attitude at CO. Although I thank CO for their generousity over the years, my experiences lately have been basically a smidge better than US Airways.

The only awards relating to Hawaii that are changing are between Tel Aviv and Hawaii. That probably only matters to you if you live in one of those two places. Your profile doesn't hint at where you are.

What continues to BAFFLE me is the fact that CO and NW/DL were soooo far off on some items of their alliance...yet CO makes BONEHEADED moves, at a time when airlines are in a downturn, to "align with UA"???

It certainly "smells like" it is very much aligning OP with UA. These changes are very discouraging....silver elite is essentially worthless now as I can't see ever going for silver for the upgrades as they rarely happen. Everything else can be had for the price of the CO uber-credit card.

I wrote a letter critical of these changes but don't expect anything of it or other similar to it. Customer feedback is welcome when it aligns with what we're already thinking.

First, the 1-3-5 day upgrade windows are still in effect giving some benefit to Platinum. Second, with miles harder to get, if you can still manage to make your tier annually you can at least be assured that there will be fewer people at your level or above than previously thus giving you a better shot to get a complimentary automatic upgrade, presuming of course that CO doesn't get rid of those also.

Still, even though the new first and second bag rules don't apply to me due to my tier level, the fact that all these non-elites are now going to be carrying on everything they can get away with (we all know that one carry on bag and one personal item usually means two carry on bags and another shopping bag full of souvenirs). This will put a severe premium on overhead space if you don't arrive to your plane soon enough to board first with your fellow elites.

SM

My experience is on AA and the answer is no. People who have to check bags probably need to spend more time in line, but there are no delay issues, no problems boarding the aircraft, absolutely no discernible difference before and after the policy was put in place.


At certain airports, AA does have people screening the line; they'll send people back to the gate to check bags if they're too large. Elites and FC passengers aren't supposed to receive the same scrutiny.