CO 1E

Exactly.

FlyerInCmh

Since airlines in the US have "enhanced" the FF programs with fees and reductions in bonuses, I have no loyalty to a particular airline anymore. Now, with the new changes in CO, I have no reason to stick with CO. From CMH, you pretty much have to connect anyway to go anywhere but the hubs (and just a few other cities). I'll base my decision based on price for domestic flights -- they're all about the same anyway. For international trips, I fly foreign airlines.

tommy777

I'm not doing anything as of right now. I have 1K secured for next year and will play it by ear. The difference is that I'm not going out of my way to fly CO. I want to wait and see what happens to the RCC/President's Club "cooperation". If CO closes the ORD club and other clubs where UA have RCC, I NOT renewing my PC membership.

BD Gold is my savior for my many, many expensive, short hops under 500 miles. I get 600 EQM + bonus on UA when registering to BD, I'm sure CO will give the same points. Getting BD Gold is only 38K a year, so piece of cake.

What CO have done here is pretty severe, COs FFP is now worse than UA. What I'm really puzzled by is why they make Platinum and Gold exactly the same The bonus earnings for Premier Exec and 1Ks are exactly the same on UA, but you bank 6SWUs and CR1s + some other goodies. On CO there's absolutely no motivation to go for Plat. Sure, you get exempt from some fees, but not all fees. On UA you get a confirmed seat on the day of departure for free, you don't have to pay the confirmed stand by fee. On CO you have to pay, even as Plat. Gold get the same discount....

As for priority when it comes to upgrades and irr ops, it's great to have 1K on UA, you are guaranteed a seat in F or C on pretty much any flight. But on CO, not so much..

So list me up some reasons why I should remain Plat? Remember, I already have 3 X Star Gold (1K, SKEBG and BDGold)

MBM3

Your point is valid, yet one does need to look at the reduction of miles that they will have in their account to even redeem an award. I think the fee increase also sucks, yet it does not affect me like a 25% reduction in elite bonus miles as that change hits me with each and every flight. Given my anticipated long haul travel schedule for the year, this change will not be a small one for me. Am I giving up on CO? Not at all, but I am going to explore my options much more than I have done in the past.

Catbert10

I shifted my primary allegiance to AA last year. I still find CO to be a marginally better airline than AA, but OnePass has been so gutted by Smith Street over the last few years that I find AAdvantage to be head and shoulders above OnePass. LK et al. have obviously decided that a loyalty program structured for elite flyers no longer makes sense for Continental. Long term loyalty is no longer rewarded; “What have you done for me lately” is the operational mantra.

My reasons for moving:

• The 50% EQM for non website bookings. IMHO, the really hurts the business traveler required to use a corporate travel agency far more than it affects the buying habits of occasional leisure travelers. The Kettles don’t really care about the 50% EQMs when booking through Expedia. The week-in, week-out traveler who books travel in advance through a travel agency most certainly cares.
• The pricing and structuring of Y-Ups, so that the occasional CO customer, who is Silver, is prioritized over Plats who must purchase the cheapest available fare. Sure, other airlines offer Y fares that book into FC, but most of these fares are marketed as cheap FC fares, and are therefore unavailable to corporate travelers who must book into Y. If someone travels to and from non-hub airports, one Y-up a quarter earns CO Silver, and the right to instantly upgrade over Plats and Golds on other fares. A system that rewards once a quarter customer over every week customers is not a system designed to reward long-term loyalty. Again, other airlines offer these fares, but CO makes it so much easier than other airlines.
• The manipulation of E (originally R) inventory to prevent EUAs. As noted by many posters on this board, CO has been known to move inventory out of the EUA upgrade bucket to during the EUA period to avoid giving out EUAs, then putting the inventory back in for mileage upgrades. To me, this communicates that CO doesn’t really want to reward elite travelers.

I had planned on re-qualifying for Plat, but only after re-qualifying for AA EXP. Now, I’ll probably settle for Gold and not sweat it. As an AUS based traveler, the lack of 500 mile minimums really hurts. Moreover, the lowering of Plat benefits makes Gold a more acceptable alternative.

CO has proven it doesn't have any loyalty to me and my type of flying. I returned the favor. Does CO care? Of course not. CO rationally decided not to reward my type of business. I rationally decided to take my business elsewhere.

fozz

While I agree with what a lot of folks have said about these not being drastic changes, my biggest concern is that it just demonstrated to the collective community that CO is a) no longer a leader in fighting against the idiotic changes and b) that as a customer, i suddenly feel betrayed.

Will this change affect me much? No. But, for me, to me there is a substantial devaluation to Plat. 90% of my flights are full Y, so my upgrades are instant just like Gold and Silver. So, the one key differentiator for me, the 125% bonus, is gone.

While there are other benefits as a Plat, namely the reward redeposit/change fee issue, it rarely does me much good as i don't change my rewards all that much.

As a UA 1K, i can often have my change fee waived, I get SWUs and I've even have them open up reward/upgrade seats for me on flights with no seats. (When was the last time you saw CO do that?)

Will I leave CO? No. But honestly, for me, there is no difference between Gold and Plat now. This is my biggest bone with these changes, the Platinum level is getting closer and closer to Gold and gives one little incentive to truly get to Plat (unless you do a lot of reward travel). At this point, CO has encougaged me to considering acquiring status in another carrier.

Overall, i'm just really disappointed. I'm glad to hear that Scott and crew fought these changes, but that leaves me wondering who pushed for these changes and do they even understand what it has done/will do?

Now, if i get SWUs or BF fee waivers in exchange for this, i'm on board. hint, hint.

LoveChef

I think I am going to stay, but just to the plat level for some of the reduced junk fees but I will shift some of my biz to VX and WN. I have once a month trips to DC and NYC and VX is so much cheaper, I feel guilty when I book the CO flight and bill it to the company.

So I do see some benefit of remaining plat, but if my work changes I will just be happy with the 1MM benefits and take the cheapest carrier.

From NYC

1 - My interest in switching airlines has been increasing with each diminution of the OP program under Kellner. This is not a “Oh, I was fine with everything they did till now, but I’m suddenly really ticked off by this.” It’s a question of how much of this sort of thing am I willing to put up with till I go elsewhere. These changes moved me a lot closer to going, but I’m going to wait a bit and see what happens post-DL/NWA and how UA-CO align. The fact that there wasn’t a bone of any kind thrown at the same time.... Not good.

2 - Lemme see, CO raises award amounts, but then chooses to decrease the amount I’ve been used to earning, and you don’t see that as a possible grind? And compare the amount of money someone would have to spend, especially now for those not getting the 500 mile minimum anymore, to get from Gold to Plat, with the increase in change fees that someone may incur, but only if they actually have to change dates. I’m not sure the cost-benefit factor comes down on CO’s side here.

3 - Allied with this is the fact that I’m just really tired of hearing my friends who’ve been with AA or UA talk about how they upgraded on an int’l flight despite paying a cheap fare simply because of their status, or because they had an SWU. CO management stubbornly refuses to bring this into the program while they cut earnings capability and they charge me more?!

4 - The 1st bag charge is just idiotic for CO to implement. I like the explanation in the other thread where someone compared the retail world with what airlines do. I’m curious to see how CO handles the extra boarding time it will take with all the extra bags that will be brought on board, whether they somehow manage to gate check tag them before boarding or anything else. Perhaps it’s preferable to have extra manpower at each gate to supervise this; that’ll be a true cost saver/revenue enhancer! Any further delays in getting a plane away from the gate and on the way does affect me, and I really believe that will be the outcome of this.

So, as I stated in #1 - for me, the anger I feel and the interest I have now in really seeing what other programs offer in comparison has been growing over the last year, and this latest insult pushes me that much closer. I completely understand that it has pushed some folks over the edge. Don’t look at it as just this one thing that’s caused the reaction.

I never used to bother with the other programs, but no more. I’m Million Miles, so I’ll have Elite access for the rest of my life (till that gets cut). But CO’s constant belittling of my status is not the way to keep me sending them money. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m surprised that I find myself right at the edge of it.

From NYC

So you claim that “there’s some relief coming down the pipeline”? Well, according to Scott’s answers in the main thread on this subject, there are no plans to reduce mileage reward amounts, nor to provide SWU’s, or the other things that UA has that CO doesn’t, so I cannot imagine what else there could be that would make up for it. Perhaps getting rid of co-pays on upgrade awards; I don’t think that was knocked down specifically by Scott yet.

Besides, if your statement is true, just how badly handled was this announcement?! Many of these changes won’t take affect until March 2009. So why announce them now and get everyone really ticked off without offering up the relief that’s supposedly not quite ready yet?! Why not have Scott say something like you did in his statement? Remember the statements that CO was looking into a million mile status well before it was announced, and the possibility that the 72-hour, then 24-ban on int’l upgrades was being explored? Nothing like that here.

Sorry, not buying it until Scott says so.

And, just as an aside, and not something that adds to the dismay I’m feeling, but I have not received an email from Mark, as others have apparently, about the changes I read about in this forum. But, then, why would I?: I’ve only been a OP member for over 20 years, am Million Mile and have been top level elite for a long time. Barely worth an email, right?

Knuckleheaded.

SAT Lawyer

Before the changes, I had decided to cast my lot with the CO side of the CO-NW divorce. As a SAT-based flyer, I was already flying CO heavily on my domestic full-fare and refundable-fare business travel. Much of that business travel is between San Antonio and Houston and San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley.

Now, it appears that I chose foolishly. I think I will return to WN for my intraTexas, refundable-fare business travel needs and discounted-fare leisure travel needs (no change fees!) and NW [DL] for my medium-haul business and leisure travel and long-haul leisure travel.

With my elite qualifying mileage earnings cut by 50% or more on my intraTexas travel, I could easily go from a Platinum on CO to a Silver if I don't increase my aggregate flying. Not only would my chances of getting upgraded take a monumental hit, but even worse, when flying in coach, where I would often be relegated, I could no longer assure myself the consolation prize of an exit row seat. On top of that, the cost of an OnePass award will have effectively doubled even if I somehow manage to boost my flying to retain Platinum status with 25% less bonus mileage and the mileage bonus being multiplied by the actual miles flown, not the 500-mile minimum. And if I slump down to Silver elite status, the award redemption value proposition becomes much, much worse than that.

These changes are dreadful for me.

MarkXS

There's no such thing as a standard "*A award chart". Each airline sets its own award level for *A awards. Just compare redemption levels between UA, US, TG, AC, LH, BD for example. Especially for premium cabin awards and international awards.

All *A airlines have to offer *A awards. They don't have to charge the same number of miles for them. In fact at least a couple of *A programs (NZ and JK) don't even have the concept of "miles" (nor kilometers) at all - they use "points" which do not map directly to miles.

Back closer to the topic: How do people think things will balance out between those of us who got matched to CO from UA due to disgust with recent UA policies, vs. those who are fleeing CO due to disgust with these new CO policies? I'm looking at CO to be my primary 2009 program which is why I got the Plat match and bought my Q1 travel on it, while I finish earning on already-purchased UA flights through 12/2008 and squeak back into 1K one last time. Then I planned on Burn-UA while Earn-CO. Now I'm not sure either; until the *A membership of CO is locked-in with a timeframe I want to keep at least mid-level on one and low-level on the other for all the fee waivers, but I do want to keep some status in an ongoing Skyteam program as well (e.g. the NewGlobalWorldOrderAirline DL/NW). I think max I'm flying next year is 100K and I don't want to burn 100K just into UA, given its downgrades lately. I'm mostly a domestic flyer on paid tickets and international on awards, so giving up the UA SWUs for the following year is ok with me.

If CO could clear up just when they'll join *A it would make 2009 plans a lot easier to make. Of course I guess we have to wait for the 9/25 NW and DL shareholder meetings where the merger *will* be approved, and then the final USA govt. approvals before we could get a date. But from how I read the original UA/CO agreement announcement, it sounded like UA and CO were going to codeshare and allow reciprocal FF earnings possibly before full CO *A membership, via a bilateral UA/CO deal. Any rumor updates?

theblakefish

As one who flies probably 60% intrastate Texas flights, I will still fly some routes on CO...IAH-ELP, for example, since it is >500 miles. However, I see no real reason to bust my tail by connecting through IAH when I can fly direct on WN. CO's penchant for cancelling any and all RJ flights at the first sign of rain whilst WN runs like a top was a big hassle, but I made do. Now, with the elimination of the 500 mile standard, methinks that WN will get a bit of my business. I hate WN, and they don't fly to Amsterdam!!! However, the incentive to fly CO in Texas while connecting at IAH is just gone. I will still fly CO for all flights outside of 500 miles, and CO flies into a lot of smaller airports that WN does not...but this is it!! Why would anyone fly out of, say CLL (like yours truly) just to get the extra miles when it will be like 75 miles? Guess those days are over.....

theblakefish

I might have to give AA a look now.....and I HATE DFW!!!

Steph3n

I won't dare fly AA except my last reward tickets next month, they don't get me anywhere ON TIME.

If I fly legacy it will still be CO but JetBlue and Southwest will certainly enter my domestic plans a lot more.

J.Edward

The two that come to mind are reduced fees and higher upgrade percentages. But as a fellow Plat/1K I get where you're coming from (especially with BD.) Both of those things I get as a Plat I use on a regular basis and will be the first to admit if the upgrades stopped (a la transcons) or I did not need to change/redeposit awards than I too would seriously question the point of CO Plat.

Some more thoughts:

If we see CO align with the rest of *A than this would be the theoretical levels base on what we now know:Not much to separate Plat from gold beyond the EUA window if Gold gets *G (don't know either way but that's what precedent would suggest.)

Similarly when compared to UA 1kDisregarding route networks for a second, UA seems to offer far more for the "extra" 25,000.