Same for me as a Plat though with 120K so far expecting now 175-200k with DEQM, why go for plat when GE is the same in *A for Intl travel. We discussed this in another thread so no need for anyone to reply, its my particular travel habits.

But we have EWR and ....well EWR.

I have also heard this at the DO and it seems to me CO will not go that route, time will tell but my money is on no *net blocking.

Kudos to CO Insider for stopping back a few times today to answer questions on the improvements to OP, we all know that he is extremely busy yet he stopped back 3-4 times today to reply. I see that in another unnamed forum, that an Insider there posts then comes back weeks later, some of the members are quite upset at that and even his presentation of the changes. Keep up the great work Scott, we really appreciate the presence that you bring here on FT. We may not get everything changed the way we want it but at least we know that CO is listening to the population out here. My 2 cents, Kudos dude.

Overall, the changes look positive. The biggest negative, will be the Emirates loss. I booked a F flight earlier this year, for December, and counted on that flight to put me over the hump to retain Platinum.

I can say it is quite refreshing to have a reasonable discussion with an airline representative. No hit and run PR announcements, and changes that are mainly positive for elite members.

You're only losing EQMs, and those were only on the 5 flights anyways. It is a loss, but not a huge one IMO.
Well, the DEQMs on your connecting flights might make up for it. :-:

Fantastic, Scott! Rumor has it that we are about to switch to a travel agency for all corporate bookings, and I was already mourning kissing Plat goodbye. I'm breathing much easier now.

So far so good...for the most part. I only wish the redemption chart resembled US more than it does UA. (Now that's the only thing I think that is enviable over at US )


Be careful what you wish for.....a new higher tier might look like the 'old plat' only at a cost of 25K extra EQM DL elites are experiencing a new Diamond level that looks a lot like their plat of a few years ago.

Well I wish this went in effect last week. I also missed out on the deqm as well.

I have 23k miles. I just flew IAH-CDG (half points) last week. Then I had a flight on AF CAY-CDG for 4400 miles (100% points) on 09-08 (deqm starts 09-09) and then CDG-IAH (no miles) 09-09. Now I am not silver and I have a flight IAH-PHX next week for double miles which would get me silver. Then I have a flight on Saturday on KLM IAH-AMS-OSL. So I hope to get deqm. I need to call and pay the fare difference to get the higher fare class to get the double points on the way back.

I said all that to say, I am so happy that I can get 100% miles on the cheap tickets and not booking through co.com because my company uses Griffin Travel. Ugh!!!

You will not. It is CO/CS/CM/CoEx/CoCo only.

That makes me feel better about the AF flight that I had on 09/08. LoL!!! I am going to call tomorrow and ask for a bump to silver since I will make it on my next flight on Thursday.

Goodie! I get EQMs on award flights! I must have missed that note on the new features.

One thing that I would like to see...but am not holding my breath...is full elite bonus miles on all international flights covered under the ATI. For example, AC's TATL flights earn no RDM bonus...only LH, US and UA flights get the RDM elite bonus on UA MP.

Kind of worthless for CO to be in this big ATI with all the other carriers like AC, BMI, LOT, Swiss, etc and CO elites don't want to take those flights because they'll be hit with no elite RDM's. Skyteam folks aren't used to this ugly reality in Star. I know myself I won't fly TATL if I don't get my MP elite RDM bonus...maybe I'm a minority because I'm such a miles ho--but a lot of you are just as bad

Nothing is more annoying than getting no elite bonus RDM on a long flight

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Full Elite Qualification is back. Effective Oct. 27, you�ll earn 100% Elite Qualification Miles and full Elite Qualification Points on discounted fares, regardless of where they�re purchased. To all of our loyal corporate travelers: message received

Scott you are my freakin hero! Thanks for listening to us!

No, I'm not wishing for it. I just don't want to miss out if it does happen. Since we're completely on our own dime, CO is much more attractive at 75K than the competition at 100K. It also works out that CO is best for our destinations, just lousy for EUA's.

If if does happen, I don't believe that it will just be a DL type of move. It is very apparent that the 75K Plat and associated benefits will stay the same for 2010 so anything associated with a 100K level would be additional.

With this DEQM, Mrs. SG will be at 93,400 EQM and if we have to, we'll do our 1st MR of the year to get her to 100K. We'd rather not since that would also put us over budget for the year by a few $.

With all due respect, this policy has been in place for what, 5-6 years now, and CO has steadfastly defended it each time when questioned.

It's only becuase of the UA hook-up that they're changing course here. If anything, you should probably thank UA for setting them straight on this one.

45 segments x 750 EQMs per segment = 34,500 EQMs. The new system has 60 segments x 750 EQMs per segment = 45,000 EQMs. The fact of the matter is that we short hoppers are putting much fewer BIS miles than someone who has to fly 75,000 miles. Since most of the RJ flights I take gives me little choice in the class of service I fly (i.e. it usually is Y because there is nothing else offered for one day flights during the week), I think that CO is still making out like a bandit. Thats good for them, bad for me (or my clients).

You're right here with the UA tie-up being the biggest catalyst... I think that the economy helped too. We started to see some 'cracks' in the policy with reports of certain corporate flyers tied to their corporate travel office being granted 100% EQMs on all fares--this appeared to be some type of negotiated agreement between CO and the companies. I think that CO started to realize that they couldn't leave any corporate travel money behind...even the corporate flyer on the cheapie fare. They had probably seen some of this business go to the competition due to 50% EQM.