IMO EK should have come to some deal with a 3rd party pay-in lounge, maybe half usual price for EK silvers. Or 2000 miles compensation would be fairer than the mean 1000 offered. They have not dealt with this well at all, as goodwill is very important to maintain their frequent flyers like me.

Any company can do pretty much whatever they like to their customers, I'm not trying to present an argument based on the technicality of it.

As a customer, I would be somewhat more sympathetic to the airline if, let's say, out of 6 million members 4 million suddenly became Silver. Not so much if over a period of time the number grew, while it remained the same as a percentage of the total Skywards base. Then I'd ask the question - while expanding their network, why didn't they think about their frequent flyers?

My viewpoint is that of consumer mindset, not airline bottom line. Perhaps DXB wanted another $50 bn for another lounge, I don't know, but as a clueless, average customer, I would feel hard done by.

Silver members traveling in First and Business Class can continue to enjoy the lounge access benefits provided by their class of service.

I don't disagree with your argument. We could argue that when has EK ever thought about their frequent flyers? I mean, a two tiered program is hardly competitive...and I would be the first to agree that EK has hardly innovated in the loyalty management area.

Just as Silvers have every right to be annoyed with the removal of their lounge benefit, Golds have the same right to be annoyed at having their guest benefit removed as well.

For the first time in a long-time, I know I am personally going to think about pushing business blindly to EK in 2013 because while my earn rate is ok, there is absolutely zero incentive to continue to fly with them post 50K tier miles. But that's another argument.

I'm quite surprised at the level of interest in this subject. We closed the original thread. And it regenerated itself. Again. I'm more than happy for the conversation to continue and we did raise this with EK when Zol and I saw them earlier this week in DXB.

? So...? What's the frequent flyer relevance?


It's the one class up privileges that loyalty cards tout, taking one away will obviously cause annoyance. In all my years of being Gold/silver on *A and OW , I've never had FFP lounge privileges entirely withdrawn at hub.

Most reasonable seasoned travelers know that EK is not a best in class premier airline outside F any more. I'm not saying their business model is not successful, quite the contrary, when they seem to target people who will pay J/F prices but seem to value the car service... ... I may not get it but EK does, there are loads of them, judging from threads here, even in F!


But why ppl continue to fly EK and complain so much when it's apparent with humungous empirical evidence that FFs simply don't figure in EKs ( very succesful) game plan, is beyond me.

Really dont get this do you?

On the contrary, I'd beware of the dry, pithy wit of B747-437B.

Touch�.

Eightblack Zol, savor this warm smiley glow!

^

I booked bhx-kul 'y' yesterday. Website indicated 1000 miles for loss of DXB lounge access. Today I was 'messing' about on the website and no miles were indicated for loss of lounge access. I checked to see that I was logged into the site and this was the case. Spooky. I was e-mailed today with an 'opt-in' message for the current miles accelerator offer. I have no idea what is happening.

Miles and bonus miles for loss of lounge access only credited after you travel?

I've just checked my y travel for January and I do have the 1000 miles points for loss of lounge already. It's only gone on today because it wasn't there yesterday, this is in mmb.

Jo