:rolleyes::(

So treating customers the same who do over double mikes and spend is likely double the same is fair?

I'd like another tier at 100k as the gap between gold and plat is too great.

I am one of the golds who scrape through :D but I do agree that the gap between gold and platinum is too high.

I think that there are two options

Gold can be changed to 75k (reducing the number of golds and will also reduce the pressure on outstation lounges). Platinum can be kept at 150 k itself. However this will reduce the number of pax flying EK after they hit silver as there is nothing to look forward to after they hit silver ( if they are sure that they wont male gold)

The other option as you suggest is to create a gold plus tier at maybe 90-100k. However there are only limited perks possible for such a tier other than being higher up in the op up list.
What do you think of F lounge access for 'Gold Plus' if Flying J ?. I'm not sure if this would cause congestion in the F lounge though.

The gap is indeed so wide that there is little incentive to fly EK once you pass 50k unless one's travel is really extensive and very much exclusively on EK.

If anything, since there's little to gain for those 100k travelers given the low likelihood of reach Plat that it's almost an incentive to try other airlines once Gold is reached. It can be a loss to EK of the revenue equivalent of ~50k tier miles from relatively profitable customers, which is not insignificant.

agreed - not that well thought through.

60K Tier miles are not hard to get. EK TIER miles are incredibly hard or ridiculously easy to get depending on route. I fly CMB-DXB-LAX R/T regularly. I never need to fly from CMB TO LAX on the same trip but do need to fly to CMB from DXB 3-5 times a year & monthly to the U.S. I was very surprised how quickly Plat came this year. CMB-DXB which is considered a stop but I consider it my destination & DXB-LAX which is the destination but I consider a separate trip. 3 round trips in F & I made Plat (by March) not to mention flights Ex CMB HAVE GREAT f class fares. (OP can get a R/T DXB-CMB & a R/T CMB-LAX UTILIZING A STOP HOME IN DXB IF HE WANTS & you will have earned 62,000 tier miles for apex $7600

They've really pegged back on ex Cmb a lot of times its a one month return and sometimes no stopover allowed on the outbound...fine if you've got time on your hands...

I agree the gap is too high, I would increase the number of miles it takes to reach Gold (that's purely a selfish point of view). Maybe 40k = Silver, 85k= Gold and 135k = Plat.

The argument that once a flyer has reached Gold and there's little incentive to keep flying on EK, this doesn't 'fly' for me.

You fly and gain tier miles to reach certain levels, those levels afford you specific benefits (both tangible and non), why then change your flights to another carrier and start from the bottom again, with zero benefits - is it just so you can have a 'gold' card in your travel wallet?

I'd argue that it makes sense to keep flying with one carrier (EK in this case), even if you stand no chance of reaching the next tier level you'll at least stand a better chance of op-ups and you'll be earning miles that can be used for upgrades.

I would agree with you if the tickets are paid by your company and if its all work related travel with an occasional personal trip.

However in my case I pay for my own tickets and have a lot of choices ( ex Uk).

I won't be travelling enough to hit platinum anyway. I usually fly enough on EK to hit 50K tier miles and then buy J tickets on QR and etihad for the rest of the year.

If flying Y its always EK though as the gold status comes in handy then :D

The J sale fares on the above are sometimes 1-1.5 k GBP lower than EK for 2 pax.

I think you make some very valid points ukdoctor wrt the issue of whether travel is being paid for by an employer or out of one's own pocket.

All airlines with FF programmes obviously like to "tie you in" as much as possible. In fairness there are of course mutual benefits, but in the effort to reach the next tier, one can become blind to the fact that there are sometimes more advantageous fares - and often significantly so, as you point out - on offer with alternative carriers. Once the tier status is being 'bought', its true value becomes more & more questionable.

YohYohY's earlier thread which outlined the tangible & non-tangible (inc. the 'hit & miss') benefits was a good summary, and for me highlighted why I would never want to spend several thousand dollars purely to hit Plat, with access to F lounge at DXB and FC check-ins being the only perks I would find myself using. Op-ups are highly variable as we all know (and there have been various anecdotal tales of them even diminishing after Gold ....!)

All that said, if Plat comes in the normal course of events, then it's clearly more than welcome.

The view from the other side would be, do you really want your airline's primary hook with customers to be your frequent flier programme, or would you rather spend your capital (or defend your margins - as each customer with status using a new tier of benefits is a quantum jump in costs that need to be accounted for - e.g. baggage allowance, lounge access and most importantly for the airline additional mileage accrual) on investment into things like product and network frequency.

We have quite a few case studies of what happens when you value your frequent fliers a little too much and it is difficult once you give something away for good value, to take it away again - look at the uproar on the EY forum after their recent devaluation.

Much better to start off with a position of being stingy so customers know exactly what they are getting and so don't grumble to the extent that they throw their toys out of the pram when you make changes - if you don't catch every single frequent flier, it's not a problem, especially as EKs source markets are deep with a pool of enough once a year VFR fliers that they can still fill their planes. After all, the money of a frequent flier and a once a year pax is the same for any given seat. It's only that the frequent fliers generally give you that money more often, but if your loads are high anyway, it doesn't matter too much - perversely, you might not want that many frequent fliers as their margins would be lower for the same seat :D

That said, you could argue that a frequent flier is more likely to buy expensive fare classes - but then the argument to counter that is that those fliers who are buying short notice, expensive tickets are more motivated with schedule and flexibility (read: corporate travel policy) rather than the program.

Always a few who slip through the net, but you can't design a frequent flier program around outliers.

I doubt very seriously EK cares who makes Gold & who makes Plat. Most of Those passengers in the middle are going to fly EK anyway. The number of passengers who will move away from EK after 50K cuz they won't make plat is so insignificant that I doubt anyone other then FTers have even givin it a thought

Those of us that joined Skywards when it began in 1999/2000 can remember how hard it was just to get EK to open a program of its own. More recently, look how long many of us fought for a Plat level. The bottom line is Skywards means less to EK them most other programs mean to their respective airlines. EK has more passengers paying for F & J then most other airlines. Due to the nature of EK, they have more infrequent flyers in Y then many other airlines. All of this equals profits & while most large airlines world wide rely on all the cash they make from their programs, everything I have heard and seen leads me to believe that Skywards is such a small insignificant part of EK & their core customers that looking for a little common sense of fairness in the way the tiers are run is a waist of time