Tier miles vs. Ticket price and distance and FZ against EK
 

Hi all,

I am upset how the tier miles are calculated and given as EK/FZ seems to punish people on short haul flights. What you think and what is your experience?

I am flying weekly with FZ between Kabul and Dubai. The tier miles usually for the return flight Y is 825 and for J 1,375 miles. = 713 USD for 2,200 miles
EK is crediting me for Y 825 and J 1,925 miles for the same route and price. FZ tickets on EK are always Flex. = 784 USD = 2,750 miles
EK DXB FRA in Y earns 4,450 miles for 839 USD
EK KBL-IAD-KBL in Y earns 10,500 miles for 1,893 USD.

Lets assume I want to achieve Gold or Plat.

I have to invest:
FZ (KBL-DXB-KBL): 50,000 miles = 16,204 USD
FZ: (KBL-DXB-KBL) 150,000 miles = 48,613 USD
EK: (DXB-FRA-DXB) 50.000 miles = 9,426 USD
EK: (DXB-FRA-DXB) 150,000 miles = 28,280 USD
EK: (KBL- IAD-KBL) 50,000 miles = 9,014 USD
EK: (KBL-IAD-KBL) 150,000 miles = 27,024 USD

J is even more ridiculous. Why is EK punishing the people on flights like Kabul. Shouldn't the tier miles have to do with revenue? This is really frustrating.

Thanks!

Tier miles have nothing to do with revenue.... please don't give EK ideas!! It's bad enough for the Americans with all their airlines going revenue based. They're tier miles based on distance flown with a class of service bonus and a discount fare penalty. A flex ticket doesn't earn full tier miles by the way, only a Flex Plus does.

I earn Gold every year at a cost of around $8000, which includes a lot of flying on DXB-HYD or DXB-BOM in either direction, which is probably a similar distance to KBL, so...

I should have added that all tickets compared are booked in Flex to get a fair comparison. But I have to invest nearly the double amount of money to become Gold then you have to HYD or BOM. Is it fair?

It depends on the market. Your route presumably has inelastic demand and insufficient supply for prices are high. I'm very fortunate because I fly mostly out of CPT which has very reasonable Flex fares, unlike other markets where people mostly book Savers and Flex is a lot higher. As a result a round-trip from CPT-HYD in Economy Flex earns me 7500 tier miles at a ticket cost of around 700USD

It makes total sense...to revenue management :D

In this case it is just another example of how much golden goose captive O&D routes are to an airline - it doesn't really need to give loyalty (read: incentives) to attract custom.

Interesting insight. Thank you guys! Indeed there is only EK (1x daily) and FZ (3x daily) flying to Kabul with a load factor of about 90% (guess). The only other airline to Dubai is Maybe-Ariana Airlines with a 30-year-old, not-sure-when-last-maintained bird, which nobody wants to fly with. FZ wanted to obtain a fourth slot to Kabul which was declined by the government. Sometimes the ticket price for Y is 750 USD one way in FZ. Still the miles against the money is unfair. :-)

Aside from EK, FZ and FG you also have the following options:

G9 flies daily from SHJ to KBL. RQ flies several times a week DXB to KBL.

EK offers by far the best and quickest service to KBL. But I actually rate RQ as better than FZ.