SuloL

Here one more who can confirm that indeed new vouchers issued upon status upgrade are valid for 12 months, not until the end of current tracking period. Hence not expecting new ones when my tracking period changes in a few months' time...

Quite a decent middle finger from AY from my perspective, as could've also happily spent BIS time on other airlines when normal Plat was reached, but figured this would be worth going for. Luckily didn't really have to fork extra euros to get here in the end. They probably realized that they sold a few too many instant platinums and this was a good way to cut their losses on that?

At least the Tumi could still be ordered, let's see if that's the only thing that ends up being of any material value after these silent enhancements

FFlash

For my wife, she didnt get new vouchers when travking period changed, but instead an automatic status validation extension a la covid at the first point when she hit gold.
But this is only one data point and who knows about AY IT other then it is Insustainable Trash

kauppias

Their middle finger has been busy lately, I wonder if they really have thought this through, sure its ok its their program and all but I personally feel baited and switched when they change established protocols without telling us about it as people make decisions based on those facts!

At a moment when they SHOULD be making sure people stay, they have ended up losing alot of future revenue when people who spent thousands of euros buying points for status and vouchers find put they indeed spent that for half the expected benefits they will feel cheated and again lost future revenue...

Just a very crappy way to treat people, and I do beleive they will end up losing in the long run, but again NO ONE seems to see that at ay go figure....

kauppias

Well beleive it 😀😀

ay has shown they dont care, they are in CUT CUT CUT mode with a pinch of SAVE SAVE SAVE at ANY cost!

Silly stupid decicions with short term "savings" and long term losses is their new mantra

Besstrashny Boug

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that the language on the website has changed. Is it the same as before and the AY is interpreting it differently?

"Travel class upgrade

You will get the travel class upgrade benefits when you reach the Platinum Lumo tier for the first time. These benefits are valid for one year and you will get them again when you renew your Platinum Lumo tier after a new 12-month tracking period."

kauppias

Not sure if it has changed or not but how it has worked and how it seems to be working now has changed evidenltly.

If they planned on changing how things have actually worked it would have been fair and honest to tell people...

Not telling is the same in my eyes as lying....

you will still get a new set as described when you requalify, not when the new year changes...

lkrt

Indeed the wording seems to have changed, suggesting a real change in the policy.

Teppo

The wording seems to be the same for Gold, Platinum, Lumo.
I searched my inbox for old emails, when reaching Gold for the first time in case back then there was a different wording regarding the upgrade vouchers. Maybe anyone has an old email for reaching any of the tiers, in which the upgrade vouchers are mentioned?

FlyeBye

No mention of the vouchers in my Lumo welcome mail from 2018. But the new text is different for sure, so this is indeed a quiet policy change unfortunately. Let's see what they discover next.

I'm pretty invested in Finnair going for LTP. I will have to stick with them as long as I want Lifetime OWE. No way I would start that journey again anywhere else from near zero.

FFlash

What, LTP? Thats a huge amount of flying record. In that case, being invested in it, those sets or no sets sound secondary. To me at least

FlyeBye

Sure, the last time I got the extra set of vouchers was in 2018. Anyway, seeing the development still worries me, who knows what they will be cutting next, lifetime status? Trust is certainly a very important currency in a loyalty program.

FFlash

Lifetime carrot is the last to cut IMO in the view that Loyalty programs have become a no-trust-but-rather just a tool to drive future revenue bookings. Period.

kauppias

My biggest issue with changes are these stealth changes done in secret, why not be honest and say straight out this is whats changing....

Many people spent alot of money on a concept they knew, just to be told sorry not anymore now its less NOT COOL finnair....


I luckily didnt soend enough to lose sleep, but it was still a significant investment thats now worth even less, and well LUMO does NOT really bring alot to the table so its easy to say if I go for it (and likely I will since I am now 30191p away from Lumo as of today ) I sure wont go for it in the future, nor will I be keeping ay as my main program anymore

Perhaps, ay could invest in a manager of ay+ that wants to innovate and bring new ideas to the table while saving money and bringin new customer loyalty to the table instead of killing loyalty with 10,000 papercuts...

If there is nothing left perks wise there is NO point in paying 2 or 3x fares for ay.

At the same time trust in ay erodes, atleast for those who got the shaft this time.


As for LT status I doubt ay will remove that, their lt goal is so ridiculously high that its not even funny 😁😆

intuition

I don't but I found older texts in waybackmachine.
It is tricky to find, as they have rebuild the site. In end of 2021 the new text existed. In 2020 there was a different text but it was not at all specific on how/when vouchers were earned:

intuition

Yeah, that does not build confidence.

It seems they published the new text already last year, so it isn't 100% stealth. As it is clear they altered the text as part of a deliberate change of procedure the decent thing to do would be to inform members of a change in rules/procedures and maybe even link to a summary of old vs new rules/procedures. But they didn't.
I'm sure they think the change was nothing to inform about as they never promised the old procedure. Like "it's not an official perk and thus no one can complain when we remove it" (and this is the big problem with all unofficial perks)

However, it has been a de-facto rule ever since the the program revamp in 2009 (?) when they moved from 2 year qualification period. IANAL but usually de-facto conditions are also part of a business agreement. A customer is supposed to be able to trust a de-facto standard to stay until further notice, even if the formal customer agreement doesn't say anything about it. Eg if a vendor never have issued an invoice fee before, they will tell you before they do even if there is nothing in the agreement about it.

To the bigger picture, there seems to be an assult on all unofficial perks and procedure. Soft landing is gone, vouchers have a strict 1 year validity. It doesn't bode well, and the voucher change makes me think. Perhaps are they going to change membership year too. Upon reaching and renewing a tier, membership year resets too, just like the voucher. They have the tech for it as this is how gifted card works.

But maybe it is a good thing to limit voucher validity. Because they are so very difficult to redeem anyway, so it is best they expire quickly so we don't see them in our account and feel angry they are still there unused!