( Or more likely at KLM, they actually decided upon a neat 2=1 conversion, and the bean counters yelped - so they took off 10%. 1000 old = 2000 new less 10% = 1800 new ... which is what I suspect the Dom will be toasting in soon. )

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~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

I still try to believe that there are people out in the management of an airlines FF-program that are intelligent.

Why would you really try to change an existing and sufficient FF program to the better (they say they want to do that and it really looks like that so far) but slap your best customers (the elites with a good number of points in their accounts) in the face by devaluing their deposit?

O.K., the US Airlines do such things now. But do you think that will help them? Read the last weeks posts on the US Air board. I've never ever seen such an uproar - they even got on the first pages of the newspapers with that and it seems US Air is loosing BIG customers now. And that on the one board besides starwood where customers have LOVED their business partner US Air before that...

O.K., I still believe that there are intelligent people at KLM that thought out the new program.

And then they would switch points to miles at 1.0 or 1.25? No chance! They would be really stupid and would alienate their best customers. You can really calculate that the worth of an FD points is between 1.75 and 2.5 miles. Just compare the earnings of some routes with their length in miles. It's easy!

And I would really guess a conversion rate of 2 to 2.5. And I'm not greedy - this would really be a FAIR conversion IMO!

So I agree with newbe... And we don't have sources for that information. Just some reasoning and guessing...

I will try to put up a poll now for that...

Bean counters ? No, no no, it's called Marketing....have a look on Page 4 "The (little) Boy's Guide to Marketing"

Ralf .. can you please bring your bottle of DOM to the FT weekend in DUS next year? Will save you shipping costs. Hey newbe is within driving distance too.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/002287.html

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~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

Hey, I just 'registered' for that meeting...

But let's see who has to spend the Dom...

I did it the other way around NW - KLM, and that seems familiar - will have to look up when i get home.

I understand and agree with the kilometer math that would justify the 1 FD:1.8 WP.

Here's hoping that KLM and NW top brass had passing grades in 5th grade math!

So if KLM does give us more than a 1:1 exchange, will the mileage levels be the same as NW's redemption tables. Can I go from Europe to the US in Biz. for 80,000 miles roundtrip? Or will it cost say 1.8 X 80,000 or 140,000ish miles ? Hopefully they will have the same levels as NW.

Yes, that's a good question. Currently those biz awards on KLM are very expensive... Even compared with other european carriers, but especially if compared with american carriers... If they redesign this now they should really 're-price' those biz-awards and upgrades to competitive levels.

[This message has been edited by ralfkrippner (edited 09-05-2002).]

Quite so, but then again FD gives twice as many points for biz class travel, unlike most competitors. Almost as if biz awards catered to people who fly paid C...

IMO buying a cheap economy ticket and upgrading is/was a better use of FD points under the soon-to-be-defunct system.

[dup]

[This message has been edited by newbe (edited 09-05-2002).]

.

[This message has been edited by newbe (edited 12-06-2002).]

If you can get upgraded that is..see my problems.

Agreed, but don't upgrades to biz and biz awards theoretically come out of the same bucket?

Perfectly correct, ralf