I think you should post it here. If you decide not to, please e-mail me with the details.

Thanks,

RKG

Ken hAAmer, I agree with your post and find it to be a very fresh thoughtful perspective. Question is, why did you remove it? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

A loophole in the AC system that lasted over 7 months? Is it possible that they simply decided that their marketing promotion was successful and complete? Even if it was shut down due to FlyerTalkers taking advcantage of it, think about how many people did benefit from it in those seven months. How many fewer would have if the info was not posted online?

As we all know from our years of travel experience: no good offer lasts forever.



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I agree. This thread has absolutely no business being in the "Buzz" forum, a forum reserved solely for "Discussion of the latest frequent flyer buzz..."

Face it, no frequent flyer ever changes allegiances, so no DL or CO or AC of CA or AI flyer would ever have any interest in what's going on with UA, or any other carrier. Frequent flyers never move from one city to another where perhaps a different airline is prominent. And no frequent flyer ever flies an airline other than their 'own', so high tier elite status on another carrier wouldn't be of any interest or value at all, even if it could be attained for a minimal cost.

I say keep this forum reserved for items that that belong here -- that is, items that have absolutely nothing to do with any specific Frequent Flyer program. Speaking as someone who never visits the UA forum (or CO, for that matter) clearly this thread has absolutely no interest for or relevance to me whatsoever.

If it did, I'd have already posted my comments about it.

Not quite that simple. My understanding is that tariffs have to be filed in advance with regulatory bodies, and I've oft heard the number 45 days. As it turns out, MX and AC made changes to MHDs from YVR and YYC (coincidentally the home cities of the two original proponents and biggest users of the MHD) 47 days after the article appeared in the newspaper (in mid February.) Is all this coincidence? Quite possibly, but I don't know. It just has this ichy feel about it.

Even after those changes, we were still able to use MHDs, but from YYC and YVR they were a lot less convenient, although still cost effective. Conspiracy theorists might argue it was a warning (unheeded) or a dry run, that was 'tested' until say mid March, when a full-scale plan was drawn up, filed in early April, and executed in mid-May. We're way off the Art Bell scale here of course, but the actions the airlines took seemed to be closely proportional to the amount of interest and MHD activity. And given the multi-airline nature of the response, I'm pretty sure it wasn't just 'regularly scheduled maintenance.'

The thing is, it wasn't a promotion. These fares existed forever, as did the routes. They were the regularly published J, Y, and discount econo fares. There was no promotion, at least until AC FTers started promoting it. It's just that no one ever seemed to notice it before, or put it into action. Because one airline in Canada took over the only other major airline in Canada, things got real ugly here for most of 2000. And we responded in kind.

A dozen, perhaps less. Not many in the grand scheme of things.

With careful management, perhaps many more could have benefitted. And that's my warning here. If this "run" is posted, then it may well be that a very select and very small group of people may benefit from it. And I mean very small group.

C'mon guys! We're all more clever than that. You can't be flying all over the country or all over the world and not learn a few tricks. Just because "it's never been done before" doesn't mean it can't be done. It just means no one has yet figured out the better way to do it.

A year ago, many people told me I had no choice -- I'd have to simply acede to the new Air Canada world. I said no, tweaked their nose, snuck up behind them and smacked them with their tariffs and danced all over their fares.

With that careful management mentioned above, it could. It's time for FT to learn a few new tricks.

tvl4free: I suggest that you enjoy your new found loophole yourself or a with just a few selected friends maybe. (No, I don't ask to participate.)

If your discovery is really like the rather exotic Thai Baht pass and can be done in the US it will surely draw a lot of attention.

Definitely within hours there will be 'ready-to-run' recipes posted here how to exploit the loophole to the max. These will give even the more modest FF the chance to jump the bandwagon.

My fear is that this will ultimately bring the airlines to restrict their fares even further to eliminate the chance of possible loopholes.

I think currently the airlines easily tolerate a few savvy FF to exploit 'specialties' of their listed fares. But with to much publicity they will plug them.

And less loopholes mean less fun for the real FF.

I agree with Cigarman on this one. Spare us the "I'm not sure if you guys are worthy of my knowledge" post. If you've found a worthy (legal) mileage run, share it with the UA and Mileage Run boards. It sounds like you've found something only quasi-legal (or else we wouldn't be discussing this), so I guess you should keep it to yourself.

Most of us have no problems with a link appearing in the Buzz (after all, nearly *all* Buzz topics pertain to one program or another); it's the condescending you-might-be-a-mole-for-the-airlines tone we don't like.

As for whether airlines in Canada or Thailand - or the USA for that matter - are scrutinizing these boards looking to close off good deals, I've always somewhat doubted this, but certainly have no evidence either way. With the MHD (which I know nothing about, other than reading Ken's post), the FT use began in October, the media hype hit in December, and the deals were shut off in May. Somehow I'm missing the FT-killed-the-MHD connection.

Sorry about the negative tone of this post. It's just that sometimes I think we tend to think we are more important that we really are.

I believe that what triggered the airlines to shut down the MHD was not a few VFF's working out MHDs here on FT, it was the threat of the story appearing in the mainstream media (so far it's pretty much been a business-travel column and a short item, as Ken described).

The airlines involved might be willing to put up with us doing it, since they must have had a valid business reason for offering those connecting cities in the first place, but the idea of the great non-travelling public phoning up and asking for "an MHD to Cancun" would be too much for them.

I don't think it's so much the airlines monitoring FT that is the problem, I think it's more the mainstream media that causes the shutdown.

andrew

How do you decide who the "inner circle" that gets to know all these tricks is?

T4F,

DON'T post it.

Dan

Email it to me. I will do the run. Then I will post a trip report (with photos, a la tfung).

How 'bout it?

Mike

OK, I'm a senior member (I think? add 1200 posts to my post count from my former incarnation as dg1) and I say POST IT. Unless you personally really need it to remain for the near future, then what the heck. Let everyone else try to enjoy it while it lasts. Someone's going to notice it eventually.

Well, I don't know about this issue. Like the baht run, it took them almost a year to close the loophole. I think TG segments no longer count for status?

I would probably suggest that you do a few of those runs yourself and see if it's possible first. And when you've had enough of it, then release it to the boards.... depending on how big a loophole it is, I would say that it might take the FF programs a while to close the loophole. And many of the FTers here can benefit before they do so. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

By the way, I hope this US Baht run doesn't involve shuttle flights. I can't imagine sitting in 100 shuttle flights in 2 weeks. No mortal can take that!!!

AMEN!

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