absolutflying

Should full-fare tickets receive more FF miles than discount-fare tickets? Or should it be based on the actual amount of money paid? (like some hotel programs)

Lately, I have flown on business too many times at full coach fare. Transcon is usually about $2000 roundtrip, for last minute, walk-up... If I fly on vacation, the same flights can be had for as little as $200 roundtrip.

Does paying 10 times more deserve 10 times more FF miles?



[This message has been edited by absolutflying (edited 08-26-2002).]

zvezda

Yes, of course.

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"Those who would trade liberty for temporary security deserve neither." -- Benjamin Franklin

absolutflying

I forgot to add the second part to my original post.

Are there airlines that let you earn extra miles when flying on a full-fare ticket? (as opposed to flying on a discounted 7/14/21-day leisure fare)

L-1011

It's a frequent flyer program, not a frequent payer program, hence same amount of miles for the trip should be given. American give different amount of points fore the same trip depending on the fare paid.

ATC

Hopefully this is not an indicator of things to come: US Airways just dropped tier mile accrual for all non-refundable tickets. That is, buy a full-fare Y ticket, you get tier miles; buy a Saturday-night stay discounted ticket, you get zilch.

BlondeBomber

We have had this for a while on Air Canada for domestic travel. I don't have a problem with it. After all, most programs credit differences for first, business and econo. Why not add a fourth tier -- discount econo?

The question is whether a fifth tier (deep discount econo) should earn NO miles at all.

I personally think it would be a mistake for the airlines to offer no miles but it is already happening and is likely a trend. BA, SQ have had this for a while in their programs and Air Canada tried to reduce the deep discount fare credit on domestic travel to 35% from 50%. There was such an uproar that they kept it at 50% for deep discount and 75% for higher priced discount tickets.

There has to be some rationalization of programs so I don't see why there is such opposition to reducing the number of points for deep discount fares.

IADCAflyer

Wow. The reaction to the implementation of this program in the US Airways Dividen Miles program has gone over like a fart in church.

amanuensis

I'm putting on my asbestos body suit ...

I think airlines should continue to award MILES as they have in the past, based, in general, on the total number of miles flown. And of course the airlines should award a minimum of 500 or 1000 miles for short flights, since the hassles associated with a short flight are nearly as great as for a long flight, if not greater (for example, short flights often are in smaller planes with less room). If the airline wants to award bonus miles for flying a new route or for buying pudding or whatever, that's fine. Awards should continue to be priced in miles.

However, I think airlines should decouple qualification for elite status from the number of miles flown and/or awarded. Instead, I think airlines should begin tracking the total amount of dollars spent for flights, and award elite status based on passing a certain dollar threshold. (I say this despite it being certain to not benefit me -- I always buy nonrefundable tickets for my flights; if I have to fly on short notice I either use miles or Priceline/Hotwire.)

This seems to me to be the best way that airline FF programs can meet the needs of all their stakeholders. Awards would continue to be based on miles flown, but priviledges such as lounge access or complimentary upgrades would be based on dollars spent.

Shareholder

Many carriers outside the US only credit between 50% and 75% for discounted economy fares on various routes. On the other end of the spectrum, LH's program offers generous bonuses in 100% increments for full, business and first faes paid. I think these are both fair ways of handling the discrepancy between fares paid.

And certainly better than the move just announced by US AIR that most discounted fares will no longer count towards elite status. This is the most disastrous piece of news to hit the FF scene yet, and could have major reprocussions: either in lost business to US, and force them to change, or widescale adoption by other US carriers for their programs. Be afraid, be very afraid!

worldbanker

I think we should receive miles on all published fares by an airline. However, I also believe that when we do fly on full fare Y or business tickets, we should receive bonuses. So far, I have only seen promos done by USAir offering mileage multipliers on full fare or select fare tickets or with American allowing members to earn elite status faster through Q points, based on fares paid in addition to miles flown. It is a very volatile and competitive world now it the airline industry and airlines should not in any way begin cutting corners with something like mileage accrual. (Think of how much revenue was lost when Delta stopped upgrades on L or U fares or when Continental initiated H,K,Y fare upgrade fares only.

Miles are an incentive to continue flying an airline and possibly become loyal. The incentive to pay a higher fare to earn miles is something I and probably many others have done If you take away that, then you take away the incentive to fly an airline or another excuse to fly someone else including Southwest!

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

tfjim

corrected for grammer by tfjim

Not entirely correct. Points are mostly derived from the class-of-service paid for, somewhat unrelated to price. There is a distinction in economy between full and discount fares. Ironically, it used to be that on American one could only reach their very top tier by attaining 100,000 points, which meant 200,000 miles of discount economy flying. Ouch. This has only recently been changed so that one could earn Executive Platinum (highest) by flying 100,000 discount miles.

TWA, before it was consumed by AA, had a dual elite-earning system that I was very much a fan of. One could earn via miles or $$ spent. IIRC, $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000 were the dollar spend thresholds. Did I mention I was a fan of this system?

Brian-AAFlyer

There's an interesting point here that's being overlooked.. I work for a LARGE company that has relationships with AA UA and NW.. I can pretty much choose my carrier out of any of those listed.. We also get extreme discounts on our tickets..

If I start earning status based on the price of my ticket, my full fare Y fares (costing less than some discounted Y fares) are going to give me NO benefits and I'll just have to move to an airline that does..

I put an enormous amount of business AAs way because of their service (1st), Destinations served (2nd) and FF program (3rd).. If they prevent me from earning EXP in the future I'll look elsewhere for my upgraded F seats..

wormwood

amanuensis, well said and perfectly reasonable, though it would affect me the same as yourself it would seem a tenable long-term approach for the airlines.