'Turbulence threatens currency of the jet set' The Times, London
 

The Times, London has a page today on miles.

Main article 'Turbulence threatens currency of the jet set' reports on how miles schemes have been affected by recent developments and how today's miles are as likely as not earned on the ground as in the air.

Link http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...tml?gavalidate may or may not work - The Times requires international readers to pay £39.99 a year for online access, UK readers have only to register for the present.

More miles issued, fewer seats available, but this may only be temporary as the industry adjusts to recent events. Randy Petersen is quoted, saying 'on average, only about 2 per cent of miles awards actually displace paying customers'.

Separate article 'Selling gimmick turns into US obsession' is apparently not available online. It mentions Pudding Guy and describes how US collectors can collect miles on almost everything. (Why only US collectors? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

Separate feature 'Soaraway air miles face crash landing' (also not online, it seems) provides info on the history of air miles schemes and has associated info.

Apparently, such schemes are the only remaining profitable part of many airlines, generating $4bn revenue this year by selling miles to card companies and other firms.

There are an estimated 8 trillion unused miles. The average collector earns 11,364 a year (not around FT http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif ) and there are 107,000 frequent fliers with over 1,000,000 miles.

The average cost to a credit card company of buying one mile is estimated at 1-2 cents.

Here is an alternative link that may work better for us who are not in Britain:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFr...505622,00.html

I thought the article was very insightful. Toward the bottom, it mentions the B of A debit card / U.S. Postal Service money order debate.

The article's tone was slightly condescending, however, making us all sound kind of crazy. (Are we?) The reporter also observed that "in the United States" frequent flyer miles have become the subject of divorce proceedings. So, in the more civil Britain, this has never yet occurred? I find that hard to believe.


[This message has been edited by amanuensis (edited 12-07-2002).]

Not so far as I'm aware.

There have been posts in FlyerTalk about spouses inheriting their partners' miles on death. This is also unknown in Europe, and some (most?) European schemes specifically exclude the possibility. I know of a UK colleague whose widow was able to use his CO miles but had to use them within a year, but I doubt whether she could have done that with a Europe-based scheme. But of course, we are learning all the time from our North American cousins http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif so perhaps this will change.

I'm sure we will be saying goodbye to the BofA deal very soon now.