Really?

Not entirely true, though I agree with the sentiment of a cash-rebate card over a FF card. And it's true that if you spend $50000 on a (hypothetical) 2%-back card, you'll always get $1000.

That said, if you're saving up those 2% rebates in a separate fund for a new dishwasher and figure you need to spend $50000 to get the deluxe-est model (a Miele, say ), you may well find by the time you've spent the $50000, the price has gone up and you need to spend some more to redeem for the unit. That's especially likely on an imported item if the foreign-exchange markets, um, devalue the dollar.

Of course you don't have to save up until you've spent $50000 before spending the rewards, you can spend them whenever they're paid out. And some things will actually go down in price, either because of trends in a specific industry or because the US dollar rebounds (or in our case, because the US dollar goes down and we import directly ). And that _never_ happens with airline awards, AFAIK (no airline says, "because the US dollar is so strong again, our 50K award has been reduced to only 48K" where that $1000 dishwasher could be reduced to $960).

=aw

They finally got me to take the NW card from US Bank by dangling 28.5K miles in sign-up bonuses earlier in the year, but the one I use is one from my credit union with ScoreCard. For 20K points at $1=1 point you can get $325 credited against any ticket from anyone (though with $25 service fee it's more like $300). This really rewards people who do their own homework and pounce on sales, as the bought ticket earns miles, is upgrade-eligible, etc. Have gotten to Europe twice (before the fuel run-up), plus other trips.

CapitalOne also has variants on the points-based model, though those seem to be less generous and assume that fliers can't book their own trips. Could be the only thing left standing when the dust clears.

It IS amazing how much the whole mess has gotten tied in with credit cards. I still get tons of mail with card offers tied to all my secondary FF programs.

Other than the US government.

Indeed, I shudder at going to Canada with their dollar higher than ours. Last time I went the loonie was around 65 cents and Calgary seemed to be on par with Atlanta on land costs. Today it has to be a different story.

Though I'm sure that's still a bargain compared to Europe. And Tahiti, which tracks the euro and with a hefty slug on top, has got to be unbelievable.

Re: Brancatelli. With Delta it'd seem that the fliers most likely to have the high balances to throw around for unrestricted awards are also most likely to be very heavy-traveling plats who practically live in a plane. Yeah, maybe someone gets in there on credit card miles, but it'd seem that the last group you want to be mad at you is that one. Maybe DL thinks they're all hub-captives, though in ATL you've got a strong AirTran presence and they offer business class on every flight!

I've got some professional background in payment systems and am convinced that this is the golden age of credit card reward programs. There is an enormous class action lawsuit wending its way through the courts against Visa and MasterCard alleging anti-trust violations in interchange pricing. (Interchange represents part of the fees paid by merchants to accept credit cards.)

If the suit is decided in favor of the merchants, as I believe it will be, interchange rates will come down significantly. While this would be great for those who accept credit cards and, overall, good for consumers (interchange fees are baked into prices as a cost of doing business) it would represent the death of generous rewards programs as we know them, as the rewards are funded by the fees received from merchants.

Take a look at the comparatively stingy reward programs tied to debit cards and you'll get an idea of what the future holds.

Enjoy it while it lasts, folks!

It is a major devaluation to those who redeemed such "anytime" awards. And I can see how someone with lots of points might very well decide it is worth spending 100% more funny money rather than pay thousands for a C or F international ticket (or perhaps Hawaii at Xmas). In fact, the anytime awards may be the only option for certain routes (e.g. see my UA post on how there are zero business class saver awards between SFO/LAX-SYD for 330 days out) So eliminating this award may effectively zero out those awards - at any price. It is basically just reimposing blackout dates - or maybe blackout routes.

That being said, I personally have never redeemed for anything higher than a "saver" award and don't intend to do so. But then again I am now using most miles for upgrades rather than free tix, and the former are always capacity controlled.

The irony is that this move really hits the airlines best customers in the gut - those with lots of miles who probably don't have any desire to spend them on cheapo coach tix.

Just another reason to burn, not hoard. I try never to have more miles in my account than I need to make an emergency trip to Bali.

Mike

Honestly, I find that most so called Travel Guru's, give out info that I got on Flyertalk days, if not months ago. These big dog and pony shows, and Chicken Little fiestas are just meant to grab headlines. Just as many airline price increases don't go through, because of competition, if a huge FF change happens most informed frequent flyers will revolt.

The significance of there being no saver awards 330 days out on UA is exactly ZERO. I would say that this situation is the norm, in fact.

Contrary to urban legend (which is probably based on how things actually USED to be done), airlines do NOT necessarily release all (or even ANY) of their award inventory 330 days out. Maybe some of them still do, but UA is one that most definitely does not, and has not done so for at least several years.

Instead, inventory management/revenue management is used to release award inventory over the months leading up to the travel date.

So Joe has basically told us that President Kennedy has been shot. It would seem that there is a good business to be had in cribbing info off of FT.

Here is the article.

This is absolutely correct. I am normally when people are posting that they are waiting for the award space to open up 330 days in advance.

Personally I have had very good run on premium awards in F cabin using UA miles booked at the very last minute i.e. 24 to 48 hrs in advance on SQ/LH/TG etc.

That is a devaluation in and of itself for those of us who can or need to plan in advance. Fortunately AA WN and others do not operate in this fashion.

However, I do not believe it is the norm for all routes - only selected ones where UA doesn't want to give up the freebies.