what do you think was the ZENITH of miles programs?
 

-When was it the best it has ever been?...
was it last year, was it 2001? or maybe way back?

I wanna know when people think the whole miles and poinst game was at its best and maybe hear a few examples too

So go for it; and kindly onsider these things or add on some more or even alter my question(s) if you feel there is a better way to put it out there:

-When did the points and miles you could earn actually be veiwed as the most valuable they have ever been?

-When did getting a free ticket actually mean just that?

-When was it both easy to earn and easy to burn?

In my opinion, much has tightened up and changed for the harder (to redeem) in 2003, but the earning possibilities are enormous, indeed.

For me, I keep thinking that maybe 1-2 years ago, the earning potential was great but it was still rather easy to actually get award travel and fly.

Several years ago, you could walk up to an airport desk and give them a certificate for free award travel you had eventually earned, and just get on a plane. BUT it was much harder to earn in those days too.

I mostly fly economy and not very often on the same carriers. So by the time a person like me actually EARNS enough points, things have inveriaby changed with that carrier's award structure. Thus, it can be a frustrating and never ending chase of a game. I almost NEED promos like that BA Jaguar thing to thrust into a certain level of needed mileage (just to see them up thier anti as well)

On some airlines, by the time I get there, several 'blocks' of these earned miles are nearly about to expire! (Singapore Airlines does not continue your whole account balance just because of new activity within some 3-year period... I currently stand to lose over 10k of older mile earnings if I dont redeem by Sept 03 and yet I only recently GOT to 25k on that airline!)

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If speed is not your thing, distance may as well be. Enjoy and embrace it all!

Triple miles in 1988. Hands down. That promo put FF programs on the map for millions of less frequent travelers.

agree, triple miles in 1988.

Another great year was 1991 when airlines coming out of the Gulf war ran several "Fly Three-Get One Free" ticket promotions which did not interfere with your normal mileage accumulation.

DItto on the triple miles year. Award levels were pretty terrific then too. TWA had 65K points for one F ticket to Europe plus a companion for the price of lowest coach and that coach fare didn't need to be available, it could have been sold out.

Ditto.

Of course the triple miles also probably directly lead to the big devaluations in program benefits that followed shortly thereafter.

I'd give up all my complimentary upgrade benefits in a second if they brought back the 2 person awards like 2 First Class tickets to Hawaii, 6 nights at any Westin hotel or resort worldwide, and 7 days car rental...a totally free vacation all for only 75,000 miles total!

Those were the days!

The Zenith of miles programs? Sounds like a way to earn miles by watching TV, or reading Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by LastClass (edited 03-05-2003).]

I believe you have to split your question into two parts because we're really talking about 2 cycles in FF history, before and after non-flying miles accumulation. No doubt the tripple miles deal stands out in memory but for sheer volume of accumulating miles, for me it was thanks to Citibank. During 1999 they launched their "Click-City" Aadvantage card. All early applicants have zero annual fee for life and earned double Aadvantage miles for the 1st year.

I miss TWA, I think their mileage upgrade policy was the best. But look where that got them....

Agree TWA was the best triple miles was my best year

I would say 2002. With all the ways to earn miles, I loaded the boat.
Alaska Air 100k (money orders)
US Air 100k (money orders)
United 60k +15k (savings bonds + bonus)
Starwood 150k (savings bonds)

plus flights and regular charges.
It was a beautiful year for FF miles in an otherwise crappy year.

Ken, I did not do quite as much but I must say in a way I agree with you because it was STILL easy to get all those miles and beat many systems that many marketers are now stopping left and right, and still relatively easy to redeem them as well.

Starting Jan 1, 2003, it seemed that (A) everyone upped their anti's and (B) they started to catch the holes and stop programs that many liked the workings of.

You hit it right and well-timed, I think.

I sure did like those days when you could actually go to the airport with awards certs and just get on a plane! For me it was the early 90s, but I had so no miles back then.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gifMM

TWA was great. Two First Class tickets to Europe for 90k. Two coach around-the-world tickets for 100k. And triple miles in 1988!
The other good deal that's gone is the AA airlines exchange of sticker upgrades for mileage, which effectively gave a platinum member triple miles for every trip.

I only go back to 1992 in the FF game, but can remember some good 3x miles on OnePass in fall 1993 and flying weekends to New York as mileage runs. Those 3x deals definitely helped.

But I'd say the late 2000/early 2001 Continental mileage bonanza was my own high-water mark. Calling in codes, wondering what'd post and what wouldn't, and getting 4x miles on some trips. I did one to Portland on a $188 RT that earned 31K total miles. There were stories of HKG RTs pulling six figures.

CO also had decent mileage sales back then, including 20K to DUS and 25K to HKG. One guy on the HKG flight turned around, in the front of coach, and asked, "Did anybody here pay for their ticket?" Felt like we were some traveling band of gypsies.

These things never last, though.

Mid 1990's on DL, when there was:

• Minimum 1000 miles/segment.
• Upgraded flights earned class of service bonuses.
• 2 SWUs for every 20,000 miles flown, no limit.
• Old (pre-Skymiles) redemption levels.

Hands down the triple miles era. Don't forget the Marriott 10,000 pt. bonus PER. night as well!

TWA did have some good awards. 2 business class seats to Asia (India to Japan region) for 110k, 2 coach seats to Europe peak season for 50k (one person could also book 2 separate tickets to go to Europe twice in a year).

Leading the Way, TWA.
You're going to like us, TWA.
Look to us, Northwest.
You Can't Beat the Experience, Pan Am.

those were the days...

EDITED: Asian awards were on Japan Air Lines, the airline that has Playboy in its magazine collection.


[This message has been edited by seat 50J (edited 03-05-2003).]

Try 50,000 miles for that award. It was amazing. I was able to use my last one just a couple years ago. If you didn't use the upgrade portion of the award then TWA would offer you 10,000 miles back.

And don't forget that the upgrade was a double upgrade - from coach all the way to first.

My favorite though that year was the triple miles plus 1,000 miles that PSA was offering. For one SFO-LAX-SAN-LAX-SFO trip you would earn 13,000 miles (750 minimum, tripled, plus the 1,000). For 10,000 miles you would get a free trip anywhere PSA flew plus a free night at any Marriott. Those were the days.

Yup, I agree, if I am thinking what you are saying.

When I could earn status miles with an affinity credit card, well, that was the day.... but to me anything after that time was down the hill...

2002, USAirways-Get Out More. I received 14,500 miles on a round trip from mci-dca once.
insane.

Although I am a Continetal Flyer - - - -

The Complimentary Upgrade IS the program, I do not beleive the snake oil salesman about the free travel. With the fare wars you are better off booking Coach and using the upgade.

90 + Segments a year - Just can't fly coach

I still enjoyed the People's Express flight I once tookd from LAX-BOS. On the giant plane (which cost nothin') they asked if anybody onboard wished to carry onto London for only $100. Show yoru passport to the flight attendant (stewardess in those days) and give her $100 cash and you are off once the plane connects thru Boston.

I didn't go but should have because the hottie sitting next to me was British and very friendly.

No miles that trip, but those were the days indeed!

better other perks such as those fun red-eye flights you read about even today!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif MM

I have a great story about this promotion (or a similar one, I'm not sure which!). AA had an offer of "fly 8 segments, get a free ticket" provided each segment had a minimum value of $50/segment after taxes.

Being a college student with plenty of free time and two segments under my belt heading back to school from winter break, I booked a ticket STL-BNA-DFW-SEA-SJC-DFW-STL and paid for part of it with a travel voucher from being bumped.

Unfortunately, the agent made a mistake and failed to charge tax on the amount I paid in cash -- causing the ticket to price back at around $293.

So, I called up AA and said "This is going to sound crazy, but I owe you $15 and want to pay it." After explaining the story to the agent, my ticket was re-issued at the right price and I got my free ticket!

Greg

There have been some very generous promos. that I'm sure will never be repeated. It was fun while it lasted http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The best one was last year when KLM matched all teh miles I had in another FF acct. That added a nice high 7 figures to my totals. Cost me around $1500 but could have done it cheaper if I had been really clever. The Million miles on LatinPass was also another winner in my book. Oh, and back in the 80's the 75,000 all inclusive award for FC to Hawaii, suite at the Westin, and rental car came in mighty handy for Spring Break when I was in college.

THAI AIRWAYS - ROYAL ORCHID PLUS
April - September 1994
One of the most innovative and exciting bonus offers ever created for frequent flyers. It started with a milage bonus
of 70 % for just three international flight
sectors, increasing to a milage bonus of 150% if you flew more then ten flights sectors with Thai in the period beetween april 18 and september 30 1994. For me it was the best, as I was in the air almost all the time during that period.

The original United program: 2 first class tickets to Hawaii PLUS a week in a Hilton hotel for 75,000 miles. Best program awards, hands down. This was in the early 80's....took out trip in '87.

I also pine for the fly-writes on Northwest.....they were each (20k) worth a roundtrip....just show up with one and you could take any flight...just as long as not a blackout date printed on the fly-writes. While they did expire, this was in the days of 30k to europe or Hawaii....and upgrades via certificates were easy to get and use.

Finally, while there have been some fantastic promotions (triple miles, etc.), current programs are far too diluted, and there's far too much code-sharing for there to be much differences today.

United's 50 state challenge in the mid 80's. At that time United served at least one city in every state and offered one year of free first class travel (for two) for traveling to all 50 states during a 2 month period.

I recall that some qualified by spending around $2,000.

TF

I would say that the ValuMags saga marked the end of that era.

For me, it was 2000-2002. Mainly because I learned to play the game much more effectively, but by learning the programs inside and out (with a lot of help from FT) and by jumping on exceptional mileage-run-quality fares to ensure I kept the statuses that were important to me and kept earning 100% bonuses and more.

Specific things that I participated in during the past 2-3 years that are probably gone forever:

- 8 cheap Hampton nights = 1 free week in an Ocean-view Executive-level room at the Hilton Waikaloa Village.
- A few (I forget how many - about six or eight) cheap roundtrips booked at TWA.com = 2 free F tickets to the Caribbean + a six-month Ambassador's Club pass + the usual miles and bonuses earned on the paid flights.
- 70,000+ Skymiles for $10,000 in DL Amex spending, thanks to 10,000-mile first-use bonus and 50,000(!!!) mile $10K threshold bonus.
- The Sprint/NW 40,000 mile promo. (They HAD to lose boatloads of money on this one.)
- 2-ticket F awards to Hawaii on AA.

I will say this, however: I don't think 2003 is too bad, from an AA/Hilton/Marriott/DL perspective. I have award trips planned this summer and fall, and I'm getting the dates/flights/rooms I want. I never fly DL, so I haven't had to feel the pain that a loyal DL flier is feeling, but I was able to get 2 business-class tickets on DL when I needed them. 2002 and 2003 have been my best years yet for getting free trips. In 1999-2001, everything was sold out so often (especially nice hotels), I thought it was harder to get what I wanted back then.

For me, it was the 1985 AA spring special. I don't remember the exact terms of the deal, but I flew 24 segments back and forth between the east coast and Hawaii and received 4 free first class tickets to Hawaii and 8 first class upgrade certificates, plus earned miles for the initial flights.

1. AA's VIP2s before they were capacity-controlled internationally.

2. Triple miles in the 80s.