Frequent Flyer Program Realities
 

Looks like the mainstream media is finally catching up to the inflationary game the airlines are playing by minting an endless stream of miles while reducing overall capacity and restricting the few seats that are available:

CONDE NAST PORTFOLIO:
The Miles Bye Club
http://www.portfolio.com/business-tr...-Airline-Miles

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Frequent Fliers Face New Fees, Pared Perks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121798334471215371.html

you must be 18 the Carriers have been doing this for over 20 yrs. At 1 time it was 20k for a free tkt with the US then HNL and ANC were put into their own cat.

Intl Upgrades were on any fare then changed to only certain more expensive fares this was in the early 90s

Hotels along changed things as did Rental cars way before 9/11 I was being given a Chevy Corisca as a Mid-size although Chevy sold it as a compact

Yea alot more changes have been taking place since 9/11 but they were done way before that when the Carriers werent losing their shirts.

Youre sort of like the person who cant believe their stk portfolio is worth so little today after all the mkts arent suppose to go down. Not many working on Wall St ever worked thru a Bear Mkt. But anyone old enough or who studied Wall St knows full well what has occured and that theres nothing that can prevent it from happening again. hey back in the early 80s the US$ was on par with the GBPound its almost US$2 to 1 GBP today

Many a company that had a very high price on Wall St is no longer around today. Some were scams others 1 product companies that had their 15 mins of fame and are gone. Ever hear of Crocs the price per share was over $75 a few months ago today its what $4, or Starbucks the samething. Both are still with us but will they be in a yr or so , we will only know in a yr or so. They are doing what they can in order not to go under. SB is closing 600 stores and not opening as many as they wanted to.

Welcome to Life, being Bitter isnt gonna change it any. The rules will keep changing you need to try to stay 1 step in front of it. If the road you need is Closed you will have to find another way to get to where you want to be. for many it was purchasing CDOs better put Subprime mort obligations, today the paper is good in case they run out of TP.If someone put all their money into it they are SOL.

You accumulated whatever miles you did, yep they are worth less then they were when you got them. sort of taking whatever you get paid and putting into your mattress after 20m yrs you got alot of $$$, but it wont buy you anywhere near what it would have had you had the same amount 20 yrs ago. So back in the 70s a Caddy was say $6000 and you saved up $10 a week so that you can 1 day buy that caddy. Well today is the day you reached the $6000th , only 1 problem that Caddy is no longer $6000 but $30,000. So either you need to find a way to come up with another 24k or buy what you can with the 6k you have. theres no way GM will sell you a new caddy today for 6k

I know I am showing my age, but I remember one TWA award where you bought one discount Y ticket from the US to Europe and got upgraded to F and received a second F ticket. Total mileage required - 50K. On top of that, you got triple miles for the paid ticket. Try getting a deal like that today.

As craz said, the value of the FF miles has been going down for the last 30 years.

I travelled Southwest airlines on summer
 

Hi,
Last summer I travelled with Southwest airlines from Atlanta to LA with my BF. I find employees, customers, services and aircraft are good. I love southwest ding. My flight experience was awesome. I am a regular user of FF program and also looking for US airways and jetblue for future travelling.

Please help me

The best part of that TW Reward was I was able to use both parts as they didnt have to be used at the same time:D. Yea TLV-LAX @ 3x was great, used the free part when there wasnt any bonus going on.

Dont forget the 30k for a 1/2 price tkt and you got credit as if you paid for the whole tkt, till TW audited my acct and changed a number of ways things were done.(it was all legit, just they didnt like the idea that a person was able to spend less then $2500 and earn 100k in actual miles). BTW that 30k came right back to the acct with those TLV-LAX flights so no net loss:D)

Another cutie was when they gave bonus miles or actual miles out but excluded TLV and CAI and RYD. They were dumb as all I did was book the earlier flight into CDG the Infamous Flight #800, hang out in the Ambassadors Club and catch the flight onto TLV, the other choice would have been to take either the non-stop to TLV or JFK-CDG-TLV with the same flight# so no bonus miles. Or JFK-BOS-CDG-TLV worked as well

BTW all of this was yrs before FT was ever on the seen.

First word of advice: forget about US Air.

Second world would be to avoid companies that systematically avoid required routine maintenance. Flying is only safer than driving because of the systems in place to make it so. Cheaping out on maintenance makes it much less safe.

Craz, I don't think it's a matter of things being more expensive. We all understand that. We don't have our heads in the sand.

But as the Portfolio piece graphically explains, the airlines are cyncially minting new miles to sell even as they shrink their route networks. That is not just insane, it would normally be borderline criminal.

It shouldn't be allowed. It essentially turns frequent flyer programs into Ponzi and pyramind schemes. And when airlines start making seats unavailable at any price (as Delta did and Continental, Northwest and US Airways do), it IS criminal. IMHO.

PORTFOLIO STORY ON DEVALUATION
http://www.portfolio.com/business-tr...-Airline-Miles

Yeah, well TWA's also outa business...

Times change, you've gotta adapt and move on.

I, and many, many others on this board have foreseen the end of the rainbow on this mileage thing.

I kinda gave up about 3 yrs ago, when encountering way too much trouble trying
to book an AA flight to HNL, 1st class.
You'd think I was asking for the moon.

So, down to exactly -one- mile left in my Delta account, not much in AA.

Cash all the way for me, unless I do enuf flying to rack up the miles quick,
in which case I'll burn through 'em even quicker.

I am a very long time frequent flyer and have enjoyed the benefits of programs of old (so to say). But I still think that today's programs are excellent value considering how airfares (Y in particularly) have decreased in real terms, the bonus points / EQM awarded to elite members and the very significant improvement in all airlines' C and F products. Also, many members earn huge amounts of miles without ever flying anywhere - credit cards and os on - something not possible years ago.

There are still some wonderful deals around particularly on american airlines' programs - compared to Asian airlines (e.g SQ) and Australian (ie QF) programs. (I just booked 2 F tickets on SQ/LH SYD-MUC next year with no problems getting seats on my preferred days for 150,000 miles per person). The only thing I don't like is having to plan a year in advance to get what you want - not that it's impossible to get awards later but if you really want to be sure ....

Looking for FF program of Jetblue
 

Is any one is regular user of FF program of Jetblue. I love Jetblue and its FF program. :DAdvise me about its best rates.
Thanks

The cost of flying has doubled since 2004 for most of the routes my family and I use. For many others, it has increased dramatically. While general availibility is slightly tighter, I have been able to ticket dozens of coach and first seats using saver awards over the past year. Even when you include the higher fees and surcharges, there has been an incredible *deflationary* trend in that I am able to achieve 2.x CPM for domestic travel I would have paid for otherwise, versus the 1.5 to 2.0 CPM I used to get.

IMHO, I think too many people are missing the whammies here. It's not just that the miles are being devalued because the airlines keep minting them. That HAS been happening for years. But, generally speaking, there was some balance because the major carriers were growing and bringing in new international partners.

But now you have airlines minting miles with alacrity while they are reducing capacity. That truly is new and quite bad. You throw in all of the new fees and the situation has turned dire.

That, I think, was the point of the Portfolio piece: not just a currency deflation, but nothing to "buy" with the currency, either. Hence the Zimbabwe reference.

Portfolio:
http://www.portfolio.com/business-tr...-Airline-Miles