The biggest problem is award availability, and the airlines get most of the blame. But part of the blame also lies with the easy supply of miles for purchase.

For example Inside Flyer is now being purchased in bulk by some, not to read the magazine, but to purchase airlines mile on the cheap.

As a result one can get millions of miles without flying. No wonder seats are not available.

So Randy, I hope that your magazine could mention your own culpability in the problem.

When a frequent flyer program cuts its benefits and perks, why can't they frankly admit that they are cutting benefits as part of an effort to cut costs and remain competitive? Why do they always have to announce those cuts with the headline, "Exciting New Changes Benefit Our Frequent Flyers"? And then, only after you've slogged through the doublespeak in the last paragraph and exchanged confused messages with other FlyerTalkers, do you realize they've actually raised award levels across the board. I'm really tired of these clumsy con games. Do they really think they're fooling anyone?

In a certain amount of fairness, the "award availability" problem simply means that the programs are a victim of their own successes.

Airlines give away more an more awards every year.

They give away at least as many awards as a % of total seats year in and year out. So it isn't like they just aren't giving away seats.

The problem is that demand is growing faster than supply. That is, more and more people are acumulating miles and via more and more channels. So you have lots of folks energized by FF programs. So there's more competition for what, in relative terms, is a scarce resource.

Truth is, with miles so easy to come by, award chart point increases are probably necessary. In fact, miles become more abundant at a fast rate than award charts increase. So if award seats don't grow, we're going to have to see more and more award chart increases over time.

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View from the Wing: A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

Randy will have the exact figures buried somewhere I feel sure. But I do recall reading something like 15 years back 80% of all miles held in FF plans were earned via FLYING that airline.

And now it is more like 80% of miles come from sources OTHER than flying. iDine, credit cards, partner purchases etc. So PG, with great respect, Randy's operation would represent a tiny fraction of one per cent I suspect in that bigger picture. Airlines WANT folks to buy miles off them.

Selling miles has actually been more profitable than running the airlines in the past couple of years.

The $$$$ figure Air Canada got by selling a section of Aeroplan was astounding to me.

Didn't that sale ultimately fall through in large measure because of Air Canada's bankruptcy proceedings? (I'm not up on the latest on this one...)

I do recall Randy estimating, at the time of UA's own Chapter 11 filing, that Mileage Plus was worth in excess of US$3 billion.

The one profitable thing these folks have been doing -- so complain as we (I) might, they must be doing something right!!

Award availability.

Here are a few for the list in no particular order:

1. Inconsistent information from one reservation agent to the next.
2. Inconsistent policy and regulations.
3. Release of seats for FF award travel, the revenue departments don't understand 331 days or customer service.
4. Using miles when and where I want to at non-inflated mileage requirements.
5. The continued inflation of all rewards across the industry (airline and hotel).
6. The loss of a customer oriented focus. The paradigm now is "customer service, what customer service?"

Happy Flying!

In a word - complexity.

The programs would cause me much less headache if there weren't so many complex rules. I like rules like these:

If you fly/stay, you earn miles. Always.
If there's an award seat/room, you can have it.
If you've got an upgrade certificate, you can use it if there's a seat for you.

In short, no fare/rate/class restrcitions. None of the "great offer" v-calss and above kind of restrictions.

1. The late fee for booking an award that AA and CO charge. Why do some airlines charge it ad others don't. You have already paid enough when you earned the miles and usually there's no need for a paper ticket because you're booking a few days before the trip and you have an e-ticket. Charge for the late booking of paper ticket awards. E-tickets do not cost anything extra since the customer prints them.

2. Devaluation of miles or points without informing the customer in advance or with enough time (Radisson Gold Points and Hilton Hhonors). Changes should be made for the following year and not for the current one. Give a reasonable time (Maybe a year) to use the miles / points at the same face value in which you earned them. Keep the old program for those miles/ points while the new program is in place for a certain time.

Award structures are now designed to be more complex and harder to understand. Award availability is available on flighs I would never take ie 6 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gifo AM on Sunday morning. Miles earned are devalued and worth less every day much like the old Green Stamp Days. Miles are now profit center and can be earned everywhere It is in the airlines interest to de value them to increase e bottom line and reduce liability. No longer are these programs to reward the business traveler or loyality. The data is often sold to add revenue value. minimal return to the traveler.

Top three problems:

1. Devaluation of account balances. What British Airways did to North American members this year was criminal.

2. Standard award availability. Some airlines are better than others, but Continental absolutely takes the cake here -- to the point where OnePass is a borderline fraudulent program, advertising awards that are virtually nonexistent.

3. Plan complexity. Agents can't possibly master the rules. Sometimes that's to the customer's advantage, sometimes not, but it's always confusing.

Mileage credits from partners. Especially frustrated with a particular airline alliance that keeps telling me how wonderful and seemless travel to all corners of the globe is with them, but can't ever credit a partner's flights without me having to fax a letter and ticket stubs to them.

Miles are no longer a reward for the business traveler. Miles are now sold and are profit centers. Devalued miles benefits the seller as it reduces liability. Data from flyers is sold to add value. Awards to premium places are limited.

1. Inflation / devaluation.

2. Expedite fees. My miles were hard earned; I shouldn't have to pay to use them. AA is a bad offender here, obscenely charging inside 3 weeks, even on a web-booked e-ticket.

3. Expiry. Not a problem with many programs, but for me, this renders Southwest's otherwise generous programs nearly worthless. Other airlines are crooning over their fly 3 get 1 free promos, that for a limited time give you a cheap ticket for flying 3 expensive ones. But with online booking, WN has had fly 4 cheap, get 1 expensive free, on an ongoing basis. That's fantastic. But I usually fly 1 or 2 WN RT's a year. At that rate, I'll never earn anything.

I'd like to underscore these salient points because for me they are the crux of my frustration with FF programs.

Whilst it is necessary for airlines to tweak their programs on a regular basis, some employ knee-jerk reactions and change their rules and benefits more often then I change my underwear! Take UA as an example. In the last 12 months here are some of the changes:

• SWU restrictions based on fare class. Very little (if any) notice given about the changes. Due to the uproar by customers, fare class restrictions removed from domestic fares and D fare class on international fares.
• waivers and favors taken away
• 1K rooms closed
• No changes to *A travel flights once travel has commenced
• Extending qualification period by three months because customers were taking their business to AA
• Upgrading MP status based on current projections. That is, customers getting 1K benefits when they haven't flown 100,000 miles

I'd like to see some stability in the program and know that when I commit to fly 100,000 miles I can expect to enjoy the advertised rewards, not have them pulled from under me.

One problem that is on my wish list is the ability to upgrade on partner airlines using UA miles. Now that would be great!

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Latitudes.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

Ok I'll bite.

You left BBB of USAirways off your list. He started alot of the program devaulations last year

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

I'll just mention my two biggest peeves:

1. Award Redemption

2. Failure to recognize elite status and provide the advertised benefits (I get REALLY tired of arguing with hotel front desk personnel about what I am supposed to get).

Djlawman

1 Award availability

2 Difficulty in checking a range of dates online. I just can't spend hours typing in dates to find the combination of days with an available flight.

3 Availability of flights outside of hub cities.

From the home office in Chicago's Midway Airport....

The Top Ten Problems Members Have With Frequent Flyer Programs.

10. Not knowing if they will qualify for next year's top tier with only 99,823 YTD miles.

9. No miles accumulation on Air Force One.

8. No elite qualification accumulated for flights departing from airports east of the Mississippi River, south of the Ohio River if the departure time is within 20 minutes of high tide at at Cape Lookout, Oregon on the third Tuesday after a blue moon in the fiscal 2nd quarter of the airline you are flying on.

7. When you already feel like a LUSer, you are forced to do the HoKeY pokey and get further inSULTed in trying to see if you MaYBe get upgraded when you purchase your ticket.

6. Having to start valuing your miles as worth 2 Turkish Lira each instead of 2 cents each.

5. Telling the agent you would like to redeem an award for anytime between now and the year 2076 and they tell you, "Sorry....all sold out."

4. Hearing, “After flying 38,000 miles through 4 continents and 15 countries over the course of 12 days and out mileage running 11 other teams, you have been enhanced.”

3. You get the feeling that your 2004 Super-Duper-Triple-Diamond-Ultra-Platinum card will be printed on the back of a free Whopper coupon.

2. Waiting for the day that they start charging monthly account maintenance fees if your account balance falls below 1,000,000 miles.


AND THE NUMBER ONE PROBLEM MEMBERS HAVE WITH FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAMS

Five words – ROYAL PAIN IN THE A$$.


[This message has been edited by DLSIZE (edited 08-29-2003).]

xyzzy:
I base my opinion on experience. I often fly using rewards ( about 10 times per year) There are two airlines I generally use DL or CO. Delta has been outstanding whenever I needed a reward. On the other hand, Continental has been dreadful. This was not the case a few years ago. But today Continental is dreadful when it comes to reward availability. That is the reason I chose to be specific.

You are loyal customer when purchasing their product but they are not loyal when it comes to redeeming their miles, therefore they should be called out. Too bad if you have a problem with my position. It comes down to my money.

1. Dilusion and watering down of benefits;
2. Increasing unwillingness to waive fare rules or make exceptions for elites;
3. Diminishing service in first class, e.g. US plastic cups;

I think the loss of "romance" is a big factor in elite dissatisfaction. Those little details handled with a lot of care and special attention.

Make us feel excited about earning and redeeming miles. Make us want to share this "secret" of elite travel with future loyal customers and grow the airline business.

VIP2s on AA made you go anywhere you want and grab the available seat. Now what - we stand in line with million other non-elites and wait and wait until an upgrade clears. Where is the pleasure factor?

The biggest problem with award programs is the low level it takes to qualify. These entry level fliers--20k or so--spend so much time whining and acting like they own the airline, it is boring.
As a 200,000+ mile per year flier, I get tired of being pushed around by these minimal level fliers, who whine and complain about food, lack of upgrades, etc.
Concentrate on safety, getting where you want to get usually with your luggage, and please quit whining about the extraneous stuff...it gets old.

I think my #1 pet peeve is award devaluation especially when it's excessive (BA or AA for some routes), or it occurs with very little notice (AA just recently, and HHonors). I include in this devaluation practices such as charging $100 for date changes on award tix (AA) and expedite fees on e-tix. "Free" awards are definitely not free anymore.

Inconsistent service seems to also be a widespread problem: with programs that change so quickly, the number of CSR who don't know the rules of their own program has skyrocketed.

Award availability has not been a big problem for me so far, using UA and AA miles to my destinations of choice, but I can sympatize w/NW-CO fflyers, having had to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to book a recent trip with them.

I think this bears directly on both the award availability and devaluation issues, but I'm less kind to the airlines about it, since no one's forcing them to issue so many non-flight miles.

It's easy to see the incentives they have for selling so many non-flight miles when it's a major source of revenue. But at what point does it become akin to selling lottery tickets, rather than something that has any certain value? (In Georgia, for one, state law differentiates between selling a product or service and operating a raffle or lottery).

The airlines probably fear a public relations hit from devaluing, especially if they do it in the most honest, straightforward way (not the "stealth" way like Continental is doing). If people wake up to miles worth half what they were, people might stop being "incented" by them and that'd hurt revenue.

Yet it's hard to see self-regulation leading to any other outcome because airlines won't stop selling so many miles to non-airline partners on their own. So the unredeemed miles will continue to grow faster than the seat availability.

Maybe the answer is government-mandated disclosure requirements, not unlike what we have with on-time performance. Getting a good metric might be tough (% of total issued miles redeemed in x year?) But then, in a near-perfect world, airlines would be competitive to have the best stats like they do with on-time, and the better ones could even use the stats in advertising.

If airlines can't be counted on to stop the erosion, then shining more light on it might slow it down.


[This message has been edited by RustyC (edited 08-30-2003).]

[This message has been edited by RustyC (edited 08-30-2003).]

The normally much maligned Air Canada Aeroplan program has got it right with its top tier (100K flown miles qualifies for 'Super Elite')

* NO CAPACITY CONTROLS if Super Elites redeem awards on AC metal

* No premium (ie-double miles redemption ) for Super Elites' no capacity controlled seats

* Lack of transferability of Super Elite SWUSs; the SE member must be travelling on a SWU in order for a companion to use one as well. While I normally view transferability as a good thing, Aeroplan understands the concept of 'breakage'- the fewer people that have the chance to redeem an award, the MORE availability of that award.


Now, if you are a mid-tier member of Aeroplan, their program absolutely reeks. And their earning ability for intra-Canada flights should drive all but its mega frequent fiers into the arms of waiting US programs!

It's called a 10-K filing... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I hesitate to complain, because I did get the last two award tickets available on Concorde at the time I booked http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif (this with no status on Qantas, where I pulled the miles, nor British, on which I flew), but in general award availability is sometimes a problem, even for top status members.

Failure of agents, especially at hotels, to understand the benefits of top status, can be frustrating. I am a good sweet talker, but I shouldn't have to do that. All airline agents seem to know when they are talking to a top status person and how to respond when so doing.

Failure to provide elite security by-pass lines at all airports.

Failure to provide exclusive top status check-in lines at both hotels and some airports.

That's all that bugs me. Can't think of 10. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The overwhelming theme seems to be lack of TRANSPARENCY....just open the hood of these programs and show us what the hell is actually going on.

What is the methodology that the 'inventory management' uses to determine:
* HOW MANY award seats are allocated per flight and WHY
* WHEN are award seats released and WHY
* HOW MUCH do the programs pay the airlines per mile or per award to open up award seats and WHY...clearly there must be some inducement for the airlines to service their programs, but is the current inducement enough.


I also don't appreciate the statistical sleight of hand whereby the airlines reveal TOTAL number of awards redeemed per year (usually between 7-10% of available seats over their total network). Flying Cleveland-Green Bay in Coach there's almost 100% chance of award redemption at time of booking; flying Cleveland-Bangkok in First is a FAR different story. Please breakdown per route how the award redemptions are allocated. Then, we can have an apples-to-apples comparison about which programs have the best potential service our individual flying patterns.


Give top-tier members choices; like on UA, offer 1Ks EITHER:
* 6 SWUs
or
* 2-3 no capacity controlled SWUs
or
* 1 no capacity controlled intl. F or J awards
or
* 2 no capacity controlled intl. Y awards
or
* 2 no capacity controlled domestic F or J awards
or
* 3 no capacity controlled domestic Y awards

My main gripe about awards programs are airlines that don't answer questions posed to them. Instead we receive a KANA automated responce that has no relation to the question answered. This is a sign that the airline company in question is too big and hurting consumers and their employees.

These are interesting questions. But take BA as an example. Their business class and first class seats are highly sought after. But if you have a scheme that allows anyone to buy UNLIMITED BA miles at 1.7 cents per mile, how will transparency by BA help? (Note to ozstamps - one cannot use iDine or credit cards to purchase an UNLIMIED number of BA miles for 1.7c/mile, but one could use the Inside Flyer promotion to do so).


[This message has been edited by PG (edited 08-31-2003).]

PG-

You have simply added another question to the TRANSPARENCY issue.

* WHY don't airline and hotel programs better control their access to earning miles/points?

I don't think its instructive to blame idine or Inside Flyer or ozstamps, etc. for their ingenuity or resourcefullness, when the programs are in fact COMPLICIT in approving these promotions.

Further, such promotions are utilized by a miniscule number of people; they are not the blame for program changes or lack of access to awards.

"Inventory management" with regards to an award seat. My #1 gripe would be that the consumer has absolutely no right to information regarding how an airline decides how many award seats are available on a particular flight. Without this information, we must rely on forums like these, "Inside Flyer", and word of mouth to form any kind of rating system in regards to award seat availability, where and when we wish to travel.

1. Award availability
2. Promotion, bonus, and partner miles not posting.
3.CSRs not familiar with the rules or changes in the rule.
4. Devaluation of miles\points.

The whole devaluation/inflation issues is a nuisance, but I can understand why the airlines do it (even as they are the major culprits in the first place). The whole "FF miles" world has expanded far beyond purely air miles flown -- credit cards, hotels, car rental, mortgages, phone bill, ad nauseum. Just check all the other threads! If a commodity is easy to acquire, its value goes down. Simple economics.

I have been collecting FF miles for 20 years, but it is only in the past 7 years or so that I have travelled enough to get a large portion of my miles from actually flying.

If the airlines want to truly cultivate brand loyalty (and that was how it all started, right?), then I could see them making a distinction between miles earned from flights vs miles earned from non-air partners. And reward the true 'frequent flyer' while giving some (lower) level of awards to non-air mile earners.

But who would blink first?



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Da DOK

I would disagree: Airlines SOLD the mile to credit card companies, phone companies, etc., Airlines got their MONEY ALREADY. They should let customers redeem them, so they should add more reward seats accordingly. If airlines don't add more reward seating, that would be called FRAUD.

I don't care that 8% (or whatever the number is) of seats are rewards seatings. I only care if 8% of miles (sold or flown with that airline) are redeemed each year.

Why when you have the miles you cannot go anywhere without a "mud wrestling match" with CSR. (ei: CO OP, to CLE-HNL 35K miles. Call 330 days before flight & told "no setas available under 70K redemption amount" I made 78 calls in 21 days getting the same lame response. I then phone Houston Corp office & there I get 2 35K seats! WHY?

DL always had 4PM arrival at OGG for 8 years we lfew them, then nonstop to Atl returning home. Now they arrive at 7PM, after stopping at ATL from CLE, then LAX before arriving at OGG at almost 7:30PM last time. Their reason: Pilots do not fly more than 6 hours per their new contract. SO TAKE 2 CREWS! Flying home, we have totake interisland to HNL to get an early afternoon flight instead of 11PM at OGG. Then you are swatted with magazines to wake you up to disembark at LAX & then sit for 1.5 hours with no refreshments, since no one is open at LAX at 2AM, then get back on to fly to ATL.

This year I booked UAL flight for 2/14 CLE,ORD,SFO,OGG since they arrive at 2:30PM at OGG, using my DL SM. Then I read that they parted partners after 3/1/04 & I return home 3/4. So far no phonecall or email telling me I can't fly home on UAL. Maybe since I am booked 330 days in advance it isn't a problem, I hope.....

ALSO why the priority sticker is on luggage that shows up dead last at the airport!

1. CO's award redemption fee. CO's "cost" to redeem an award is the same whether the award is redeemed one day, one week, one month, or one year in advance. Awards have already been "paid" for, but now to redeem an award on short notice, CO charges again. Another way for CO to charge as much as it can for every seat it sells.

2. CO's elimination of the 20,000 mile award.

3. Award availability.

4. Gordo the Liar

I see it is quite common, but I will say it again:

Ability to use miles for standard awards - and not only being able to use them, but the fact that the airlines basically can give no information as to how many seats are allocated and so forth. I suspect that airlines often allocate NO seats for flights they think they will sell out and only release them later at their discretion. Because they divulge no information whatsoever as to how many seats were available, we have no way of knowing.

Considering that they sell the miles for a definate profit - they should at least be straightforward in how they allocate award seats and commit to having a minimum number of award seats allocated for every flight. If I request a flight they should tell me that, for example, "10 seats were allocated and 8 are taken" or "10 were allocated and all are taken." To most people, charging twice the going rate of miles for lifting capacity controls when the system for these capacity controls is a big mystery is quite deceptive.