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.