HP - Am I missing something ?
 

Randy -
The more I look at FlightFund - the more I like it. It seems that it might be a "Rodney Dangerfield" of ff programs. Decent partners - a bit weak in the Pacific but strong in the Atlantic with BOTH BA and VS. Platinums get 125% mileage bonus and unlimited CONFIRMED upgrades with Y AND H - not just Y. Colleagues report terrific upgrade success rates and an inproving (still not there yet) service culture. Could I please get your thoughts on this program - THANKS -kazman

Sure the program might be good, but the airline you gotta fly is awful! America West is FlightFund's greatest weakness, not the other way around!

One negative is that you can only upgrade on Continental at the airport on day of departure (2 hrs). But this can be turned around as a plus, since CO elites can't upgrade until the airport, meaning you have an easy shot at upgrades on HP.

I agree. I have flown some real bad airlines ( and they shall remain nameless). Every flight of mine on HP has been memorable for the wrong reasons. I was on HP 2 weeks ago and hated the problems they had with 2 out of 4 flights. They have more than their share of problems. Every time, I take a vow of not flying on them again.

America West is one of those airlines like Northwest where you need to separate the program from the airline itself - tough to do since they are essentially each other. On paper, FlightFund looks pretty goood having formed unique partnerships (name another airline that has both Virgin and BA as international partners) and their recent change to an overall lower award schedule than most if not all their competition. As for the Continental upgrade - as one who more than likely likes to add to an old Continental account, I don't care for the change, however, as one who likes to look over the landscape for why the change was made - Bravo. There is no doubt that all these alliances has made life as an elite easier than ever before to acheive, but hell for those in the native programs who now are sharing everything with strangers. I'll be a throwback and support FlightFund for that change. For me, I don't like the idea that as an airline they changed to these small regional jets with no first class on the way out of Colorado Springs, which means that any elite benefit i have, other than early boarding is gone. But I agree with the others, if they could get their collective employee asses together and deliver service and safety, this is an airline who has one fine program for an airline their size.