Dashman - were you scheduled to fly on the 10th of June? I believe the through flight to ORD flight (870 via SFO) was horribly delayed. I flew on that day via LAX and then on the 1355 to ORD.

What did you think of E+?

Regards

WG

Yes, got to Sydney for my flight last saturday and it was chaos; they changed me from the LAX flight to go via SFO and informed me no Y+ or isle or window seats available – at that point I was questioning my move to UA! Anyway things improved; they found me a Y+ seat and window (would have preferred isle) so I was happy. The extra leg room made a huge difference; hard to believe I know, but you can stretch your legs right out under the seat in front; also, same config is offered on the domestic services so leg room remains available. I was happy with the switch, especially considering status match to Prem Exec (1P/Star Gold) came through the day after my request. Also using the points from my SYD-ORD (which posted a day after travel) I scored a confirmed upgrade to J on the way home (15,000pts); now trying doing that on Qanats! I’m looking forward to NZ’s new Y+; that could be best option of a "budget" trans-pac. My feeling is that Qantas are going to have to find something soon to plug the hole between Y and J to keep those of us happy that can’t spring 10K to get across the pacific. Thanks again to all who contributed to this post.

Though *A are having rather a few problems at the mo., so if you are gonna move all your business there anyone, don't say that you were not warned !

See Star Alliance: The Bankrupt Airline Network for Earth

and for specifics -

AFX News Limited
Brazil's Varig files for bankruptcy protection
06.19.2005 - Forbes.com

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFX) - Brazilian airline Varig SA filed Friday for bankruptcy protection in a Rio de Janeiro court, demanding temporary suspension of its debt for 180 days, a company attorney told AFP.

The request in the commerce court would bar creditors from taking legal action to demand that Varig, one of Latin America's largest airlines, pay back it debt, said attorney Marcelo Carpenter.

Brazil's largest airline, which has accumulated 2.6 bln usd in debt, simultanuously filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, according to a Varig official.

Varig's move prompted the Sao Paulo stock exchange to suspend transactions of the airline's shares, exchange sources said.

The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) had asked Varig on June 8 to return 11 Boeing aircraft if it failed to pay its bills by Friday.

In May, Portuguese carrier TAP-Portugal and Varig signed a memorandum of understanding under which TAP can directly or indirectly acquire a stake of up to 20 pct of Varig, the maximum allowed a foreign company by Brazilian law.

Earlier this month, TAP-Portugal president Fernando Pinto said the rescue plan would take up to six months to be completed and that TAP would not inject capital directly into Varig.

Instead TAP would coordinate the financial operation which will involve several investors with the Portuguese airline also providing planes to Varig in an effort to boost its capitalization, he was quoted as saying in the Portuguese business daily Diario Economico.

Varig is a member of the Star Alliance, the world's largest airline partnership, which is led by Germany's Lufthansa and United Airlines.

AFP

I have to agree. It is almost the best feature of UA, besides...
the upgrade possibilities that Mileage Plus offers. No chance of that EVER happening with anything like the current QF scheme. If it only cost 15k points, I guess you were on a full fare (Y/B) ticket? If so, you would have earned 150% EQM's as well. Well on the way to requalifying for Premier Executive (1P) ^^. Don't forget, if you make it to 1K, you get 6 SWU's which are just like the mileage upgrades but they can be used on much lower fares (Y,B,M,H,Q,V,W) to upgrade to Business. Or Business to First of course :D
I haven't tried NZ's Premium Economy product, and while the upgrades are flowing on UA, I don't think I will be. :D

I am surprised that QF haven't introduced a premium Y product too. If anything, BA has got it right just so op-ups, or points upgrades to J must pay a much higher fare to "get into J" for free.

NZ's premium economy hasnt started yet! It will be much better than UA's Y+.

Nice seat with more room, full avod (as will non-premium economy), business class food and drink.

Update: got my card last week. I am now PremEx but only till Feb 2006. Bit disappointed that it didn't go through to 2007 (would have definitely increased my *A travel) but this is also a lot better than just being plain Premier!

This is a fantastic thread - ex-Qantas guy here now USA-based, and as disgruntled with all the QF award changes as everyone else here!

On my way to 1P in a couple of weeks, and this thread really highlighted the benefits of 1K (with the SWU's etc), so I think a few mileage runs are in order ;)

Thanks again.

Umm, speak for yourself; the changes in May were beneficial for me

Dave

:) me too

I can see how you might be able to gain status faster under the new scheme, but with award levels rising for almost everything except the 16k Y award I can't see how you would come out ahead. :confused:

Or did the 5k loyalty bonus help pay for the more expensive, non-confirmable upgrades benefit you over those darn UC's that always expired?

Just curious is all...

You are ignoring the major improvements for upgrades. Under the old scheme, when upgrading SYD-SIN-LHR, it could theoretically cost me 90,000 under the new scheme. In reality , however, it was never possible to confirm both sectors without waitlisting.

Since both upgrades wouldn't clear together , the cost to upgrade was 115,000.

Under the new scheme, I waitlist for an upgrade as before, but it will all clear at the same time and cost me 96,000.

This is a saving of 19,000 points to the old scheme

Dave

Fair point, but it hardly seems like they need to change the entire FF program when this could be fixed with a rejigging of the code that deducts points for upgrades.

Do you think that this one improvement makes the rest of the changes balance out?

BTW, I confirmed SYD-LHR on QF1 with 5 UC's at one point. IIRC, it was about 8 months out though.

It does for me since this is one of the few things I use miles for. The last time I used miles for a flight itself was when I used 37,500ish for a business class MEL-SYD , SYD-BNE, BNE-CNS, CNS-AYQ, AYQ-PER, PER-MEL award

I never book that far out and I have never been able to confirm the whole trip and have had to waitlist. Since I don't use N,O or Q fares when travelling internationally to UK, the inability to upgrade on those fares doesn't concern me

The loss of UCs is a shame, but at 1 per 450SCs, they had been losing worth for me anyway. At 1 per 250, they were good

Dave

That would now cost 140,000 points. I certainly consider 37,500 to 140,000 to be severe degradation to the system, moreso when you would also pay hundreds of dollars in fees on top now.

Indeed there has been a big degredation from the old Km system to the present day when it comes to domestic travel. minuses of ye olde scheme was no international upgrades, domestic upgrades only on the top 3 fare bases, requirement to order upgrade certificates in advance to upgrade domestic flights for advance booking

Comparing the current scheme to the pre-may scheme , which is what I was referring to, I have been affected in a positive manner

Dave