Star Alliance Award Chart have been changed over night to the worse
Oct 31, 2018, 9:37 am
#46
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: AGH
Posts: 5,961
The online booking is online. Still doesn't show F and with very limited availability (hope the call center still can get the other connections showing up on UA.com) but at least confirms the fees have been lowered and you can even use the AMEX 2-4-1 voucher.
Oct 31, 2018, 2:02 pm
#47
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: YVR, KUL
Programs: AC, MH, BA, AF-KL
Posts: 2,903
Is it now impossible to spoon feed the agent individual segments? The website doesn't show long connections (e.g close to but under 24h) on perfectly logical routings, so it would be terrible if they can only take what the website displays.
Nov 1, 2018, 12:00 am
#49
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Tokyo
Programs: JAL Metal Card (OWE), SAS Eurobonus Gold (*G), Marriott Titanium (LTP), Tokyu Hotels Platinum
Posts: 21,103
I get the point about reducing the YQ as a compensation, but considering the overall level of YQ on SK the hike is beyond reason.
Luckily I am realtively low on points, having just redeemed, and within striking distance of a requal as Gold. The requalification point being the time to jump ship, so I am covered with Gold status while running up the tally on A3.
Having to do a fair amount of European cities to and from Copenhagen, I'll still be a passenger just not a member any longer
Luckily I am realtively low on points, having just redeemed, and within striking distance of a requal as Gold. The requalification point being the time to jump ship, so I am covered with Gold status while running up the tally on A3.
Having to do a fair amount of European cities to and from Copenhagen, I'll still be a passenger just not a member any longer
Nov 1, 2018, 1:04 am
#51
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Koala Lemur
Programs: SK EBD LTG (*G)
Posts: 2,445
If in the aggregate the YQ charge cap is a net positive for customers of the SK loyalty program, then I’m betting that SK will have already found or soon will find one way or another to get its pound of flesh from customers on or after Halloween. SK is hooked to devaluing the program as part of its corporate cost-cutting exercise, and marketing expenditures via loyalty programs aren’t seen by airlines as being as useful for airlines today as used to be the case. And so they feel it’s fine to make the program less costly for the airline and more costly for passengers.
Nov 1, 2018, 2:11 am
#52
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Tokyo
Programs: JAL Metal Card (OWE), SAS Eurobonus Gold (*G), Marriott Titanium (LTP), Tokyu Hotels Platinum
Posts: 21,103
However I have never redeemed an economy class ticket, and I don't plan to.
What other positives do you see?
Nov 1, 2018, 2:14 am
#53
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: DXB
Programs: Marriott Titanium Elite, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, BA Silver, A3 Gold, Sixt Diamond
Posts: 2,809
I actually think that is pretty nice, yes. The big downside however is the booking fee, which will eat up most of your YQ savings. That has also increased the cost for US domestic awards (which apparently didn’t have YQ anyway). It was a smart move.
Nov 1, 2018, 3:36 am
#54
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: EBG4Life, EBD, 1MM
Posts: 1,397
Did anyone else get a nice laugh from the generic SAS email sent today? Nothing better than SAS reminding us to travel with them as they systematically degrading Eurobonus😡.
Lower earnings...check
Increase award cost...check
Send email reminding customers how great we are...
Perhaps they need to rethink the order of these rollouts.
Lower earnings...check
Increase award cost...check
Send email reminding customers how great we are...
Perhaps they need to rethink the order of these rollouts.
Nov 1, 2018, 4:54 am
#55
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
What motivation and unique set of circumstances does SK currently face that would drive SK to make a net positive change for SK loyalty program customers and the accumulated balances such customers already have? In an environment where the market is tending to get less generous with loyalty program customers in the main, why would SK deviate from the mean in such a way as to try to go in for a full-throttled net positive for SK loyalty program customers? If anything seems to be true about SK today, it is that it is not that adventurous today as it used to be with its operations, including with its loyalty program operations.
This kind of change may put increased demand for SK’s own seats and their limited award inventory, and that will set customers up for another devaluation of the SK loyalty program in one or more ways.
What is a lucrative move for SK (at least in the short term) isn’t necessarily a lucrative move for SK loyalty program customers. Unfortunately, we are mostly talking about a zero-sum or negative-sum game environment being applicable to the airline loyalty program customers under current market conditions. So while it may be a short term smart move for SK, it can be a short term and even long term negative development in the main for most SK loyalty program customers.
Last edited by GUWonder; Nov 1, 2018 at 5:01 am
Nov 1, 2018, 11:26 am
#59
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
It seems like SAS is doing whatever it can to kill off its loyalty program from having a solid mass market appeal. And loyalty programs aimed toward niche upmarket segments in the aviation sector tend to flop since a large and varied customer base is the best in order to spread the fixed and variable costs of the loyalty program while keeping the program attractive enough to enough customers without hitting the customers with obvious and unusually high opportunity costs of the sort that drive them away and further undermine the viability of the program.
Nov 1, 2018, 12:07 pm
#60
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Koala Lemur
Programs: SK EBD LTG (*G)
Posts: 2,445
What motivation and unique set of circumstances does SK currently face that would drive SK to make a net positive change for SK loyalty program customers and the accumulated balances such customers already have? In an environment where the market is tending to get less generous with loyalty program customers in the main, why would SK deviate from the mean in such a way as to try to go in for a full-throttled net positive for SK loyalty program customers?