dabee69

I would advice to complain so Balticmiles can see our input. I think it is realistic to get at least upgrades back.

dabee69

http://www.airbaltic.com/public/spen...tml?language=1


Please note
Until further notice Classic Rewards offer does not apply to the following routes: between Riga and Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Kiev, Milan, Oslo, Rome, Venice, Stockholm, and between Vilnius and Rome.

dabee69

How does it look like in account statement? Is it like one entry with flight count 2?

another_shot

It is 2 entries, separate for each leg. I have no idea how exactly they splitting it price wise (it is not 50/50), may be it reflects internal BT value for each sector. Anyway two entries together coming up at correct points (EURx5 or x 10). When I have more 2-leg 1-fare flights credited I'll share some observations about it.

By the way, I've now noticed one more thing: EUR 10 fee what they taking for booking is not counted for points! Before I had most of the flights on corp rate with no booking fee but now I've got a credit for the flight taken on public fare and it is exactly 50 points less than should be if you multiply the total paid amount by 5.

hbush

airBaltic has (at last) published their new upgrade policy to Business class for BalticMiles points. As expected, conditions now are much worse than previously. New policy is:

http://www.airbaltic.com/public/spending_points.html

Points necessary for upgrade to Business Class
Scandinavia and Baltic’s 8 000
Central and Eastern Europe 10 000
Western and Southern Europe 13 000
Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East 16 500

Previous rates were:

airBaltic destination countries - Miles needed for upgrade:
- Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltics - 4 500
- Austria, Belgium, Germany, Belarus, Netherlands,
Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Moldova 7 500
- UK, Ireland, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey - 11 250
- South Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East - 17 000

Besides, these new points are much harder to get, specially on connected flights. IMHO this new BalticMiles policy strongly discourages using Riga as flight connection hub, despite official BT position.

vilntrav

No more direct flights VNO-CDG from March 24th, according to an Air Baltic representative.
They propose to switch to VNO-RX-CDG. I asked for a refund and I will fly with Scandinavian.

tsastor

This is exactly it, IMO, I won't fly enough of BT to make VIP and without decent upgrade offers it will not be fun to connect via RIX. I'm tired to sit three hours in the Laima cafe without lounge access.

another_shot

To get a lounge access in RIX you only need Exec level.

hbush

Only when traveling alone. To get traveling companion into the BT lounge one needs VIP level.

On current "BalticPennies" conditions I would prefer to use my Priority Pass card and simply pay for lounge access when it's necessary. Unfortunately there isn't such an opportunity in RIX, probably because the only one available lounge belongs to airBaltic, not to the RIX airport. It used to be RIX lounge but few years ago in not very clear circumstances it was sold to BT.

another_shot

That's again for RIX only, other airports you can't take a guest anyway.

However in other airports BT tends to use the worst possible lounges (same where you can get into with PP)

Mr.Niels

There are rumours circulating around within the Air Baltic Cooperation, saying that they are thinking about changing back to the old rules regarding Baltic Miles. On the other hand, they have some useless people in leading management positions who claim that they do no need an FT-Programme at all. Guess that's the problem when you have Latvians without proper education and management background in key positions...
Let's see what happens in the next 3 months, I will have a chance to meet Mr. Flick at a conference in April and will for sure ask him some questions.

hbush

Yep. That's why it's good to have also some other cards (like EBG), leaving PP only as "last resort"

hbush

Interesting. But I have to say that BT has lost big part of flyers confidence anyway. It takes years to create and adjust good loyalty program, to gain client's long-term confidence etc. But all this can be ruined very quickly by incompetent, sudden decisions.

Hmmm... I would strongly object against using ethnic background or nationality as business qualifier There are both incompetent fools and geniuses in any ethos and country. The problem is, to put right people in the right job position. It seems that with current BalticMiles it is not the case.

My impression sofar is that now in BT people who "reorganize" BalticMiles program simply are not competent in air transportation. Their approach is somehow oversimplified, like with small purchases in cheap food mall "Maxima". They probably do not know traditions, history of airline loyality programs, interaction with another FF programs, they do not understand frequent flyers after all.

Excellent. Please tell him what real frequent fliers think about this "reorganization" and what will be the consequences.

jfidler

That is indeed one possibility. The other is that maybe they don't care? Does BT basically have a monopoly position in their main markets? In RIX they certainly do, and I'd say they do in TLL as well. While OV and a few other airlines serve TLL, it is typically with one flight a day at most to a destination. Meanwhile BT has multiple flights a day, every day, to many popular destinations (via RIX) and frequent feeder flights from TLL-RIX.

In other words, if BT didn't have a loyalty program at all, would people still fly BT? I think in markets like RIX and TLL they would -- there is simply no other choice in most cases.

I lived in Estonia for many years and recently moved back to the US. I forgot what it was like to be pampered for choice when choosing flights and carriers. There are certainly many negative aspects to air traffic in the US ($25 to check a bag for non-status fliers; no free meals, etc), but at least there are many flights to choose from, across many carriers.

another_shot

What you say is partially correct. in 2010 BT share at TLL airport was 14% (OV was 39%).
In my opinion, based on what I see around when flying a couple of times a week from TLL, main BT customers are people who only care about the price. Those people don't need and don't care about any FFP in most cases, they flying just a couple of times per year anyway. Another part (much smaller) are people to whom BT schedules and/or destinations suit well. For sure BT network and frequency is by far superior to OV, however there are not so many destinations they serving more than daily ex RIX (comparing to SK ex CPH/ARN). You can't make Milan or London and many other places in a morning or in the evening with BT - they have only one mid-day flight. Still I only dream to have the same choise of direct flights and freq ex TLL with OV.

Once in TLL lounge you can see how many people stand up and go upon BT boarding call (normally between none and two. the most I ever seen was 3), compare that to OV boarding call to CPH or ARN when a fully-packed lounge becomes empty in a minute.
So the choise is there - OV+SK in many cases is a better option schedule wise due to much higher freq ex CPH/ARN, still BT can perfectly do in TLL without having any FFP. Pretty much the same also applies to VNO.