Hi Everyone, here's a sneak preview of our 2010 OnePass changes, which we'll be broadcasting later today. Hopefully you'll agree that a good many of these changes are actually, dare I say, enhancements!

While most of our 2010 changes actually take effect in 2009, please note their individual effective dates. Here they are:
That’s it for now. I’m sure you have plenty of questions, so let ‘em rip! There’s more goodness to come, but this is all we can talk about for now. Thanks as always for your feedback and tough love. It really does make a difference.

Glad to see that someone else is up early working in Houston.

On first glance I would have to agree that the changes are a plus for the program going into 2010.

Thanks for all your efforts CO Insider.

Thanks for sharing! Much appreciated.

Sorry to see that EQ points will drop to 1.5 for Y fares. This will certainly make it harder to requalify plat on points. What will happen to the B fares?

Waiving same day change fees is very nice indeed -thanks- but CO Gold/Plat = Star Gold does reduce the incentive to go for plat again next year....

thanks for the update...

I love #s 2, 4, and 6. Also I like the reward chart, much easier to read that then having to click through all the series on the website in my opinion.

I am curious as to #7, the change from 2 points to 1.5. Earlier in the year I had only 45k EQM with 90ish points until my international travel kicked in, but it was nice making platinum by buying full fare tickets to short destinations on ERJs. One of the biggest benefits of status is EUA but that option isn't even available if you are on an ERJ. If you are on flights often with first class cabins then you are already gaining plenty of EQM and the points don't even matter much. I just don't see the reasoning as to lowering it to 1.5 points when it really only hurts the regional hoppers who receive almost no benefits already if all they fly are ERJs.

If the threshold remains at 90 points, I would see myself buying fewer full fare tickets on regional jets since the main advantage for me would be gone. It would now take 60 full fare flights versus the previous 45. Overall though, I really like the changes.

Thanks for the update! It is appreciated!

Good Morning and thanks for some news to start the day!

Will this also apply to Copa Airlines?

To be clear, Elite Qualification Miles will still earn be earned at 150%?

Am I reading this correctly that being a Platinum is going to be completely fee-free as of October 27? No SDC, no close-in reward and no other fees?

The big down-side is the cut in F/C/D/J earnings. Will Y/B fares also drop to 125% (or 100% ) EQMs? You do not Y will be 1.5 EQPs so it seems that is possible.

And I'm still going through the new reward chart - HI rewards are higher - but I haven't done a full comparison yet. It is wonderfully nice that it is now a single chart for all carriers. ^^ And I'm also quite happy to see that the RTW rewards have stayed close to the same (only Y went up, to 160K) and that the forward cabin on 2-cabin planes (including CO BF and VS UC) is considered a J reward, not an F reward. It is about time.

Thanks for sharing the details!

I get way more value from the waived fees as a Platinum (and will even more since they are dropping even more) than I do out of lounge access on international itineraries. Getting both is quite nice.

Do this apply to EQMs ?

Forgive me if I've missed a thread, but has anything leaked about the likely perks for CO Elites on UA and US?

This looks positive. Looks like CO has been converging Onepass and UA Mileage Plus benefits and listening to FTers.

Of course, the tiers, mileage levels, and upgrade features are still TBD.

I did hear yesterday (unofficial) that there would be seemless ticketing with Star Alliance and reciprocal upgrades.

No details on what reciprocal upgrades means - domestic? international co-pay + miles compatibility? if domestic - with who UA / US? And what about UA E+?

So some of the big stuff is yet to come. But thanks Scott for getting this info to us.

The upgrade chart is for only CO/CM/CS flights. Does this mean that CO will not be participating in the *A upgrade program? Or even upgrades with their new BFF UA?

Also, there is a typo on the EasyPass page. In the ** details for the routing note via the USA you have the word "included" where you probably mean to have "include." And, if I may, I'd suggest/request that you change that to read "via" rather than "include." I spent a few minutes just now trying to figure out if USAir was more expensive for any particular reason.

Maybe that is one of the things that he was not allowed to talk about.

On the net I think these are positive changes for CO (especially the 100% EQM through all channels). The remaining critical question in my mind is what will reciprocity/benefits look like with UA and US?