Hi!

I was just wondering if there will be any changes in the earning and elite level of the current Skyteam members with the soon to be newbies joining the alliance? Have not seen any of this in the FFP of the current airlines eg: CZ, AZ or KE or even AF... I hope that they will not start changing the earning system into some of the other alliances eg: BA and LH which makes it really difficult to remain an elite, move up the ladder or become one..

Thanks and great day!

As far as AF is concerned, there might conceivably be changes next year, when the AF and FD programmes are merger. As for the others, there is no special reason why this would change.

In fact, AZ changed the programme this year to reduce the thresholds for elite status. I seem to remember that last year 40K was needed for Club Ulisse (SkyTeam Elite) and 90K for Club Freccia Alata (SkyTeam Elite Plus).

These have been reduced to 25K and 75K respectively for 2004.

Yeah, read about this, was more leaning towards the side of how they will incoporate the new members earnings into their program.. I of course hope that they will not make it too difficult and divide it into those horrible Y-subclasses too drastically.. for example N,T,X,E,S,Q, etc.. and with introduce earnings as little as 125 miles.. (which is worst then renting a car or staying at a hotel!)....

Alitalia has started spoiling it for the rest of us. Virtually unrestricted biz class D fare on AZ earns NO F+ miles, and lots of discounted AZ economy fares give just 10% of miles in OK+ (i.e. a whopping 50 miles for domestic Italian flights, 100 for European ones). As both AF and OK don't seem to be taking the "stingy" BA approach, I can only speculate it's AZ's fault.
On the whole I hope and believe that AF will realise that offering minimal miles for cheap fares will turn a lot of people off. Miles cost an airline very little and can bring in quite a bit of incremental revenue, especially from those FFs who normally buy cheap fares but need a walk-up every once in a while.

Whoooww... I did not notice the new changes for AZ, checked it out at the OK+ site and yep, they have made changes in the earning for AZ.. which really suck big time I wonder why do they bother giving such misery miles.. especially AZ, I think since if miles are not too expensive, they should not have such drastic cuts in order to attract travellers to fly them (with regards to their current situation)... I think if they might feel the effect of less and less people travelling with them domestically (since they are not that cheap anyway domestically) and go with their competitors. But still wow! 50 miserable miles.. that is not even worth a packet of peanuts for cying out loud.. I do wonder what those people at AZ are thinking.. Thought that LH and BA can do that cause they have the dominant in most market, but AZ.. what a pity
I just hope that the others (especially KL and NW, when they join) do not follow suite.. though one good thing at least u can still earn elite status with flight segments

ps:sorry if this reply sounds a bit "weird", can't help it that these days earning miles/points seems to be getting difficult, especially if u try to get cheap tickets..

Hi!

Just called OK Plus, to check on somethings and one of the question that I posed was about the new earnings for Alitalia, the 10% thing. Well, guess what, seems that it is an error.. caused I just received the email from the CSA and was informed that they did make an error in the english version and that their Czech version was something else. I did check out the Czech version and Alitalia still has an earning of 100% miles or 500 basic miles. However, I do suspect that soon, they will change that 10% earning rule into a 50% rule. As the CSA agreed with me that 50miles is nothing..
So, am curious what will their new earning turn out to be..
Anyway, below is a snippet of the email I received from them.

"I have been talking to the OK PLUS. I asked about the 10% miles and we found that on the Czech version the 10% is not mentioned. The OK Plus center will deal with it and the final version will be soon available on-line. There were some changes in counting miles and it will be corrected soon.
As far as the other question is concerned please wait a week and if no answer comes, pls send the e-mail again to our call centre on [email protected] and we will deal with it.


Thank you and best regards


Martina Suchova



CSA Czech Airlines Call Centre
phone:+420 239 007 007 or CSA offices numbers
fax: +420 224 314 273
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.czechairlines.com
"

So, just hope for the best.. but I doubt that 100% will be received for those booking classes.. I guess the best chance would be 50%.

btw: She was a very helpful agent..