ftnoob

Inside Flyer's August 2011 issue has an article about RR 2.0 that is now available online.

smmrfld

What pathetic "answers" from Chris Herndon. Sad, really. Such a downward spiral for WN.

laxabq

Pathetic is right. Chris Herndon should be fired and a new
management team brought on board to correct all these issues.
The fact SWA has to endorse educational material for RR2.0,
should be telling SWA something loud and clear.
All that SWA LUV/loyalty is going down the drain fast........

toomanybooks

Yeah, pretty weak stuff. Oddest bit was from a "business traveler" who said it's easy to get status for 2 years in a very short time in January and then switch to another airline.

"For example, someone who is A+ already can quit flying SWA until Jan 2012, fly Business Select a few times to rack up 35,000 points in several weeks or so to gain A+ through Dec 2013, then not fly SWA again for nearly two years, take a few more flights in Dec 2013, and renew status through Dec 2014."

Laying aside the fact that 35,000 2.0 TQPs in Jan 2012 will not renew your A+ status through 12/13, what earthly good does having status with WN do if you never fly them? It's not like any other airline will match you. I found that puzzling. What am I missing?

707Flyer

it does a lot of good for WN, because the biz pax paying $450 BS for IAD-DEN is yielding near 30 cents a mile, at that point the airline is rewarding the margin provided by the customer, not the loyalty, which actually makes far more sense financially

As a business traveler who often flies BS, I'd be flying WN a lot less if RR 1.0 was still in place.

Lastly, you can status challenge on legacies from A-List.

rove312

In the Company Club history, they say that in 1987 DAL-LAX earned one credit. Under the Wright rules, wouldn't that have had to be split between two tickets, earning two credits?

Chris Herndon refers to situations where only a Business Select fare is available. Does that happen? Isn't the last seat sold at AT, which can be upgraded to BS if that's available?

rajuabju

+1 in being disappointed with WN's responses.

1) RR 2.0 sucks. I'd like to know which RR customers WN spoke to that thought these changes would be great. I am positive they are in the minority.

2) Bring back the hot pants

UnitedEF

This is great for the customer but very bad for the airline. WN should be worried that their status PAX do not feel obligated to fly them for a couple of years because this would allow them to sample and possibly gain status with other airlines and if WN continues to slip in their high yield PAX's mind, the PAX can leave without having to deal with not having status. It's not a very good loyalty program if your PAX don't need to show much loyalty for two years. This was a mistake I feel on DL's part when they allowed rollover MQM's.

I believe people have received status matches to other airlines with WN status. I think there is a master status match thread somewhere if you really want it.

boeing727

According to Herdon, he writes...

There are a couple of things at play. I know a lot of other carriers might allow the companion to be included in boarding benefits, but with us, we don't have assigned seats, so really, your place in boarding determines your potential to pick the seats that you would like, so if we allowed people who didn't earn the benefit to board with an A-List member, it might deteriorate the experience for others who are behind them in the boarding process.

Whoa...hang on a second. Don't line jumpers, seat savers and thru-pax (non-elites), who gobble up exit rows and the first 10 rows "deteriorate the experience for others" as well? Hmmm?

ftnoob

The 35,000/A+ looks like a simple error of mixing an A-List example with an A+ example, but the argument otherwise makes sense.

My impression from comments posted in this forum by business flyers is that many of them use multiple airlines. They often try to maintain status on more than one. They might throw an airline some business to maintain status even when that airline is not otherwise the best choice for the flight. RR 2.0 makes it so easy to hit A/A+ that non-captive customers will have much greater freedom to pursue status (or higher status) on a competing airline. We have seen some posts here where generally-loyal WN customers have indicated that RR 2.0 is so generous that it allows them to switch more flights to other airlines.

So every other year, spend $5,834 (half that if A is the goal) on BS flights in Q1 for status, then enjoy that status for nearly two years on those flights where it makes no sense to fly any other airline.

The difference compared to CP is that the A+ flyer probably wants that status on the TQP-run flights. He therefore has some incentive to do the run annually instead of every other year.

rove312

Indeed, and we've had a letter from management quoted here that endorses seat saving.

ftnoob

Lynda was able to have the online version of the article updated to correct two problems: the DAL-LAX example has been changed to HOU-LAX, and the points level for A+ has been corrected to 70,000 points.

Also, I have discussed with Lynda one of the major flaws in the comments from Mr. Herndon, and she has suggested an approach whereby she will ensure he will see feedback on that point (and, we hope, respond). I have a detailed numeric example but I got pretty burned out from the number of hours invested in this project (leading up to the original interview), and I would prefer to have other voices involved.

Who here is willing to help write a calm and rational response to Mr. Herndon? I know nsx could do a bang up job, but he already carries far more than his share of the load, so I don't want to just dump it in his lap. Send me a PM if you can help. I'd like to have at least two collaborators, but no more than four or five.

SAPMAN

================

If your a 707Flyer - how on WN?

I still do not understand why companies pay for high fare flghts when the main benefit is to the passenger in the way of added points. If you fly often at all, you would be A level anyway and 99% of the time not have a middle seat. Oh will, "it's not my money" the businessman says. I fly on the cheapest fares (or Awards), very rarely get a higher than A40 BP, have a Comp. Pass, free drink coupons, etc. and probably save 30%+. Yes, if I will be tied up 24hr before, I do get Early Bird for flights over 2 hr.

vsmith

Chris Herndon is in denial. He knows what MOST people think of his product.
Come on Chris, pull your head out!!! RR 2.0 STINKS!!!!

laxabq

+1 ^