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-   -   Time to re-task forums for discussion of companies rather than their FF programs? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkboard-topics/1479721-time-re-task-forums-discussion-companies-rather-than-their-ff-programs.html)

SkiAdcock Oct 29, 2013 7:22 am


Originally Posted by Sarfa33 (Post 21684045)
With the change to follow the entity rather than the FFP (a change I support), should the Miles & More airlines (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss) each have a separate forum (or sub-forum)? In other words, now that the fora will not be based on FFP, what's the logic for grouping these airlines into a single forum?

-S

I know we discussed this in the private forum. I need to go back & check that.


Originally Posted by drewguy (Post 21684263)
This is a good point. I'll add to it that the "etc" is rather unhelpful. I suggest identifying all airlines covered within the group if the group approach is taken.

Perhaps given the scope of the program each airline should be covered with its own heading, as Sarfa33 suggests, with a separate subforum under Lufthansa for "Miles and More general" (or something to that effect).

Also, this list does not include either the "Other [region]" airlines or the "budget [region]" airlines. Those categories should be retained, IMO.

Etc won't be listed. I think when we were doing work in the private forum that was just short-hand.

"Others & Budget" are still included. I didn't list them above as I was showing how the entities would appear w/ the new nomenclature.


Originally Posted by tcook052 (Post 21685363)
MHO would be to simply retitle the categories as "Airlines" and "Hotels".

Also while these changes are being considered I'd like to see further reorganizational steps taken, such as moving all hotel topics under a single "Hotel" banner. For example, why leave Luxury Hotels at one end of the FT spectrum and Hotel Deals at the other? MHO would be to bring these hotel topic forums under one banner for simplicity and continuity.

This proposal is to rename the current airline/hotel forums for the entity rather than the frequent flyer/stay program. Neither Luxury nor Deals is named for an entity.


Originally Posted by cblaisd (Post 21685806)
What happened to the Hawaii-based Airlines [and their programs]?

"Hawaii" is still included. I didn't list it above as I was showing how the entities would appear w/ the new nomenclature.


Originally Posted by lin821 (Post 21686650)
And don't forget those in "Others" categories:

Perhaps the same reason as "India-based Airlines" & "Russia/CIS-based Airlines" since they are listed as "airlines" already?

"Others & Budget" are still included. I didn't list them above as I was showing how the entities would appear w/ the new nomenclature.

Cheers.

cblaisd Oct 29, 2013 7:32 am


Originally Posted by SkiAdcock (Post 21687466)
"Hawaii" is still included. I didn't list it above as I was showing how the entities would appear w/ the new nomenclature.

Thanks. I thought it was an exhaustive list and somehow those airlines/programs had accidentally gotten left off.

oliver2002 Oct 29, 2013 7:36 am

BTW, M&M is the native FFP of: Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines , Air Dolomiti, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Germanwings, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair and SWISS. We already farm a lot of threads opened on LO/EN/OU/JP/OS from the OEFFP forum over to M&M today. Condor is another odd partner that has no FFP of its own, but allows credit to M&M.

Similar confusion exists for AF-KL:

Flying Blue is founded by AIR FRANCE KLM
Flying Blue is also the frequent traveller programme of Air Europa, Kenya Airways, Tarom, Aircalin, HOP!
...and Transavia. @:-)

tcook052 Oct 29, 2013 7:38 am


Originally Posted by SkiAdcock (Post 21687466)
This proposal is to rename the current airline/hotel forums for the entity rather than the frequent flyer/stay program. Neither Luxury nor Deals is named for an entity.

I understand that but MHO on this proposal would be to not refer to the program at all and only title the headings as "Hotels" and "Airlines" which would allow for some consolidation of certain topics like hotels.

Prospero Oct 29, 2013 12:54 pm

I think it is important that forum titles continue to represent both the airline/hotel chain name and its respective loyalty programme to give equal weight to the core themes under discussion in each forum - product and loyalty aspects. Forum descriptions are so easily overlooked and I feel the proposed change, if implemented, will inevitably lead to a greater number of misposted threads. For example:
I want to redeem points from my Executive Club account for a night’s stay at the Berlin Hilton. Where do I post my booking question? British Airways or Hilton? With both entities covered by the forum title, the decision can be reached intuitively. Removal of the loyalty programme entity may cause new members to struggle
The forum jump list should continue to display both too.

Other pit falls:
The Flying Blue parent forum is dedicated towards discussion of FFP issues. Its sub forums specifically relate to product/service issues of 1) Air France and 2) KLM. How will this structure be reconciled in the proposed change?

Navigation using mobile devices:
Several forum names in the draft list are very short, e.g.. LAN, EL AL etc. While I currently have no problems navigating through the forum list using iPhone/Safari and Windows Phone/IE, sausage fingers here will have a problem with short title links. As for making more effective use of available “real estate” since this is largely dictated by the forum frame, any GUI improvement can only come from Internet Brands.

So, on reflection I am seeing a great many more cons than pros. Apologies if this feedback isn’t more encouraging. Needless to say, this is an interesting discussion.

kipper Oct 29, 2013 1:00 pm


Originally Posted by Prospero (Post 21689552)
I think it is important that forum titles continue to represent both the airline/hotel chain name and its respective loyalty programme to give equal weight to the core themes under discussion in each forum - product and loyalty aspects. Forum descriptions are so easily overlooked and I feel the proposed change, if implemented, will inevitably lead to a greater number of misposted threads. For example:
I want to redeem points from my Executive Club account for a night’s stay at the Berlin Hilton. Where do I post my booking question? British Airways or Hilton? With both entities covered by the forum title, the decision can be reached intuitively. Removal of the loyalty programme entity may cause new members to struggle
The forum jump list should continue to display both too.

Other pit falls:
The Flying Blue parent forum is dedicated towards discussion of FFP issues. Its sub forums specifically relate to product/service issues of 1) Air France and 2) KLM. How will this structure be reconciled in the proposed change?

Navigation using mobile devices:
Several forum names in the draft list are very short, e.g.. LAN, EL AL etc. While I currently have no problems navigating through the forum list using iPhone/Safari and Windows Phone/IE, sausage fingers here will have a problem with short title links. As for making more effective use of available “real estate” since this is largely dictated by the forum frame, any GUI improvement can only come from Internet Brands.

So, on reflection I am seeing a great many more cons than pros. Apologies if this feedback isn’t more encouraging. Needless to say, this is an interesting discussion.

So, would something like: American Airlines & American AAdvantage, Delta Airlines & Delta SkyMiles, etc. work?

Prospero Oct 29, 2013 1:16 pm


Originally Posted by kipper (Post 21689612)
So, would something like: American Airlines & American AAdvantage, Delta Airlines & Delta SkyMiles, etc. work?

Possibly :)

The examples below are more what I had in mind:

American AAdvantage
Delta SkyMiles

or

American | AAdvantage
Delta | SkyMiles

or

American Airlines | AAdvantage
Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles

I'd suggest ampersands be avoided until which point the FT mobile app can display them.

kipper Oct 29, 2013 1:25 pm


Originally Posted by Prospero (Post 21689724)
Possibly :)

The examples below are more what I had in mind:

American AAdvantage
Delta SkyMiles

or

American | AAdvantage
Delta | SkyMiles

or

American Airlines | AAdvantage
Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles

I'd suggest ampersands be avoided until which point the FT mobile app can display them.

I like the third option. I didn't realize about the mobile app. I tried it once, hated it, and haven't tried to use it since. :)

jackal Oct 29, 2013 1:53 pm


Originally Posted by Prospero (Post 21689724)
American | AAdvantage
Delta | SkyMiles

or

American Airlines | AAdvantage
Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles

I would not necessarily be opposed to something like this. (FWIW, it's exactly what MilePoint already does.)

mia Oct 29, 2013 2:12 pm


Originally Posted by Prospero (Post 21689724)
American Airlines | AAdvantage
Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles

I like this format, but I don't see a problem using the word and:

American Airlines and AAdvantage
British Airways and Excutive Club
Delta Airlines and SkyMiles
Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Flying Club

American Express and Membership Rewards
Chase and Ultimate Rewards
Diners Club and Club Rewards

jackal Oct 29, 2013 2:19 pm


Originally Posted by mia (Post 21690121)
I like this format, but I don't see a problem using the word and:

American Airlines and AAdvantage
British Airways and Excutive Club
Delta Airlines and SkyMiles
Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Flying Club

American Express and Membership Rewards
Chase and Ultimate Rewards
Diners Club and Club Rewards

I think that looks ugly and old-fashioned; a pipe character (|) looks much more modern. That's a big reason I'm supporting a change in the first place: we desperately need to get us un-stuck from 1998.

SkiAdcock Oct 29, 2013 2:42 pm


Originally Posted by Prospero (Post 21689552)
.Other pit falls:
The Flying Blue parent forum is dedicated towards discussion of FFP issues. Its sub forums specifically relate to product/service issues of 1) Air France and 2) KLM. How will this structure be reconciled in the proposed change?

Interesting. I guess my question is - is this the only forum out of the many that does it (well, Swiss might be the other one) & do we not change things because of a single forum vs. the many that don't have it that way?


Originally Posted by jackal (Post 21690169)
That's a big reason I'm supporting a change in the first place: we desperately need to get us un-stuck from 1998.

The reason I'm supporting the change is that FT has evolved since 1998 & discussions in the forums (KLM/AF aside) encompass more than just the FF/stay program & the renaming would reflect that. Up until today there's pretty much been support for the new way of listing by FTers posting in this thread. We've had some post here (especially newbies) that they felt like they couldn't ask a non FF program question because the forum name had the FF program name in it.

Re: the mobile issue. Some have said they think it would be better for checking on mobile apps (probably phones vs tablets). Some think there might be a sausage finger issue. That one could go either way, although most of the forums have more than 3 letter names so I don't see it being a huge sausage finger issue. Of course it would be better if FT had a better mobile app, but that's something for another day & outside of TB control.

Cheers.

MSPeconomist Oct 29, 2013 6:51 pm


Originally Posted by kipper (Post 21689794)
I like the third option. I didn't realize about the mobile app. I tried it once, hated it, and haven't tried to use it since. :)

I like the third option as well, although I also like the entity names. The current problem is that someone sees the FF forum title and then isn't sure where to post a question about the airline (or the hotel chain or a particular hotel), often leading to very apologetic first posts and some misplaced threads.

BTW, I've given up on the mobile app and just use the regular FT website with Safari on my ipad.

kokonutz Oct 30, 2013 9:54 am


Originally Posted by jackal (Post 21690169)
I think that looks ugly and old-fashioned; a pipe character (|) looks much more modern. That's a big reason I'm supporting a change in the first place: we desperately need to get us un-stuck from 1998.

Completely agree and me likey: American Airlines | AAdvantage

kipper Oct 30, 2013 10:32 am


Originally Posted by kokonutz (Post 21694932)
Completely agree and me likey: American Airlines | AAdvantage

It seems as though a motion like that would have some support on TalkBoard then, at least to have it considered, correct?


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