SkiAdcock

Moved by SkiAdcock and seconded by goalie:

The TalkBoard recommends changing the airline and hotel forums names to better illustrate that topics in the forums can be either regarding the entity or the loyalty program, and adding a forum description for each. (Example of forum description: "For all discussions related to United Airlines and the Mileage Plus program")

Airlines and their programs:

-Aegean Airlines | Miles&Bonus
-Aer Lingus | Gold Circle Club
-airberlin | topbonus
-Air Canada | Aeroplan
-Air France/KLM and other partners| Flying Blue
--Air France
--KLM
-Air New Zealand | Air Points
-Airtran Airways | A+ Rewards
-Alaska Airlines | Mileage Plan
-Alitalia | MilleMiglia
-All Nippon Airways | Mileage Club
-American Airlines | AAdvantage
-Asiana | Asiana Club
-Avianca/Taca | LifeMiles
-bmi | Diamond Club
-British Airways | Executive Club
-Cathay Pacific | Asia Miles
-Delta Airlines | SkyMiles
-El Al | Matmid
-Emirates | Skywards
-Etihad Airways | Etihad Guest
-Finnair | Finnair Plus
-Frontier Airlines | EarlyReturns
-Hawaii-based Airlines
-Iberia Airlines | Iberia Plus
-India-based Airlines
-JAL | Mileage Bank
-JetBlue | TrueBlue
-Korean Air | SkyPass
-LAN | LANPASS
-Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners | Miles & More
--SWISS
-Qantas | Frequent Flyer
-Qatar Airways | Privilege Club
-Russia-based Airlines
-SAS | EuroBonus
-Singapore Airlines | KrisFlyer
-Southwest | Rapid Rewards
-Thai Airways | Royal Orchid Plus
-Turkish Airlines | Miles&Smiles
-United Airlines (Consolidated) | MileagePlus
-US Airways | Dividend Miles
-Virgin America | Elevate
-Virgin Atlantic | Flying Club
-Virgin Australia | Velocity
-WestJet | WestJet Rewards
-Other Asian, Australian, and South Pacific Airlines
-Other European Airlines
-Other Middle Eastern and Africa Airlines
-Other North & South America Airlines
-Budget Asian, Australian and South Pacific Airlines
-Budget European Airlines
-Budget Middle East and Africa Airlines
-Budget North and South America Airlines

Hotel Chains and their programs:

-Accor | Le Club Accorhotels
-Best Western | Best Western Rewards
-Choice | Choice Privileges
-Carlson | Club Carlson
-Fairmont | President's Club
-Hilton | Hilton HHonors
-Hyatt | Gold Passport
-InterContinental Hotels | IHG Rewards Club & Intercontinental Ambassador
--InterContinental Hotels Group Stay Forum
-Marriott/Ritz-Carlton | Rewards
-Starwood | Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG)
-Wyndham | Wyndham Rewards
-Other Hotel Chains

This vote will close on November 15, 2013, at 6:12 pm or after all TalkBoard members have registered their vote, whichever comes first.

Per the TalkBoard Guidelines:

A motion shall pass if at least two-thirds of the yes or no votes cast by TalkBoard members are ‘yes’ and a majority of the total TalkBoard membership votes 'yes.'

The purpose of posting voting topics in the public TalkBoard Topics forum is to solicit member feedback on any motions that are up for a vote and to allow for comments after a vote is made. It is at the sole discretion of the individual TalkBoard members whether they choose to post in the public discussion thread, there being no requirement to do so.

So while there is already a thread and discussion on this general topic and it is safe to assume that TalkBoard members have reviewed that thread, this thread is about this specific motion.

Please feel free to post questions, comments or any other sort of feedback in this thread, or in the other discussion thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...-programs.html

jspira

I'll start off by stating that, upon my first few visits to FlyerTalk, I was somewhat confused by the fact that the forums were named specifically for miles and points programs and that there didn't seem to be any place to discuss the actual airlines and hotels.

I soon realized that the forums for discussing airline x's points program and airline x were one and the same.

Therefore, I like the solution of renaming the forums after the actual company name. HOWEVER, I believe that the forum names will become too cumbersome if we include the points/miles program name in the actual name of the forum, as opposed to in the description.

I realize that the proposal to TB is somewhat different, and I would still support it as written, but I would much prefer to see somewhat shorter names.

I believe that it will be obvious to discuss a company's loyalty program within the company forum, while it clearly wasn't obvious to all the other way around.

Marathon Man

Any ideas for starting a "recent (or significant) devaluation" forum? and starting talks about what is seriously devalued and how people can deal with it? Consider HH and UA for two recent ones.

MM

Eastbay1K

As for the issue at hand, while I'd be inclined to call it a "no brainer," I don't want anyone to read that "the people involved in the decision making" process don't have any brains, so I won't.

JALPak

This should be Japan Airlines | JAL Mileage Bank

Prospero

Thanks for all your efforts in bringing this proposal forward. The list of forum name looks good, subject to a very small number of very minor tweaks/refinements. I’d suggest you settle on how the titles should be capitalised, use of commas, ampersands etc then apply whatever you agree upon consistently across the list.

Airline groups such as those represented by Flying Blue and Miles & More are tricky. My inclination would be to list the pre-dominant carrier first followed by only those subsidiary carriers specifically represented by a sub forum and let the “and other partners” and forum description line can take up the slack.

For example,
Lufthansa, Swiss, and other partners | Miles & More
For all discussions related to Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Adria Airways, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Germanwings, LOT, Luxair, Swiss, and the Miles & More program

Air France, KLM, and other partners | Flying Blue
For all discussions related to Air France, KLM, Air Europa, Kenya Airways, TAROM, and the Flying Blue program

You may also consider the following tweaks:
Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles
Japan Airlines | JAL Mileage Bank
United Airlines | MileagePlus

joshwex90

I don't see how United Airlines | MileagePlus is any better (or worse) than United MileagePlus. But I agree with Prospero that the tricky ones are the programs that encompass multiple airlines, such as M&M. Is there a way of making it less confusing, as it seems that posts regarding non-LH airlines get lost there

SkiAdcock

Ok. Thanks for letting me know. I was going off the way it's currently listed on FT. Can make the change if/when approved.

Agree. I had already suggested something similar in a PM w/ one of the mods when the topic was raised in the other discussion thread.

Cheers.

Marathon Man

I think it is a very good idea to list the airline or hotel with its plan name after it. I have some newbie friends who are always confused between the two... and some say things like, "your sky miles" when they are talking about United, for example. They are somehow trained (possibly by tv and other ad marketing) to think of things a certain way and never know the real names of things. If I point them to FT they can now maybe get to see exactly what is what, what goes with what, and the actual name --without having to google or look up that airline's website.

Is there a place where this list in itself can live for all people to see? It's a good thing to have the forums or areas named as such, but if the current list (much like the one in post #1 here) were to exist with ease of locating it, then someone can tell a newbie friend something like, "Well to get a clearer picture of what there is to chose from, go to this place in FlyerTalk..." and then they could click on the hyperlinks of each one to go to those sub-forums in the list.

Of course if this is already being done or being considered then that's cool too!

MM

SkiAdcock

On the home page of Flyertalk (well actually it's the header across all of FT no matter what the forum), there is a "Miles & Points" link, which will then display the airlines & hotel chains etc. I also think when you log in it displays them all, unless you've set up My Flyertalk (in which case it takes you to specific forums you've set up for MFT). Similar with Travel&Dining, Community, Destination links will display dif forums under those.

Cheers.

Marathon Man

Ah yes, I know that link. Thanks. I had just imagined some more list-like fashion that doesnt have names of threads recently used off to the right and thus makes the list look more like the one in the first post here. But for now, what you remind me of here seems fine then. I could just tell newbie friends to visit that link if need be.

MM

Marathon Man

Isn't it still called United Airlines - MileagePlus?
(Then again forgive me if I missed something... the deval has made me not pay attention to UA stuff as much any more )

beckoa

Understand why this is being looked at.

However I like the feel of FT the way it is at the moment

joshwex90

One thing to note is that "EL AL" is spelled incorrectly in the OP.

LaserSailor

I feel the time has come in the UA forum to split it into Fora dedicated to mileage plus program issues and company issues. People with legitimate enquiries into flying/ redeeming are lost in the sea of comments on company performance.