graraps

Considering the response my recent Czech State Airlines OK Plus thread in the "Other EU FFPs" board has generated and the frequency with which I see OK featured on other places (mostly DL but also AF, CO and elsewhere), I 'd like to suggest that a CSA forum be added. I can't see it generating tons of traffic, but I suspect there will be 3-4 of us regularly posting and other travellers/Skyteam flyers chiming in every now and again.
Flyertalk has boards dedicated to such heavyweights of the global airline industry as ATA and Midwest Airlines (of course by this I mean no offence to FTers dedicated to these airlines), so I can't see why a growing, profitable, internationally allied carrier like CSA shouldn't have its own forum.

Gnopps

I'd like to see that forum as well.

mAAine_flyer

Hey, I'd really like a forum dedicated to GL ... , but that ain't never gonna happen.

Is it really necessary to have a separate forum for CSA? I have nothing against the airline and its loyal flyers but, jeez, there are plenty of other airlines that don't have their own forum -- AY and AZ come to mind straight away. I fly AY quite a lot, and I have no problems following the relevant active threads in the "Other European" or oneworld fora. I'm sure the few FTers flying CSA know to look in "Other European" and the Skyteam fora for news.

Honestly, I think you'll see less traffic if you have a separate forum. The "Other European" board probably attracts a decent amount of passing trade (e.g., when I go to read about AY, I quite often read posts about CSA and other airlines -- whereas I would definitely not visit dedicated fora for these same airlines).

My $.02 worth.

Spiff

Is the CSA interest drastically exceeding the fellow 'other FFP' in the existing forum?

Is the CSA interest approaching the level of FFP with their own Fora?

I think those are the issues we need to consider.

graraps

What I see is a fair bit of CSA-related discussion on the fora of other Skyteam airlines.
So they're technically wrong in posting there but posters think it's better to post about CSA there as opposed to going to the "other EU" fora, for a multitude of reasons (usually because it's discussing the CSA service as opposed to the actual FFP). It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that these posters would be likely to come to a CSA-specific forum to ask questions relative to the service offered on OK planes.
I think that interest in CSA is significantly higher than interest in niche unallied domestic operators like the ones I mentioned in my OP (and come to think of it Independence Air, too). It's absolutely certain that a CSA forum shouldn't be expected to reach the amount of discussion seen in fora like AA or QF or DL, but I can see traffic there being at least equivalent to current fora that are specific to niche airlines.
Maybe it's only because CSA does a damn good job both operationally and on the FFP side of things (and a pretty decent profit to top it all nicely), so their FFs don't have many reasons to BAL thus are less vocal.

Spiff

I don't see much of CSA in the DL forum.

Could you please cite some examples of CSA questions being "misposted" in other Skyteam fora or in the Miscellaneous forum?

graraps

If you do a search for "Czech Airlines", the first three pages of results (March 2005 to date) include 7 threads in the DL forum.

Again, using the above search yields quite a few recent references, most of which are anywhere but the Other EU FFP forum!

JanoSicek

I would like to revive this old request. I notice that the OK Plus is quite popular in the 'other european programs' and I think that it should get a category of its own. On the last page in european program, OK Plus is in 6 threads.

UTA_flyinghigh

Let's revive this one from the dead. With Lying Poo changing its rules, methinks there shall be enough people jumping ship to warrant a new forum.

UTA

graraps

Yes please!!!

NickB

Could I suggest a different tack on this? How about regrouping smaller FFPs within each of the main alliances into their own forum? You would therefore have an "Other Skyteam Frequent Flyer Programs", "Other Star Alliance Frequent Flyer Programs" and "Other Oneworld Frequent Flyer Programs"?

Better still, should we give some thought about the overall structure of the organisation of fora, and instead of having a very long list of airline FFPs organised alphabetically under "airline programs", why not have a separate section for Oneworld, Skyteam and Star Alliance with the big ones having their own dedicated forum within the section and the minority FFPs grouped together into an "Other Skyteam FFPs" within the Skyteam section, "Other Star Alliance FFPs" within the *A section and then move the generic OW/SA/*A existing fora as additional fora for systemic issues (RTWs,etc...) within the newly created section?

There would need to be an additional section for non-aligned FFPs, within which programs could be organised on a geographic basis as at present.

GUWonder

I like this suggestion because it would encourage cross-pollination of information within an alliance too and customers could more easily learn how to keep flying the same airlines but using a different airline's FF program.

Prospero

I support the bigger picture thinking by NickB and GUWonder, above. Structuring airline programmes within their respective global alliance has definite merits, in principle for the reasons already stated. It may warrant some agreement in advance so that guidance exists for example when an airline joins a global alliance (or even swaps) so that archived posts can be managed effectively, if indeed it is decided they require migration.

The structure I have in mind I have seen implemented on AAnother FF based IBB and it seems to work very well there.

graraps

I don't have a problem with that line of thinking, but what do you suggest to be done with unallied airlines? Keep them grouped regionally in fora below "Other ow airlines", "Other ST airlines" and "Other *A airlines"?

NickB

The idea would be that all FFPs relating to one alliance would be under one heading. So you would have an OW grouping, with separate fora for AA, BA, JAL, etc... and "Other OW FFPs" (plus the generic systemic OW forum).
Then a grouping for ST with the same structure (a forum for DL, one for AF, etc...) then one for *A.
Finally you would have a grouping for non-aligned. In that grouping, you would first have the separate fora for each non-aligned carrier warranting their own forum (Airtran, Alaska, ..., El Al, Emirates, ..., Virgin, Virgin America, etc...), then, after that and still within the non-aligned grouping, separate regional-based fora for smaller airlines (Other European FFPs, Other Asian FFPs, etc...).