to me it seems like TG has almost doubled the costs for each benefit like upgrade, free award ticket etc, but not really given anything in exchange for it....

Bad for customers, good for the rehabilitation plan.

So a total of 80000 (i.e 30000 + 50000) to reach Gold?

Pretty much. If in biz or first a slightly better earn of miles, but in no way does this offset the almost doubling of most rewards.

As it is bad for the customer, the customer possibly will not stick to TG anymore, so at the end it is not supporting the rehabilitation plan....

Like me. I'll be looking to move my flying elsewhere.

Changing the rewards program to now exclude Gold Upgrades from T/K class, and requiring (the now) expensive Q class fares, on top of the 100% increases in mileage redemption rates is madness. I could have tolerated some increases, but doubling redepemtions, and requiring me to pay 30-50% more for Q class over K class to use my GUPs is no way to ensure loyalty.

I am but one customer here in NZ and wasn't going to write to THAI over the changes. But now I am motivated to lay out the 'before and after' of my travel patterns in terms of increase in cost and mileage to achieve the same flying pattern - simply to quantify the magnitude of the change. I'll be curious how ROP can possibly respond in a positive way......

I agree. It's a conflict between the financial view in the short sight and the market view in the longer sight.

You will likely get a selection of quotes taken from the THAI corporate spin sheet.

Apologies for the length of this....

I wrote to Bangkok when the changes were proposed, giving examples of mileage increases and pointing out the drastic changes being proposed.

The reply started with "Since Royal Orchid Plus have not made any adjustments in our Air Award Charts for more than 20 years" (which is not true).

The changes were justified with these comments, no doubt all taken from the company spin sheet:

"Moreover, the other reasons may also be explained as follows :

-To enable Royal Orchid Plus members to obtain more miles when travelling TG, according to *the booking classes ( RBD) / * paid fare chosen and their own Royal Orchid Plus membership Status .
( Royal Orchid Plus members who, for example, purchase TG Economy Class tickets with higher fares will be able to obtain higher amount of miles)
-To increase members’ possibilities in securing award seats.
-To provide more convenience for ‘One-Way Air Award Redemptions ’ .
-In conclusion, the increase in amount of Royal Orchid Plus miles required for air award redemptions comes hand in hand with the increase in opportunities to earn more miles as well."

• As we know, the best opportunities to earn "more miles" are predominantly just increased percentages for the most expensive Royal Silk and First Class fares, probably affecting about 3 percent of the passengers.
• It is perhaps correct that there will be greater award seat availability, but only because many fewer members are able to afford them.
• It's not a convenience to buy one-way award redemptions, It simply costs more by having to pay cash for a high price one-way flight to get back home. What percentage of passengers currently buy one-way tickets or want one-way award tickets?
• The conclusion, "the increase in amount of Royal Orchid Plus miles required for air award redemptions comes hand in hand with the increase in opportunities to earn more miles as well" statement just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

In my experience Bangkok will spin a reply, and then when you take them up on the facts of their reply, they will ignore you.

Remember the original announcement was trailed with “exciting changes…more miles…more choices and more convenience” That's not how I would describe the changes.

Thanks for sharing, and exactly what I would anticipate. I’ll vote with my wallet eventually, although I have 2 GUPs to use in the next 3 years of TG*G status which will require me to fly THAI to burn those.

I would argue that this is actually a big plus. If you just fly round trips everywhere then it probably doesn't matter, but booking one-way tickets are very useful for some people and some travel patterns. For things like open jaw tickets, using ground transportation one way, mixing airlines such as LCCs or on other alliances, one-way awards are great and I've used them a lot on UA awards. Besides, cash tickets sometimes are cheap one way but expensive on the return, especially around holidays and for shorter trips (less common but still possible for intercontinental flights).

All that said, offering one-way awards really doesn't cost TG anything (if they manage inventory sensibly, which is a big if). When Delta started offering one-way awards several years ago the same thing or worse happened with prices, with some awards costing a million miles now.

quote 11277m:
"In my experience Bangkok will spin a reply, and then when you take them up on the facts of their reply, they will ignore you.
Remember the original announcement was trailed with “exciting changes…more miles…more choices and more convenience” That's not how I would describe the changes."

Of course this wording was obvioulsy pure marketing language and the real (dis)advantages were clear from the very beginning.
But I actually assume and expect, they might come up with a new change wihtin next half or full year, the way they did a couple of years ago, too....."we are listening to customers voice".. it just needs to make Management really aware of first poor results...

see also below quote by latest Nation Online article: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377417
"...The airline is also considering long-term goals such roping in more passengers by offering greater benefits to Royal Orchid Plus members,.... "

Maybe send some information on the changes to the media?!

I’d like to know how Thai nationals who are ROP members feel about these changes....

One way and round trip awards were available, at least in the few-years-old ROP handbook I have. I suspect one reason to only list one-ways was to avoid frightening people with the very large number of miles required for a return award.

The previous changes announced in 2014, also roughly doubling the award redemption requirements, were quietly withdrawn after just a few months. The changes were said to respond to member's requests to improve award availability. THAI chose to do this by substanially increasing the mileage requirements!

There was always one way award which were bout 75% of return cost