ROP Program changes
 

Just got this on email. Anybody knows what are they planning? New mileage tier?
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...158c7cdd47.png

Yes, I was just about to post the same.
When I read "PROGRAM CHANGES ARE ON THE WAY" my first thought is that there is going to be some bad news coming soon.
Despite the exciting changes listed, I suspect there is also going to be a downside that will only be disclosed later.
Just speaking from past experience!

Also just saw the email. I guess it can only go down-hill. So far I haven't seen any frequent flyer program change in the past that made things better. It always made redemption or earnings worse.
I think with the recently announced huge loss they are going to try to save a few bucks here...

How can be much worse? ROP is the most expensive program in the whole Star Alliance.

No way. Take a look on Miles & More after the recent change. This is what I would call expensive.

Your question may be answered when the details are published.

What do you mean by being expensive? I think ROP is good for whoever based in Bangkok, since flying THAI out of Bangkok is very expensive, especially in J and F, compare to other airlines, and so one would get the best buck out of each mile redeemed for an award ticket :)

I meant different tariffs that THAI let you earn on other Star Alliance airlines. In Europe you can forget it having ROP. They cut to maximum mileage crediting. You fly business or you forget to earn miles on economy flights. I remember time when THAI let you earn much more. Now they want you fly only THAI. Spending miles on THAI is also difficult right now. I have arround 230k and I asked THAI for an upgrade last week. "Sorry Sir no tarifs and seats avaiable" So I asked any award tickets? O or I? Yes but from Paris. But I am flying from Frankfurt?
"Finit" in July Sir
"Finit" in August Sir
September can be possible but we can put you on waiting (They say like that but they don't) (How many times I have heard "waiting list" hahahha)
So how can I spend my miles now? Doing RTW with Star Alliance or what?
How can be worse if is already worse in ROP?
My feeling as a farang is:
you are Thai with ROP Gold - 100 % Success
you are Thai with ROP Plat - 200% Sucsess
you are farang with ROP Gold - 50% Success (farang can pay more, farang can wait, doesn't matter)
you are farang with ROP Plat - 50% Success (farang can use Royal First Lounge or SPA it's enough, doesn't matter, Thai with Plat and vip are first of the line )
(my observation came from Frankfurt, Munich, Bangkok airport staff. So I am now 10 years ROP Gold and I see drastic changes since maybe 5 years?) Thai airways ROP in my opinion is not equal to every member they have especially if you are farang.

I see. I guess if I was not based in Bangkok I would not have been with ROP too. However, even though THAI is not the best when comes to award redemption, but not the worst either. Finnair, for example, is so much worse. Their search does not allow you to play with dates, and every unsuccessful result the search has to be restarted all over again. It is very frustrating and time consuming to the point it is impossible to find anything. I made a call, and their customer service said their search was the same as on the site anyway so they could not do any better (seriously??). I tried to be flexible and asked for any BKK to any where at all on any date at all, and their reply was that there was not any BKK-HEL award seat available to begin with, so no point searching for 'any where'. I ended up buying Finnair tickets myself. At least on THAI, their award search is not that bad, we could play around with dates until we find a seat. From my experience, THAI seem to release only a few business class award tickets for each day (plenty of eco and rarely first), so one has to act extremely early. I usually redeem my THAI tickets almost a year early, for example, last month I redeemed 2 business class tickets BKK-MXP on THAI site for December trip, everything went smooth, click click click and done. For earlier trips this year I redeemed miles for tickets since last year. Being early makes thing goes smoothly, though not the most convenient way I know...

As for being on a waiting list, I was many times give it a try and be on a waiting list on THAI, but never once got a ticket, so I do not bother any more. Also, I do not bother an upgrade, redeeming miles for a ticket seem to be the only way to surely secure a business class seat. Planning ahead is my key to redeem miles on THAI haha. But I guess that applies to any airlines award redemption though?

Regarding being badly treated as a farang, I do not think that is true though. Stereotypically, Thai find farang superior and richer, and so usually treat them better than treat a Thai, since they believe farang can pay better (you were right on this haha), among other things. I would think the success rate is the same as a Thai, unless that Thai got a well known last name, then he/she could get bumped or get seat right away...

I am not quite clear what you mean by 50% AND birthday? I recall the 50% Discount on miles for an Award ticket was first given as a birthday gift, valid only during the month of birthday; then validity was extended to the months each before and after the birthday; and later to all year

paolo64 may have meant the 2 key elements to be:

- Gold/Plat Upgrade(s)
- 50% Award

They are for me...

sure, but the upgrades have neither anything to do with the birthday gift nor the 50%

I agree with your earlier post that noted the 50% award IS the current version of what we both remember as the birthday gift, and the changes to it.

So I can only guess the paolo64 just confused him/herself in their post (something most posters have done).

Cheers, TK

I don't know but I have a bad feeling about the GUP/PUP.

That and the 50% award were my biggest fears. "First we will spin them some good news. The devil will be in the detail we disclose later."

Remember the changes announced a few years ago: "Our ROP members wanted better award availability" So we made significant increases to the mileage costs. Of course that would increase availability because fewer members could afford the awards.

With airlines "enhancements" always seem to hide a disadvantage for the passenger.

I am glad I burned my GUP on a AKL-BKK-ZRH return (K->J), and burned the 50% award for Mrs TK in J for the same trip. This really is excellent value and I suppose such 'optimisation' might make these 2 benefits a target of cost cutting.

I requalified TG*G on Jan 01, and the Auckland office had me booked by Jan 04 for flights in Sep 19.

I have noted previously that the cheapest K fare AKL-ZRH was around USD 1200, however the fine print said this was non-upgradable. I needed to buy a K fare that allowed upgrades, which cost quite a bit more at approx USD1600. And the more expensive K class still only earns 75% miles....

ROP is a program, where differences between lower class/lower fares and J/F class/more expensive fares are smaller than at other airline programs. There are also no bonus miles for members with Gold or Platinum Status
I expect changes in those two areas

UA Gold is 50,000 miles in a calendar year. You must also fly at least 4 UA flights and there is a UA dollar spend requirement (which can be waived with CC spend). TG Gold is 50,000 miles in any 12 month period, or 80,000 miles in 24 months. Gold status last 2 years. On UA you must requalify yearly. :)

I have received the e-mail today!

yes as well…
changes as expected...
- more reward miles for F and J
- more reward miles for members with Status
- but more miles needed for awards

It is a very steep increase in award prices.

The new ROP award chart is terrible for redeeming return ticket. Got to plan next year trips to burn ROP miles before the new chart applied :(

This is very interesting......possibly.........

THAI MAX EXPRESS

Beginning 01 April 2019, THAI Max Express is a new option to purchase a paid ticket using only miles for roundtrip travel in Royal First Class or Royal Silk Class. THAI Max Express can be used only for travel departing from Bangkok to all THAI destinations in Europe.

Does this mean that I can use reward miles to buy a ticket that will actually earn Tier Status points? If so, that is a radical change. Load up the miles on your credit card spending, then use them to buy a First Class round trip ticket to London, and earn 35,568 miles? Sounds way too easy to me!!!

That would be interesting. Called ROP and they said there was no information as of yet, got to wait until 1 May, so now I am waiting. At least if the award ticket gave us tier points, then I would be OK with the new chart, but I doubt it would be the case.

Hi Juntima,

It is the case....just check under "Spend Miles" on the ROP website........but the milage required is HUUUUUUGE.....

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1ae2001aaa.png

And call center said they did not have any information....
But wow the required miles is certainly huge, monstrous I would say :eek:
Would this be worth it for the tier miles?

Looks pretty bad to me with that new upgrade system :(
81000 miles one way in the most expensive eco tariffs ? Srlsy?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...210fcfa5bc.png

But J is still 125%, C & D are 150%.
With Platinum addition of 20% I now get 20% more miles but the award I normally book is +35%
In C I think I would get 44% more miles.
I just booked what I thought was full fare business LHR - BKK ret and the class is J. There is no C class fare shown on-line even after October.

With this new rate I guess I got to start moving to another programme, ROP used to be one of my favourite since I am base in BKK. Unfortunately this year trips have already been arranged, so no space to burn miles for now. Have spent 260k miles for 2 tickets BKK-MXP in December and still have 300K left, plus 350K coming by the end of this year, every miles need to be gone by October. It was good while it lasted indeed :/

Years ago miles were earned by flying with little credit card bonuses. Back in the early 1990s you could get two first class tickets from US to Asia for 170,000 miles on some airlines. US to Europe on Concorde round trip 125,000 miles. Glad we booked two first class tickets to Asia from US last month leaving only about 1000 miles in each of our accounts.

For a leisure traveller such as myself, mainly in Y, the changes are a terrible. The longhaul to Europe in J has almost doubled the miles needed!!! The 50% award wont even bring it back down to present levels.....

The before/after mileage award redemptions on TG are as follows:

AKL-BKK return Y. 75,000, from Oct 83,000 (11% increase)
AKL-BKK return J. 130,000, from Oct 170,000 (31% increase)

AKL-LHR return Y. 90,000, from Oct 170,000 (89% increase)
AKL-LHR return J. 170,000, from Oct 350,000 (206% increase)

And you need to earn and spend the proposed exhorbitant number of miles within three years, or they will begin to expire.

Good news...we are going to pay you a little bit more, but are raising the prices of everything by a lot more.

Sorry if this question is stupid. Maybe it's just to early in the morning but where to find the new award chart?