well... early (January,) 2010 is now 18 months away. Given that logic, we should be able to start redeeming sometime in the next few months?

Perhaps they are planning on a thin program and want to take the focus off it to avoid a big let down? I'm not expecting too much... I've already lost interest to a certain degree.

Middle of June, no program details. I am beginning to suspect that everything about this program -- including whatever they told Randy Petersen that he shared with the Talk Board -- was fake. Sad if true.

It's actually making me wonder whether VX is considering bailing on the whole airline venture given the recent run up in fuel costs. Are they holding back on announcing awards because they don't want to have an award program as a liability if they decide to pull the plug? Who knows, but the creeping delay in announcing awards does not inspire confidence.

FF programs are typically at the discretion of the airline- if they cease operations, you get nothing from your FF balance.

Exactly. It isn't like we are creditors that they will owe something to. If VX were going to pull the plug (and it is not) an FF program wouldn't even be a consideration.

As for the comments about Elevate being "fake", I think that is an irresponsible thing to say. We have no inside information about what's happening at Virgin so it's useless to speculate. But I will do so anyway: I think it is taking longer than they anticipated to get the redemption deals in place. Also David Cush has stated that VX is working to line up about a dozen high quality, non-aligned international airline partners (think Emirates) by the end of the year.

Elevate is far from dead.

Speculation is what we do here! (IMO at least)

Shouldn't they at least allow members to redeem points on VX flights? That doesn't require any negotiation.

Maybe they are holding off for a 'big bang' launch. Unfortunately most of the anticipation around it seems to have fizzled. Hopefully they'll be able to get some more hype happening when the program is (finally) ready.

Well, here's the thing...

- the points are VX revenue-based, so it's not a particular bargain for FF mileage accumulation hounds (like, say, a lot of the FT population)
- the points EXPIRE in 18 months, so it's REALLY not a good bargain for FF mavens- there's no point to hoarding VX points for 3 years so you can fly VS upper class SFO-LHR or VA Business Class LAX-SYD.
- eleVAte has no status levels (except for maybe Founding Member... if that)

So really, this looks like Rapid Rewards-minus (since at least on RR, you get one credit per round trip, so cheap WN shorthauls can add up to a decent reward- whereas eleVAte will probably do a pricing scheme using points for flight redemption), without just an absolute LOAD of other ways to get points. Where's the value?

Now, granted, given a good airline with a bad mileage program that's really an afterthought, and a bad airline with ooodles of ways to get mileage (like, say, AA), maybe this is the right way to go...

They should allow that, and soon, I hope. Free flights on VX will start at 4,900 points, that much we know from the FAQ.

4,900 points = $980 spend on VX, right?

Right.

Exactly right, and I assume this level will be for short haul economy.

eponymous_coward is exactly right: this will not be a program for mileage hounds. I'm making the jump from flying a lot on UA booked in Y (to maintain 1K, upgrades, etc.) to flying less, mostly in VX and in paid F, so I no longer care much about upgrades and status.

As long as they remain a great airline and I get a freebie every now and then, I'll be perfectly happy.

To address a different point, I think we will see an expansion in opportunities to earn points once airline (and other?) partnerships are announced. I'm really hoping for a VX credit card.

Reading between the lines of what's already been written, I'm assuming that the points will map back 1:x to dollars again. So, if there are $70 seats available on a flight, it will cost 4900 points. If there are only $700 seats available, it could cost 49000 points. Again, just more speculation.

ditto. IMO - UA + elite status is still inferior to VX (especially paid F).

I read somewhere - can't recall where - that VX will implement award booking seamlessly into the online reservation system. Specifically, when you're logged in to Elevate and go to book flights you will see prices both in dollars and points. So I think your idea that points will map back at some fixed ratio is on the money.

Pure speculation, but maybe this is why it's taking longer to roll out the program. IT issues?

I'd say that's a fair way to look at it and a reasonable tradeoff- you'd rather have a more comfortable flight now than an awesome TATL F experience down the road with all the mileage you get slogging through a legacy airline.

To be honest, VX coach isn't all that bad, either. I may have an excuse to try Jet Blue at some point, though, and will compare the two, as they are probably the closest to each other in comfort level/tech-y whizbangness.