The slow demise of frequent flyer perks

[LoveThailand]

This article pretty much summarizes what most of FF programs/alliances have already done. I am a Star Alliance member and they introduced the new system a while ago.
Hope info will help you guys make better choices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... ar-you-go/ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/10/for-frequent-flyers-its-now-more-about-how-much-you-spend-than-how-far-you-go/)

[fountainhall]

I am not sure what better choices there are - or will be in future! As the article points out -


it's only a matter of time before airlines begin making it much harder for customers to redeem reward tickets by raising the number of points needed.
Miles were a fantastic idea for creating loyalty when AA first introduced them. The problem is that collecting points has become addictive and too many flyers (myself included) save them up for upgrades or for a free business class seat. So there are vast numbers of earned miles out there - and that number is going up. Equally, there are nowhere near the number of seats required to redeem them - and that number is going down. Here's some interesting info that some may have missed -


there are a lot of тАЬmilesтАЭ out there. The magazine The Economist estimated that by the end of 2004, 14 trillion unused frequent-flyer miles had accumulated worldwide . . . by August (2011), The Economist and WebFlyer (a company that analyzes the тАЬloyalty industryтАЭ) estimated that the number of unredeemed miles/points in travel-loyalty programs worldwide had jumped to 23.8 trillion.
http://www.intltravelnews.com/2013/01/t ... lyer-miles (http://www.intltravelnews.com/2013/01/the-value-of-frequent-flyer-miles)

I can't be bothered working out roughly how many seats that might equate to, but it must surely mean that if the collection programme was stopped tomorrow, the airlines would still be dishing out redemption seats by the middle of the century, But then, of course, many programmes have a 3-year expiry date on them!

I no longer save for the 'big trip' as I used to. I earn as many as I can and then spend quickly. I am also careful about how I earn. Credit card spending overseas with double points was always great, until the financial crisis when most card companies then doubled the 'cost' of such card use. The resultant 'miles' then became too expensive. I know that in the US you can sign up for quite a number of airline/hotel cards which offer big signing bonuses if you spend just a small amount in a certain number of months. Sadly those programmes rarely appear elsewhere - certainly not in Asia as far as I am aware.

[scottish-guy]

I got a free Business Class upgrade with Emirates maybe 5 yrs ago, using their Skywards points programme - and it was great.

Then, maybe 3 yrs ago, they radically overhauled their points structure. If you take advantage of their lowest fares then your points earned for that flight are cut by 50%, and a single sector upgrade jumped from 32500 points to (I'm sure) over 100,000 - and even then there's almost zero availability. Clearly they have moved to exclusively targeting the corporate expense account/wealthy individual market, at the expense of encouraging Econ passengers to experience the BC offer in the hope of enticing them to trade up next time.

Couple of yrs ago I found a US website which allows you to input and maintain all you airline/hotel loyalty points in one place, with the added bonus that you can ( if conditions allow) swap points you're unlikely to use with other users who have points you might find useable.

Have looked today on google and I think it was www.points.com (http://www.points.com) - didn't work well for me because it's all very US oriented - but others might think it worth a look.

[fountainhall]

I looked at points.com a year or so ago. It was little use to me being based in Asia. Besides, I found the conversion rates were lousy. Some airlines will allow you to swap points between them and their own official airline/hotel partners, and I find these rates seem better.

SG, if you have 20,000 Skywards miles and want to get rid of them, you might consider using them for a quick trip on the BKK/Hong Kong route.

[scottish-guy]

Founty, I have more than that but the problem is that a pile of them expire thus month.

I will have to buy some ludicrously priced item from their shop or lose them.

Thanks for advice tho

:)

[fountainhall]

If a flight to HKG interests you, you may know the redemption tickets are valid for 1 year.

I don't travel a lot these days but it seems to me that the cost of my loyalty to an airline keeps rising every year (as they discount the value of any points I may have). Consequently I find the cheapest fare available on a decent airline (and even that's negotiable if it's a short trip) and find some way of getting lounge access if I really need it. As for "priority boarding" I try to look as decrepit as possible (not very difficult) and sneak aboard with the fuck trophies and the really ancient.

A friend of mine, less decrepit, says the gate agents for international flights never check his frequent flyer card so he just waves his long-expired Gold status card and walks through the priority boarding lane (it doesn't work for lounge access). If it's the Gold card of a partner airline, even better, as its status doesn't show up on the boarding pass. He reckons he could flash the Gold card of any loyalty programme for any hotel or airline in anybody's name and it would most likely work, as the gate agents' only interest is getting passengers on board in a orderly manner. Has to be Gold, it's the only colour they recognise instantly. This viewpoint, by the way and solely for christianpfc's education, is what is known as "cynicism". What most people call "cynicism" is in fact "scepticism".

Perhaps Our Resident Trolley Dolly, a447, could comment?

[LoveThailand]

Last two years I was using my Star Alliance miles to fly to BBK business class for 125,000 miles. The fuckers also charge me about $600 for fuel etc surcharges (not done by US airlines, I think).
But frankly - on those conditions I lost interest in making SA bookings for my business trips anymore.
Arabic and Asian airlines are making nice inroads into routes traditionally "owned" by European "legacy" airlines - so I guess we'll be having more and better choices.