Air miles strangled

[Nightrider 340]

I was talking with a senior airline guy the other day and he told me that all long haul carriers will be reducing by half any air mile entitlement that any one wants to use as from this summer , does anyone know if this is correct or just another scare story .

[Grandpollo 366]

It's hard to tell what you are saying. Reducing by half to use would be redeeming at half the normal points required which would be a good thing. Reducing what you accumulate for flying would be a bad thing. Doubling, not halving the points needed would be bad.

 

Did you mean they will double the points required? Highly unlikely. They have snuck up over the years but 100% at once, doubtful unless it is a particularly shitty airline.

 

And reducing points to 1/2 per miles flown, across the board, that will never happen. They do limit miles earned on some cheapo fares but they have all always done that. Like O fares earning no points at all.

 

Delta has started setting minimum spend to get elite status but the amounts are trivial, like $2500 for the first level and $10,000 for the highest, something like that. Again, trivial as the flights taken need to be numerous or a lot of distance flown and you still get the points, maybe not the status. Should you get highest level elite for managing 100,000 miles for $5,000? Probably not.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Grandpollo

[cluster 14]

Qantas - here in Australia has recently announced that frequent flyer points (miles) will be linked to $$ value of fare purchased rather than amount of miles flown.... sign of the times I guess!

[jacko 8,815]

Qantas - here in Australia has recently announced that frequent flyer points (miles) will be linked to $$ value of fare purchased rather than amount of miles flown.... sign of the times I guess!

Qantas are a bit of a special case at the moment.

There always was something of that in the Frequent Flier world.

Cheaper Economy attracted reduce miles.

Biz Class gave you a 50% bonus etc etc.

These mileage accounts seem to be more useful these days. I could never get free tickets with them in the past, no availability. So many of my miles expired,now I find I can use them to buy useless crap from their shop or enter a raffle!

I wonder if the airlines account for them as a deficit on their books.

 

Anybody able to comment on this summer's expected demand.......?