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Your frequent flyer miles are about to be devalued

Passepartout

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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I always use mine quickly for this reason and also because ya just never know when your last day is......
 
I converted

That is the reason I don't bother trying to get more FF miles. Can't get the flights I want or the seats I want for the time I want unless I'm out 11 months ahead of the present. :mad:

I like the cards that let you put you credits onto a debit card. Then I can use that to get the flights I want, with the airline I want, with the seats I want, for the time I want, pretty much when I want. :cheer:


Sterling
 
Lately we've been using our miles for "saver" awards and on long hauls paying for the upgrade to "stretch" or "plus" seating.

To be honest, the way airlines sell/give away miles, I'm surprised this hasn't happened earlier. We accumulate thousands do miles without ever setting foot on a plane. Right now it's a better value to us than cash rebate cards. Devalue those miles to much and we'll shift our usage like we did from Marriott Rewards to FF miles.
 
Timeshare maintenance Fees rise uncontrolled with no correlation to inflation and/or economic growth,

Airline loyalty programs continue to require more miles for fewer available flights
 
I don't like the devaluation at Delta, but I'm not surprised at all. I like to use miles for 100,000 business seats to Europe, and that's going away at Delta. I'm disappointed, since I don't have enough with Delta for one of these seats, which means I need to find another solution for ~80k Delta miles. Hopefully US Air and AA won't follow suit, but I expect they will. An extra 40% for a business seat to Europe may not be worthwhile any longer - in fact, if coach seats remain the same cost it may be better to just buy two seats in coach for less (I don't get excited by the food in business, though having sufficient space is important).

If/when it no longer makes sense to use miles for business seats, then I will likely shift all my spending to a 2% cash back card or consolidate all spending on my SPG cards. There will always be options.


Sent from my iPad
 
My pet peeve is charging an international rate for Hawaii
 
dougp26364 said:
Lately we've been using our miles for "saver" awards and on long hauls paying for the upgrade to "stretch" or "plus" seating.

To be honest, the way airlines sell/give away miles, I'm surprised this hasn't happened earlier. We accumulate thousands do miles without ever setting foot on a plane. Right now it's a better value to us than cash rebate cards. Devalue those miles to much and we'll shift our usage like we did from Marriott Rewards to FF miles.
Click to expand...
It's a cash cow for the airlines. Back in 2009 Citibank paid AA $1Bn prepayment for FF miles. It kept AA out of Bankruptcy back then.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/...s-to-love-me-or-leave-me.html/?nclick_check=1
 
ronandjoan said:
We changed from delta to Alaska this year since they had better usages for us than Delta
Click to expand...

And, you can earn Alaska status and miles when flying Delta (& AA).


Sent from my iPad
 
Rent_Share said:
My pet peeve is charging an international rate for Hawaii
Click to expand...

It depends which airline you use. I switched to BA for going to Hawaii since the awards are based on distance, and from LA its just 25,000 Avios points roundtrip (which I earn on a cc at 1.25 pts per $, so I get one ticket per $20,000 spent on the card).


Sent from my iPad
 
ronandjoan said:
We changed from delta to Alaska this year since they had better usages for us than Delta
Click to expand...

Ken555 said:
And, you can earn Alaska status and miles when flying Delta (& AA).


Sent from my iPad
Click to expand...

And if you have the Alaska Airlines VISA cards with companion fare, you use your companion fare tickets on the long flights, where you rack up the most miles and that are generally higher fare anyway (meaning that you get more money out of that companion fare ticket). Both people flying get the miles credited to their account.

How you burn off your miles depends on that particulars of your other flights. Because DW is a school teacher and does summer school sessions, we often find ourselves flying during heavier demand periods when we can't get the saver options when cashing in miles. So we burn the miles by using them for discounts on airfare for the shorter flights we take. Since that's not counted as an award ticket, the mileage from those flights are credited to our accounts. So we get some miles back into the account even while we're burning miles. And those flights still count toward maintaining elite status with Alaska Air.
 
The higher fares and miles devaluations were all predictable from the airline mergers. The DOJ has severely let consumers down by approving these.

I am ready for a real LCC to come in and mix it up with the oligopoly. RyanAir has been wanting to do that for some time. While Ryan is not my favorite LCC, I would welcome them to give some real competition to the airline oligopoly.
 
Before they announced this, I "purchased" two business class seats with my United miles for a trip to Munich on Lufthansa. Glad I decided to do it when I did. It's almost like a 1/2 price sale. :p
 
we do not fly business, as we have family of 5-6 to fly. But I noticed that Delta and USAir miles were harder to redeem for the lowest point awards a few years ago. I also had a hard time getting back from Europe on FF on AA this summer--booking at 11 months out. Definitely less availability, even for coach, than the prior year. I finally booked LHR back, even though we had to take the Eurostar from Paris and pay $100 PP extra air taxes (we did a extra day of London touring, so that was OK, albeit, $1000 more than just flying out of Paris).
We decided a few years ago to burn our miles on a big trip every 2 years vs. saving them up.
 
I frequently fly Lufthansa w/ United Miles since I try and use saver awards as often as possible. Devaluation across mileage/points programs is not a new phenomenon. All the major hotel/airline systems have been guilty of this over the past few years.

I'm about a 100K away from 1 million miles on UA. It's the only thing keeping me loyal to attain lifetime Premier Gold.
 
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