Scott,

How about increasing the upper limit for 2009?

With the announced decreases in RDM earnings for Plats and Silvers, doubling the upper limit from 15,000 to 30,000, in 10,000 mile purchase increments, would mean minimal programming changes while increasing revenues to CO and giving us greater RDM earning opportunities.

Exactly what the 2009 program changes stand against.

The Extra Mile Bonus program has been a yearly way to buy extra miles as you fly. You get a 50% bonus on miles flown up to a maximum amount.

In the past - the purchase price has been:

5,000 miles $50
10,000 $100
15,000 $150

So if you fly 30,000 actual miles, then you earn a total of 15,000 extra miles for the $150.

This is usually offered at the end of the year and applies to flights over the next year. You need to purchase by Dec 31st, but CO has extended the purchase into the first part of the applicable year.

No guarantees that CO will continue to offer or what the offer might be.

Interesting idea.

While I've almost always sign up for the extra mile promotion I'd be more enticed to sign up again if the earning amount was raised (and would not even mind paying for that.) Or even better - I would not mind paying a flat rate for an extra, year round, uncapped bonus %.

+1

Same here.

They have raised the limit before. Back around 2000-2001, the Extra Mile was only available one way � 10,000 bonus miles for around $100. Several years later they added the lower and higher options for 5,000 miles and 15,000 miles. An unlimited option would be great.

I complained here last year that I tried to sign up for The Extra Mile promotion for 2008, and was not allowed to.

When I wrote to One Pass they told me that I was ineligible because I live in Spain.

They told me to try another promotion and wished me "good luck."

CO Insider -- I'd prefer to try my "luck" with The Extra Mile.

+1

Continental no longer wants us to earn miles.

I view the Extra Mile Bonus program as a way for CO to gain some quick cash at the end of the year. I just do not see CO offering an unlimited bonus buy for a year.

+1

Agreed. Cash is KING.

The program is probably also fairly revenue / expense neutral when you factor in the time value of money with the time to both earn and use the mileage.

I also agree that unlimited is an unreasonable request.

I had proposed the 10, 20, 30 as a compromise in that it wouldn't require a lot of reprogramming to add more than the three buckets and it probably wouldn't discourage most of the people who presently buy in at the 5K level. Even if they only flew 10K and got 5K RDM, it would be at $0.02 per RDM which is still OK.

My ideal proposal would have be 5,000 mile increments to some maximum such as 75,000.

What I think is getting missed here is that the CPM rate for purchase can (IMO) in no way be equal to the CPM that CO would pay for the award that these miles would probably get used for, hence why making the promo more attractive won't work. Time-value doesn't matter much if CO has to pay more than they took in to put your butt in a seat for the award trip you want.

CM,

There are many factors which will forever remain CO confidential that have a bearing on what the true cost of these mile is and how they compare to other purchased miles. Here are I few

1. What is the actual issue rate of miles vs. the purchased option? 2. How quickly do these miles get used?3. The devaluation of the worth of these miles over time has been discussed on other threads and there is no doubt that their value decreases over time.

4. How do these miles compare to the miles that CO sells to promotional users such as Chase Bank and American Express. Again, we don't know the profitability of the miles sold to these programs, but other threads indicate that the price is much less than the $.01 of this program.

5. CO not only continued to offer this promotion again this year but was very willing to allow people who missed the application cut-off date to enroll when the made a request to do so. That would indicate a profitable product.

CO has recently demonstrated that they are willing to take the necessary flack for cutting programs which are not cost effective and there was no indication that this program would be among the future casualties.

There are FT'ers who have enrolled in this program and who would like to see it expanded as is evidenced by the responses do far in the thread but I would venture a guess that those enrollees who will have taken full advantage of their option by year end are in a minority for the program overall.

Another aspect is that we don't know what CO's market penetration is with this product. I'd guess that the percentage of those participating decreases as the level of mileage flown decreases but the population of each layer increases dramatically and that even a lower participation level yields greater revenue and profit.

Anyway, I'll never see CO's books and records so it's all speculation on my part.

My opinion is that for most people, this program is one of CO's equivalents of the banks of slot machines that your employer classes as their one of their most profitable products.

G

Fair points all, G. I never said I was pooping on your opinion. I don't do this promo so I'm a little uninformed, but I wrote based on what I saw.

And fair points from you as well. It's the kind of promotion that you only pay attention to if you know about how much you're flying.

15K miles is not that much. It would give an elite a confirmed one way upgrade on a cheap ticket - which they might otherwise get for free. It is offered at the end of the year just to get some extra cash. It is likely only elites that are going to use this offer. And most elites go for premium rewards - not the 25K type.