Bloomberg: It’s Time to Ditch U.S. Frequent-Flyer Programs for International Ones
#1
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Bloomberg: It’s Time to Ditch U.S. Frequent-Flyer Programs for International Ones
In the past few years, the major U.S. airline frequent-flyer programs have changed not only how flyers can earn and redeem award miles but also the requirements for earning elite status. Earning any status now means spending from $3,000 to $15,000 per year on airfare in addition to flying between 25,000 and 125,000 miles. And accruing miles is more difficult, too—especially painful when the price of some single one-way business class awards can reach an astronomical 465,000 miles.
For flyers tired of jumping through so many constantly moving hoops, there’s a new game in town: pledging loyalty to an international carrier. Thanks to extensive partner networks, it’s a viable strategy even for those who travel predominantly within the U.S.
For flyers tired of jumping through so many constantly moving hoops, there’s a new game in town: pledging loyalty to an international carrier. Thanks to extensive partner networks, it’s a viable strategy even for those who travel predominantly within the U.S.
#2
Join Date: Jun 2010
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Its really not practical to switch loyalty groups for people who predominantly travel within the US. Upgrade, priority boarding, etc. are all things I benefit from even if my miles are worth less. US carriers have been forced to go this route because of things like frequent miler, points guy, etc. where by people chase points via credit cards and other avenues. For us die hard road warriors who earn our status the legitimate way it thins the herd.
#3
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The cons section really misses some common problems like how poor elite XP earning is on Flying Blue or Singapore's relatively short hard expiration dates
#4
Join Date: May 2000
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Delta expects its benefit from the relationship to double to nearly $7 billion annually by 2023, up from $3.4 billion in 2018,
The fact that some of us around these parts are moving away from the co-branded airline credit cards and to other opportunities (such as independent-currency cards like CSR, or simply cash back cards) once we figure out that the returns given by the airline cards are no longer the best deal after the ongoing devaluations and lack of saver award availability are taken into account, is an interesting fact but largely irrelevant, as long as revenue from the co-branded cards continues to increase at a rapid pace. This must be because the rising customer base from the general public that reads outdated advice from a blogger (that happens to get a spiff from all new signups from the links they publish), or sees an aspirational video of int'l premium-cabin travel on YouTube and wants to get some of that for themselves, is outpacing defection from the core group that originally got on the co-branded card bandwagon. As long as that phenomenon continues, expect all current trends to continue as well.
Like all bubbles or fads, it will eventually come to an end. At some point, enough people will realize that there are better deals out there than putting their spend on airline credit cards. Once that happens, the whole thing will collapse: banks can't survive just on the churners, as they are always money-losing customers. Churners aren't really an airline problem directly, at least not currently. But once enough people abandon ongoing spend on airline cards, leaving churners a high-enough percentage of miles awarded, the whole thing will collapse. And it will be impossible for either banks or airlines to fix it by just taking a step or two back. I think we're still several years away from this happening, and it shall be interesting to watch.
#5
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UA, for example, is lousy with seat assignments for partner airline Star Alliance Gold elites. And many of the other Star Alliance airlines' programs have high fees applicable to award tickets on most/many of their partner airlines, while UA charges no YQ charges for award travel.
AA and DL's multi-tier/dynamic award pricing -- a move UA is going to be making too -- undercuts the ability to use partner airline program's miles for redemption on US airlines' flights. And while AA and DL are hooked to charging YQ charges for award travel, AA and DL tend to be less hooked to charging such high fees for award travel than a variety of their international airline program partners.