Brazilian carrier Azul Airlines and its program TudoAzul have certainly managed to achieve a remarkable market positioning in Brazil within a short time – but the massive devaluation of its program as of December 15 might come a bit too early nevertheless. As of then, base members will only accrue one point per BRL spent on all Azul flights (instead of currently 2 or 3), which is a far greater devaluation than the recent devaluation of the Brazilian currency. Also credits earned for elite members will be lowered almost across the board – only the fare group +Azul will be rewarded in a slightly more generous manner for elite members. In addition to the lowered point earning, qualification thresholds for elite levels will be increased. It remains to be hoped that the dynamic Azul is not wrong with the assessment of its own position and its ability not to lose customers with these changes… In parallel, Azul continues its approach towards Star Alliance and has added another Star partner in the form of Turkish Airlines to its partner network, following Copa a few months ago.

On January 01, the Panorama Club of Ukraine International Airlines will change to a revenue basis, with a standard accrual rate of 5 miles per USD spent. A second elite level will be introduced and higher earn rates of 7 and 10 miles per USD respectively are applied at these levels. Accrued miles can be used flexibly as full or partial payment with an easy conversion rate of 100 miles = 1 USD, but all tickets paid (partially) by miles are subject to an additional booking fee of 5 USD – the program does even not attempt to try to explain by what exactly this is justified. (Taxes can never be paid by miles.) The program claims that “everything is getting better!” (unless there was a translation mistake – in Ukrainian they say “Усе складається якнайкраще!”). With all respect to our Ukrainian friends: Today, you require about 10 paid roundtrip flights within Europe in Business Class to have sufficient miles for a Business Class award flight. As of January, you will need 20 of them. So, what exactly is getting better here…? Oh yes, and since it is always a bit tricky to incorporate partner airlines accruing on a mileage basis to a revenue-based program, the Panorama Club has found a fairly easy solution (which no other revenue-based FFP has ever implemented before!): As of January 01, all (!) existing airline partners (Air France, KLM, Austrian, TAP Air Portugal) will simply leave the program. So next time you hear about UIA being in trouble, it won’t be the fault of the Russians…

Some airlines are visibly proud of their origins – Oman Air is certainly one of them. While we are still wondering which program might have a cute idea for the upcoming celebrations at the end of the year, we are already used to Oman Air launching interesting offers each year to celebrate the Omani national day on November 18. This time, seven new Sindbad members receive immediate Silver status in the program and seven new members Gold status – each week until December 18. This will certainly make their next flights with Oman Air more comfortable. Among existing members, also two times seven Silver and Gold memberships are awarded each week, but they have to book a flight and register their ticket number in order to secure their chances.

Turkish Airlines has completely different reasons to be proud: By the end of the year, the new airport in Istanbul should go live, which is poised to become the world’s largest airport in the middle term. Already since late October, however, Turkish Airlines has been operating selected domestic flights and their flights to Baku from the facility. On these flights, Miles&Smiles members receive quintuple status and award miles until the end of the year – which should sufficiently compensate for a presumably limited experience at a quasi-empty airport.

The customer engagement initiative that was launched by airBaltic as a promotion under the name Green Tails Club in summer has now been converted into a permanent offer: In parallel to the PINS program, airBaltic customers can now accumulate airBaltic Club points. The basic principle of the Green Tails Club has been maintained, i.e. a free flight is earned after twelve one-way flights, but additional small benefits are given at intermediary thresholds. The main benefit, however, now consists of the Executive status, which can be reached with 24 flights within 12 months. If this objective is attained – but only then -, the membership can be renewed for one year and the counter will be reset to 0, making the same benefits achievable once again.