Latest Frequent Flyer Program News

Here it is: the most exciting latest news of Frequent Flyer Programs!

This section provides you regularly with the latest news from the Frequent Flyer Programs. However, a complete news service would be far too exhaustive and of little use to you. That's why we always select the most important news which we consider to respond best to the needs of our customers.

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Should you need any further information about specific programs mentioned hereafter, you may choose to link yourself directly to their Frequent Flyer sites via our FFP listing (available in nearly all cases).

 

 

 

 

Frequent Flyer news released on November 14, 2008

 

 

It is an old trick by airlines to announce bad news on Friday nights, hoping that nobody will realise it and that the press won’t jump on it. But if a US carrier based in Chicago, the hometown of the next US president, takes this trick to the next level by announcing changes on the eve of an historical presidential election, this is simply an unbelievable affront. And indeed, the news is accordingly: United will increase virtually all award levels (including those on partners) in its Mileage Plus program on January 01, sometimes by up to 30%. However, upgrade awards on United flights will even be hit worse on July 01: While becoming available on the basis of all Economy fares then, they will be subject to a co-payment. It can go up to 500 US$ for a Transatlantic flight, for instance - per one-way route. Can also the Frequent Flyer world hope for salvation from Obama? No, since the only Frequent Flyer Program he is still interested in is the one of Air Force One.

 

Others before us have already realised that fuel prices have halved since their peak last summer. However, we don’t call for a 50% reduction of fuel surcharges, but for their elimination. Why? Fuel surcharges were only introduced when costs shot beyond the current level - hence not on a basis of zero costs. And the only ones really suffering from these surcharges are anyway frequent flyers that use award flights and often have to pay a couple of hundred Euros or dollars for these free flights. It seems that many airline managers have not yet understood that one can also gain loyal customers by treating them in a fair manner. And even worse - each airline manager reading this (and there are many of them!) doesn’t feel concerned and thinks that this is about somebody else! Notable exceptions include Delta and Northwest, which eliminated indeed the fuel surcharges in their programs SkyMiles and WorldPerks last week as promised when they were introduced. By the way, the two programs will merge in early 2009. bmi became the first European carrier to do so, at least on domestic and European flights to/from London.

 

Independently of the current problems concerning almost the entire sector, airlines in India face also self-made problems resulting from their massive expansion. The load factor on domestic flights, for instance, is below 50% - the worldwide average is close to 80%. Their combined loss expected for this year is 2 billion US$. In front of this background, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have now announced far-reaching cooperation, which will also embrace their Frequent Flyer Programs Jet Privilege and King Club in form of a reciprocal partnership. A merger between the two airlines has been ruled out, however.

 

The relationship between the two largest Mexican airlines, AeroMexico (SkyTeam) and Mexicana (oneworld as of 2009), has been oscillating from near-mergers to merciless competition for years. Irrespectively of that, there was always a reciprocal partnership in their Frequent Flyer programs Club Premier and Frecuenta, in parallel, which was, however, kept rather low profile and was never really marketed. Although there are currently again more voices predicting a merger between the two, this partnership was terminated at the end of October to a small general surprise, what obviously doesn’t really support the merger theory.

 

Since the end of July, things have gone silent regarding the Hyatt promotion that took place in virtually all partner Frequent Flyer programs - but now, it is celebrating a surprising return. Flying Blue members receive hence 1,000 bonus miles per night in Hyatt hotels until December 31. The only condition thereby is that they also have to be member in Hyatt’s Gold Passport program. Since Flying Blue already offered this promotion from its side last spring, it might even be hoped for that there will also be a second round for this generous promotion with the other programs in the coming months.

 

 

Frequent Flyer news released on October 15, 2008

 

 

Continental will lower the elite bonus for Silver and Platinum members by 25 percentage points on 01 January, to 25% and 100% respectively (Gold members remain unchanged at 100%) in its OnePass program. The program will give away an important advantage like that. To be fair, it should be added, however, that this gets OnePass to the usual level of other US programs and when compared to US Airways, which hasn’t been offering any elite bonus anymore at all since August, things look less dramatic. Also applying another market tendency, albeit not really a nice one either, no more minimum miles will be granted anymore on Continental and most partners as of March 01, 2009.  Elite members continue to receive 500 minimum miles, however.

 

Brussels Airlines will be taken over by Lufthansa in two steps and also join Star Alliance. Although nothing has yet been announced officially, it can be assumed that it will also end its Privilege program and merge it into Miles & More. A danger for outstanding miles should not exist thereby, except for the fact that award flights within Europe are far more expensive with Miles & More than with Privilege. It is probably also safe to anticipate that Brussels Airlines/Lufthansa will explain as always in such situations (cf. Swiss etc.) that everything will get better for frequent flyers with the program merger - and this time, it would even be true. Better news for Star is the announcement that Brazilian carrier TAM will join the alliance in 2010, ending a long period of hesitation.

 

Usually, the purchase of miles and the transfer of miles between accounts respectively don’t make much economic sense in most cases due to the related costs. That’s why one should also stress the exceptions: A bonus of 100% is granted for transferring miles between different accounts in Delta‘s SkyMiles program through October 31. With costs of 1 US cent per mile transferred plus a transaction fee of 30 US$, one can, for instance, transfer 12,500 miles from one account for 155 US$ and the recipient receives 25,000 miles - enough for an award flight within North America or Europe. Transfers are limited to 30,000 miles per transaction; moreover, there are also annual caps for outgoing and incoming miles per account.

 

After SriLankan launched its own Frequent Flyer Program FlySmiLes in spring, which looked suspiciously like the one of its former partner Emirates, and after there was even speculation about a possible FFP tie-up with Emirates, the two are now likely to go separate ways for good. A strong indication for this is the latest partnership between FlySmiLes and Etihad, which is likely to close all the doors for SriLankan at Emirates. At the latest after July’s order of 100 aircraft, including 80 long-haul aircraft, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is also taken seriously as competitor by Emirates, based 100 miles away in Dubai.

 

Stays at Starwood are not only rewarded by bonus points or free nights between October 01 and December 31 for members of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, but members can also define their own objective and are rewarded according to their choice upon attaining it, for example by 25,000 bonus points for 10 stays or 20 nights. A registration for this promotion is required by November 15.