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Upgraded: Frequent flyer legislation
Downgraded: The value of your miles
Frequent flyer programs can be a byzantine maze. Above all, nearly everyone is cranky about being able to cash in their frequent flyer miles. I just tried winnowing down the uncomfortably large kitty of points for some Caribbean travel in May and was given the Heisman. But I’m not cheering on Washington state legislator Chris Hurst, who’s proposing a bill that would allow consumers to cash in their miles at 0.2 cents apiece. “Cash in” literally — for cash. House Bill 2707 is probably not going to go anywhere, but it’s meant as a shot across the bow of airlines whose point redemptions are increasingly stingy. Representative Hurst, call me when you start demanding 2 cents per mile or better. (via Pointswizard)

Upgraded: Delta’s business class seats… on some of its planes
Delta is rolling out new fully-flat seats on its 767s that travel internationally. Excellent news. But only on the 767s for starters, which means that the Delta fleet will have a patchwork of seating at the front of the plane. Sure, every airline rolls new seats out one plane at a time, but it’s odd to limit the rollout explicitly to one aircraft type.

Upgraded: Delta’s flight attendants’ trepidations
With Delta and Northwest in confirmed talks regarding a possible merger, the as-yet non-unionized flight attendants at Delta are looking to organize. Delta’s attendants might be members of the AFA-CWA as of February 14. Consider it a Valentine to Delta management. The goal is to “have a seat at the table” when merger discussions take shape.

Upgraded: Competition for hourly car rentals
With the success of hourly “car-sharing” rentals like Zipcar, the big car rental players are getting in on the action. Reportedly, Enterprise is launching its own version, dubbed “WeCar,” which is being test near Washington University in St. Louis. Just be sure to walk around the car and take photos before and after the rental. If WeCar is anything like their regular operation, those Enterprise guys will try to nail you for any damages on the car, whether it happened on your watch or not.

Upgraded: Gitmo!?
Disturbing and bizarre: There actually exists scheduled service to Guantanamo Bay, ironically provided by the happy-go-lucky sounding Air Sunshine, using 9-seat Cessnas. For those wishing to plan their trip, service is only four days a week, at $250 each way. Not cheap, for such a short trip, and you’d better hope they honor the return portion of the ticket. But you may never want to leave. After all, as Dick Cheney described the conditions for detainees at the base’s prison facilities, when he spoke to CNN in 2005, “They’re living in the tropics. They’re well fed. They’ve got everything they could possibly want.”

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Boaz Shmueli of the excellent MileMaven.com website sends in this tip:

For those Alaska Airlines frequent flyers whose 2007 travels were insufficient to meet the threshold for MVP or MVP Gold, the airline’s elite status tiers, there’s a shortcut that can help you catch up.

If you want to requalify for MVP status, you can fly four paid segments on Alaska or Horizon between January 15 and March 15. Registration is necessary. Click here for full details.

To requalify for MVP Gold, you can fly eight paid segments during the same timeframe. Click here.

These links are “hidden” on the Alaska Airlines website, i.e., you won’t find them on the homepage or the MVP program promotions page. Completing the required flights will extend your status until December 2008.

Related:
- My mom is doing a mileage run
- Alaska Airlines (aff)

Reader David writes:

I was on an American flight this week and noticed that the theme for their annual Road Warrior issue is the James Bond inspired “Miles Are Forever.” I found that particularly amusing given the new 18 month mileage expiration, which doesn’t exactly seem like forever to me…

Ha, indeed! I guess “Miles are 18 Months” didn’t have the same cachet.

Every year, American Airlines runs a contest to name their “ultimate road warrior.” I have to admit, the 007-theme of this year’s contest is fun, and the styling is good, but the irony that the miles aren’t actually “forever” is dynamite.

Look on the bright side: You might not be able to keep the miles you earned forever, but they’ll never be able to take away the hours and hours you spent on the plane. Those, indeed, are yours forever.

(…And to ward off nitpicking: Yes, I know that you can extend the life of your miles another 18 months by flying more or redeeming miles, so the award winners won’t risk losing their miles anytime soon. But still.)

With the end of the year nearly upon us, many of us are looking to make charitable contributions. Don’t forget to consider donating miles.

Many of us have small balances in some frequent flyer accounts. Miles that aren’t going anywhere — or taking us anywhere — fast. Instead of letting them expire worthless, donate some of those miles to a charity.

Sure, you could exchange them (at a loss) via Points.com. Or you might cash them in for a magazine subscription.

But as reader Jennifer at Daily Mitzvah reminded me, most U.S. airlines offer a charitable donation feature. Here’s a list.

• American
• Continental
• Delta
• Midwest
• Northwest
• United
• US Airways

If you can’t use your miles, let someone else benefit. Any airlines missing? Add them in comments!

Several readers have written in, asking about Points.com’s newly-launched “Global Points Exchange,” which bills itself as a person-to-person frequent-flyer mile marketplace, letting you “trade the miles and points you have, for the miles and points you want.”

Questions are on the skeptical side — “Is this legitimate?” “Is this a ripoff?” “Is GPX legal?” — so let’s look under the hood.

For starters, yes, this is a legal service, despite the airlines’ rules against selling or bartering frequent flyer miles. Points.com has struck deals with each of the participating airlines, so this is an authorized setting for point exchange, not a back-alley deal or an eBay auction.

The principle is a good one: You’ve got miles in one airline’s account, and you want miles in another. So why not trade with someone who has what you want, and who wants what you’ve got to trade?

I’ll tell you why not: Fees!

GPX is plagued with outrageously high transaction costs, costing you as much to exchange your miles as you’d pay to buy those miles outright from the airline.

Is this any surprise? After all, it’s coming from Points.com, which has long converted miles between programs — with hefty devaluations along the way. And according to their latest financial guidance, people are falling for it. The company “transacted more than 10 billion miles and points” in 2007 alone.

The GPX program is currently in beta, and there aren’t a lot of offers on the bid or the ask. Only five airlines currently participate: Air Canada, Alaska, American, Frontier, and… (wait for it) Icelandair!

Fees vary tremendously depending on the airline, but none of them are small. The outgoing account determines the fee you pay. So exchanging 15,000 American AAdvantage miles into another airline currency will cost you $180.00, while exchanging 15,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles will cost $300.00. PLUS the $6.95 processing fee (currently waived.) Extortionary.

No thanks, Points.com. Your GPX is DOA.

Related:
- The value of frequent flyer miles
- Reader mail: Can I transfer points from one airline to another?
- Travelocity soon to let you book travel using points and miles

In just a few days, my mother will get on a plane (with my dad dutifully accompanying her) and fly to Florida. It’s not a vacation they really planned to take. They’re doing it for the miles.

For those who don’t know, a mileage run is the process of taking a trip just to get the miles. (Usually this means elite-qualifying miles, and not redeemable miles.) For the mileage-running purist, your destination is irrelevant. You might not even stay there — you just fly there, and fly back, to collect the miles. (Wired Magazine’s Dave Demerjian recently jetted around the US just for the miles and lived to tell about it. Even crazier, The Global Traveller recently went on a one-month-long mega-mileage run to establish lifetime elite status.)

Is her son to blame? Perhaps… Indeed, like the dealer helping a junkie get one more high, I pointed my parents to FareCompare’s search engine for mileage runners. The tool searches for flights on a cost-per-mile basis. It turned out that Florida was both inexpensive and desirable.

Yes, my mom has gotten hooked on elite frequent flyer status. She was a few hundred miles short of making status again for next year, and while she wasn’t enjoying the mega-uber-perks of top-tier status, she still appreciated the shorter check-in with business class at crowded airports, the dedicated security lines, and the bonus miles.

Maybe we should call their trip a comfort run. They’re leaving the airport, after all. And they’re actually staying at the destination for a few days. They also used some Starwood points for a Westin and lowballed an Avis rent-a-car via Priceline. In this instance, I think my parents were looking for an excuse for another vacation. And the elite status that results is collateral damage. So this trip isn’t just for the miles…

So is a mileage run really worth it? Elite status is still worthwhile, if you travel enough with one airline (or within one alliance) and if you’re going to take advantage of the perks. If the price is right, and it gets you the perks you want, that mileage run may be an investment worth making.

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Downgraded: Amtrak’s Guest Rewards program
Six weeks ago, I sang the praises of Amtrak’s loyalty program, for the ability to transfer miles between programs with no loss in value. I take it all back. Every last word. As Gary Leff reports, Amtrak has, without warning, changed the terms of their transfers out of the program. Again. This isn’t the first time they’ve changed rules on the fly, without notifying their customers. Bottom line: Amtrak’s program just sucks, sucks, sucks. The managers of the program must take some sadistic pleasure in playing three-card monty with their customers. Ooh, what are the program rules today? How about now? How about now?

Downgraded: Amtrak’s planning and foresight
Amtrak doesn’t just screw with their customers on the loyalty program side of the business. They do it to passengers too. Like running out of fuel between San Diego and Santa Barbara. They required a push from a freight train to reach their destination. Granted, Amtrak has historically been given minimal resources to make it work, but filling the tank seems like a basic calculation.

Downgraded: American Airlines’ new business class
I haven’t flown it, but I was skeptical when I saw the photos. Now AA-loyalist Will Allen writes his review of the new AA business class “lie flat” (but not horizontal) seats, and it’s not glowing.

Downgraded: Arbor Day
Las Vegas man found guilty of secretly cutting down 500 trees because they blocked his view of the Strip. Noted without comment.

Upgraded: Blogger junkets
The Cranky Flier got to fly on the Airbus A380 as it flew around LA airspace. Fun! His detailed report is here. Sweet. Not to be outdone, I hereby challenge Richard Branson to send this blogger to space on Virgin Galactic. Use the contact form, Richard. Top right of the sidebar.

One for the mileage junkies out there in the US of A: Google Checkout, effectively an alternative to Paypal, is offering 2 bonus frequent flyer miles for every dollar spent through December 31, 2007.

It’s capped at 10,000 miles, i.e., spending $5,000 online. If that’s you, Ben Bernanke thanks you for your contribution to the retail-driven economy.

And don’t limit your miles-earning power to the power of the GOOG. Google Checkout still requires real payment from you, which could be via a miles-earning credit card. In that case, you’re effectively getting a 200% mileage bonus on top of the card’s miles.

Plus, if you reach the website of the retailer you’re buying from by clicking through an airline’s online “mall,” you can get another 2, 3, or even 10 miles per dollar, depending on the store. Leverage, baby, leverage!

Mileage bonuses are available on Alaska, Continental, Delta, Midwest, Northwest, US Airways, and United. Conspicuous in its absence: American. (JetBlue and Southwest use a different accrual scheme in their rewards program, so no surprise that they’re missing.)

Related:
- (aff)
- Earn miles by saving your money?
- Why haven’t bankers demanded better frequent flyer mile value?

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For some time the airlines have been doing their best to make frequent flyer miles less valuable. Expiration dates. Increased mileage requirements. Limits on the number of seats available for “free” seats. And on and on. Sure, travelers complain, but why haven’t banks?

Banks?

Yes, banks. Why? Because banks want to continue issuing the airlines’ frequent flyer affinity credit cards, since they make a pretty penny from them. And people will only put up with the annual fees and interest charges if they feel it’s worth it. Kill the demand for miles, you kill the demand for those cards.

And increasingly, frequent flyer programs are losing their value for customers. Take the latest changes to Continental’s OnePass: Tim Winship notes downgrades to the OnePass program effective February 1, 2008. Effectively, they’re price increases:

The price increase that will affect the most members will be for first-class awards on flights within or between the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Canada. Capacity-controlled SaverPass awards will increase in price from 45,000 to 50,000 miles. And the price of unrestricted EasyPass awards will rise from 90,000 to 100,000 miles.

The other price increase applies to overseas BusinessFirst awards. Award flights between North America and Asia, India, Africa, or the Middle East will increase from 250,000 to 300,000 miles. And award flights between North America and Southern South America will rise in price from 180,000 to 250,000 miles.

Adding insult to injury, Continental is eliminating their 500-mile online booking bonus for tickets purchased at continental.com, effective December 1, 2007. While others, like Delta and United, have cut the bonus from 1000 to 500 miles, Continental takes the next step and just eliminates it. Edit: Delta eliminated their online booking bonus entirely in June 2007. Thanks to Chris and Walt for pointing out the error!

Take for granted that travelers should be annoyed. But if I were in charge of Chase’s Visa card program with Continental, I’d be annoyed too. If travelers decide that Continental’s miles are no longer worth pursuing, then they’ll bail out on the Continental/Chase card as well.

So why aren’t the banks raising a bigger stink at these mile devaluations?

UPDATE, December 4, 2007: None of this is valid anymore. Amtrak, in its infinite wisdom, has reneged on this redemption rates. See update below.

Great news for those with Continental OnePass balances too small to redeem for meaningful awards, but large enough to care about: Amtrak has recently partnered with the Choice Hotels Choice Privileges program, which lets you convert your points — with no loss in value — to a host of other programs. Gary Leff has the scoop.

The way it works: You transfer your points from Continental to Amtrak, which is possible at a 1:1 ratio. (You’ll need to call Continental to initiate the transfer, which must be in increments of 5,000, with a 25,000 mile cap.) You then transfer those Amtrak points to Choice Rewards. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for transferring miles again, since Choice Rewards can be converted to miles — again, with no net loss of value — on Air Canada, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Mexicana, Northwest, United, or USAirways. The options for transferring to Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program are perhaps even more attractive. See Gary’s post. UPDATE: Amtrak now devalues your points by 40% when you transfer to Choice. The transfer is no longer worth doing, in my view. Too much lost value.

Moving miles from one airline to another is a frequent flyer holy grail of sorts, so this is a welcome policy. There are other options for moving miles (see here for the lowdown) but it’s extremely rare to see a 1:1 transfer.

Amtrak’s policies have the habit of going “poof!” and disappearing overnight. Use this transfer option while you can.

Related:
- Reader mail: Can I transfer points from one airline to another?

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Over at the Consumerist, they posted a reader complaint that US Airways was sending out letters to Dividend Miles members with inactive accounts, “encouraging” them to pay up $25 to keep their accounts alive.

Expiration dates are unfortunately nothing new for US Airways. I mentioned it a year ago, and other airlines have similar policies. Most of those airlines with an expiration policy give you a chance to reclaim the expired miles — for a fee, of course — and US Airways is no exception. Their policy has a scale, from $50 to revive up to 4,999 miles, up to $400 if you need to resuscitate 100,000 miles or more.

But what’s notable here is that the notices were seemingly sent to those whose miles had not yet reached the expiration date.

A couple e-mails, a click or two, and here we have the original text of a lucky mileholder’s US Airways expiration upsell:

Dear **NAME REDACTED**:

US Airways introduced a policy last year that rewards our customers for staying active in the Dividend Miles program. In order to keep your account active, you must earn or redeem miles within a consecutive 18-month period.

Our records indicate that you have been inactive since 06-13-2006. We want to make sure you keep the miles you’ve earned. To keep your account active and hang on to your miles, you have several options:

* Contact Dividend Miles at 800-428-4322 and pay a $25 preservation fee with your credit card.
* Earn miles by flying on US Airways or any of our airline partners.
* Sign up and earn miles with one of our credit or debit cards.
* Use any of our other partners for everyday activities such as dining out, sending flowers and more.
* Redeem your miles.
* Shop with over 100 premium retailers for name-brand merchandise at the
Dividend Miles Shopping Mall, where you can reactivate your account for as little as 99 cents.

Take advantage of any of these options by 12-31-2007 and your account will remain active for another 18 months.

There are two ways to look at this. The optimist says that the airline is proactively warning its customers that they’re about to lose their miles, so that’s a good thing. And the $25 fee to keep miles alive is less than the $50 or more that it would cost after the fact.

The pessimist finds this “preservation fee” disturbing, and sees this as the first step toward an annual maintenance fee for loyalty accounts. But as the airline’s e-mail states, you don’t HAVE to pay money to the airline to stay in the miles game. You can reset the clock by earning or redeeming miles in any way. Redeem them if you can, or earn a few miles with something small if the balance is worth keeping alive.

So is the $25 preservation charge a great safety net or another twist of the screw? Personally, I think paying the money is rewarding bad behavior, and travelers should view this as another opportunity to re-evaluate their choice of airlines, or the utility of frequent flyer miles in their lives.

Delta, following in the footsteps of Northwest Airlines, has taken another step in the continuing devaluation of frequent flyer miles.

For some time, customers have complained that cashing in frequent flyer miles for the so-called “saver” award tickets has been getting harder and harder. The airlines have countered that there are actually two classes of frequent flyer tickets: 1) the “limited seats available” saver awards that may be harder to get, and 2) the unrestricted-inventory awards which let you cash in miles anytime there is an open seat, but at a higher price: generally double the miles. “Where’s the problem?” the airlines quip, noting that the cheapest cash fares aren’t available on every flight, so why should the discounted frequent flyer tickets be?

But that argument — which is problematic in and of itself, given the way frequent flyer programs are marketed — falls apart when you take away the “any seat” availability of awards.

Gary Leff points to Delta’s latest tweak of the rules at his blog. Delta announced the policy on its website:

Also, effective December 1, 2007, SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will no longer be available on every Delta flight in which a seat is available for sale. SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights, but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights. Our SkySaver Award Ticket Reservations will remain unchanged.

In other words, “We will now restrict availability on all tickets, but we’ll restrict some more than others.” Great.

(As an added bonus, there’s this nugget of a policy change on the site, too: “Some airline partners impose a surcharge on Award Travel redemptions for travel on their airline. These charges will be collected at the time of booking.” No word on how much, which partners, or under what conditions. I’ll inquire and report back.)

Delta isn’t the first to devalue their double-mile awards like this. They’re actually following in fellow SkyTeam alliance member Northwest’s footsteps. Northwest made their change to the WorldPerks program recently, though I admit that this one got past me when it happened. The previously unrestricted PerkPass award now “waives Saturday-night stay requirement, blackout dates and most capacity controls.” Southwest, long a holdout against capacity controls, started that monkey business recently too.

The number of people directly affected by this will be slim at first. Most people try to cash in their miles for the “discounted” miles-fares (e.g., the industry standard of 25,000 miles for a domestic U.S. coach ticket, 35,000 from the lower 48 to Hawaii, or 50,000 between Europe and North America). They don’t even consider the “standard” or “choice” awards that cost double. These “full fare” miles-tickets are really only useful when you’ve got lots of miles to burn and you HAVE to go. But as Gary points out, this has been a valuable insurance policy to have on hand, should tragedy strike.

Even worse, this dumbing-down of the once-unrestricted awards gives the airlines leeway to add even more restrictions to their saver awards. After all, as long as the alternative still has better features, you can mess with the saver award as much as you like.

It’s probably a matter of time before other airlines follow suit. But thumbs down to Delta and Northwest for being ahead of the curve on this one.

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