Bloggers are squealing about United’s award booking changes. But United says it’s for the better (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Frequent travelers groaned and rolled their eyes again today as United unloaded another devaluation of its MileagePlus program. But Delta tossed its long oppressed silver medallion members a bone.
At United, as with other programs, devaluations feel like death by 1,000 cuts. Earlier this month, MileagePlus members had to swallow higher award travel change fees and accept fewer options for stopping over on award trips. Today, United restricted members’ ability to book multi-city trips, only allowing flight combinations that United creates for the trip and blocking the ability to manually build award itineraries.
At first, most miles & points bloggers thought this might be a mistake or glitch in the system. But in fact, it’s not and United released the following statement spinning the move as a positive: “The new MileagePlus redemption award changes have been designed to make multi-city searches easier, give our customers greater flexibility, offer the Excursionist Perk, and provide efficient options that meet their travel needs. Selecting the multi-city option where United offers nonstop service will break up the search into two separate awards. We believe our multi-city pricing is consistent with the industry. Additionally, our customers have greater flexibility when booking multi-city travel. United.com offers ways to optimize searches – for example, you can select preferred connection cities, specific airports, etc.”
You’ll find more details on United’s move here. Matthew over at Upgrd.com offers some an in-depth look at ways to get around the draconian new restrictions.
Graceful lineup of Delta tails at ATL (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Over at Delta, SkyMiles Silver Medallion members are “now eligible for unlimited complimentary first class upgrades on award trips 24 hours prior to departure.” That’s a nice gesture, but the reality is that SkyMiles members with more valuable metallic cards will almost always snag those seats before a silver medallion does. Especially when traveling to, from or between a Delta hub like Atlanta, Minneapolis, New York or Los Angeles. Even gold medallions find few upgrades on those hub-to-hub flights. Plus, Delta is now selling those first class upgrades, too, making the chances of a silver getting one even dimmer. But hey, you never know when a free big seat may pop up. So enjoy it if you get it!
In related Delta news, the carrier announced today that Richard Anderson, who became Delta’s chairman after stepping down as CEO in May, is retiring effective immediately. The suddenness of Anderson’s departure (at age 61) has tongues wagging and wondering and only time will tell what the real story is here. Any ideas?
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It is stunning just how awful Untied’s mileage program has become. They can and will continue to chop away at it as the airline M&As continue and competition declines. Flying keeps getting worse and worse.
Just have to hate when we lose something else.
I agree. I’m a lowly Silver, and I’m often surprised and pleased at how well DL takes care of me when something goes wrong. Twice in the past year I’ve had to change or cancel due to medical emergencies in my family. Both times Delta was very accommodating and helpful, and didn’t charge any extra fees.
I think that’s a little cynical. I get free bags, free same-day-changes, priority boarding, priority check-in on every single flight I take. None of those have gone away. Upgrades to first class are getting a bit tighter, but I’m still almost 50% success rate (and when you consider the fare difference, that’s an incredible value!) But best of all, if things go wrong (weather, etc) DL always takes care of me, they will over-sell a full flight in order to get me home, etc. That kind of special treatment can be priceless when your itinerary gets messed up.
All of the above are hugely valuable. I couldn’t disagree with you more. Status is still incredibly valuable. And AMEX can’t even come close to competing with that
The problem is that “status” doesn’t count for much these days. Your Delta status gets you pretty much the same thing as an Amex Platinum does, nothing, and an Amex Delta card can actually be better than Delta status.
If you’re a frequent flyer, it’s all about status. And Amex can’t compete with status. If you’re not a frequent flyer, do whatever you like, the airlines don’t care about you and won’t cry over your departure.
Stuff like this makes last week’s Amex news that much more relevant. United (and Delta) have made their frequent flyer programs of only minor relevance, thanks to new competition from the likes of Amex. I now have a great alternative to putting miles into my UA or DL accounts, and being able to redeem more freely, and often less expensively, using Amex points with the 50% kickback. Markets work, and UA and DL will not be able to get away with such crap without being punished by their (ex-)customers, who will get wise and become Amex customers rather than accepting their scraps.