Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for November 2015.

Air Canada Introduces the Toughest Spending Requirement for Elite Status

by Gary Leff

Nov 25 2015

Three years ago Delta introduced minimum spending requirements for elite status. The revenue requirement was essentially set at 10 cents per mile — e.g. $2500 for 25,000 mile status, $5000 for 50,000 mile status and so on. That was a big conceptual move, but one with limited effect in practice.

However revenue-based requirements for elite status have now spread internationally — to North of the Border. Air Canada is clearly trying to cull their elite ranks, something consistent with their past stated attitudes towards elite frequent flyers.

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A Cautionary Tale About Booking Through Expedia

by Gary Leff

Nov 24 2015

Rick Hasen, a law school contracts professor who runs an election law blog, writes about an Alice in Wonderland experience with Expedia.

He purchased non-changeable tickets that Expedia said had a change fee. The tickets didn’t permit advance seat assignments which Expedia failed to disclose. And Expedia says he should have called them during the purchase process to find out if there were any hidden restrictions — a phone call that likely would have taken hours.

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A Silver Lining to the AAdvantage Devaluation: Upgrades

by Gary Leff

Nov 24 2015

One bit of good news for members in the AAdvantage program changes that I haven’t seen get any play is that mileage upgrade award charts don’t appear to be changing.

Delta made upgrades a lot more expensive this year. United has many more upgrade price levels, including some more expensive than AAdvantage. But American hasn’t changed their upgrade prices.

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What American Didn’t Say About its Devaluation

by Gary Leff

Nov 23 2015

In some ways what American didn’t say about their devaluation is even more interesting than what they did say.

United made major changes to their award chart ten years ago … they made this bitter pill go down a bit easier by promising “saver awards available on every flight to every destination.”

When British Airways announced a huge devaluation at the beginning of the year which went into effect in April they softened it in a similar manner.

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Since American Miles Will Become Harder to Get, Should You Buy Miles Now While They’re Cheap?

by Gary Leff

Nov 23 2015

A Facebook friend writes, “Since [redeemable miles] are going to be harder to earn in the future with my flying patterns buying cheap tickets and American is going to start awarding miles based on ticket price rather than distance flown in about a year, does it make sense to load up on miles with the current purchase promo?

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