01-11-2011
08:37 PM
5 Loves
"Southwest already gives lots of perks that other airlines don't (free bags, free changes, etc..), and as a businessman I see the reasons for the change. Southwest is not making extra money like other airlines are."
You realize that Southwest was pretty much the ONLY airline making a profit around 2005-2007, right? And they did it without putting stupid fees on top of their airfares because they had a loyal customer base who, despite the fact that they have NO first class or business class cabin, NO in-flight entertainment, etc., continue to fly them again and again. I fear that making points never expire (see my previous post) will cause a lot of this customer traffic to go elsewhere.
"For those that say the program is not simple anymore, it is actually pretty simple: Fly 10 times to a destination and get a free flight to that destination (earn = 12, 10 and 6; redeem 120, 100, 60)."
No, it's not. With the new program, if you try to book a last minute trip, you wont' have enough points (unless you ALWAYS book last minute trips on AT or BS fares). This greatly reduces the value of the Award/Points, because you also have to worry about HOW MANY points it will take to get you to your destination. As I said, it would be a hell of a lot simpler to structure the program so that if you fly, say, 4-5 Business Select flights, 6-8 Anytime flights between two destinations, or 8-12 WGA flights, you get enough points for a free flight between those same two destinations (or of a comparable distance). And make Award redemption between two destinations cost a set number of points, not this god-awful system where if the fares are higher one day, it costs you more points. At that point, the award travel is no longer special, and I might as well just be paying in cash. Note that you can still set up the program so that it takes you fewer FLIGHTS to earn enough points to fly between two destinations if you pay a higher fare; that's completely fair. But no other airline I know of charges points/miles equivalent to the actual dollar cost of the fare. Even on United, I can book last minute flights for miles without having to worry about the actual market value of the ticket.
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01-11-2011
02:24 PM
2 Loves
Southwest is really shooting itself in the foot with this change. By making points never expire as long as you have some earning or redemption activity every 24 months, they're really making me that much less likely to fly them. It was actually the fact that you HAD to get 16 credits in 24 months that kept me flying them again and again...even on trips that I probably shouldn't have.
For example, I took a trip from the Bay Area to Gallatin Field/Bozeman (BZN) in 2009. I quickly realized that no carrier offered direct flights from any Bay Area airport to BZN...I could have taken a single carrier: United out of SFO, with one stop, but I had some Southwest points I wanted to earn. The solution? Simple! SJC to LAS on Southwest, LAS to BZN on Allegiant Air, BZN to DEN on United, and then DEN to SJC on Southwest. Why? Because I wanted to earn my 16 credits, and had a limited amount of time with which to do it.
With this change, all I would have to do is just rent a car, or stay at a hotel, ONCE every 24 months under my RR account. I wouldn't even have to fly Southwest in order to keep my points! And if RR 2.0 had been in effect back then, I probably wouldn't have even bothered to fly Southwest on that trip, because I had flown them just 5 months prior and 1 month following that trip.
Look, Southwest. I know you have to do something about people who buy 16 $50 WGA fares and then redeem a RR award for a cross-country trip, but this god-awful mess you have created is NOT the answer. Okay, so the original point was to buy 8 round trip tickets and get a round trip of comparable value for free? Then why don't you at least make it 6 points per dollar for WGA purchases, 48 points per dollar to redeem; 10 points per dollar for Anytime purchase, 80 points per dollar to redeem; 12 points per dollar for BS purchase, 96 points per dollar to redeem? Do you think we are so stupid that we can't realize that you've screwed us over by increasing the multiplier from 8 to 10?
Or better yet, just have a set number of "points" required to redeem for specific routes: for example SJC to SAN would be 6,000 points one way, while SJC to MCO would be 18,000 points one way. And DO NOT tie the actual redemption cost to the actual dollar value of the fare being purchased. You see, part of the real value of having an Award was that you could book last-minute trips without paying through the nose. By making Award travel different in some way -- you could rebook without having to worry about fare differences -- you increase the value of having the Award in the first place. With the new system, an Award is simply like having money in a personal Southwest account, that you can only use to redeem for flights. In other words, if I have to pay the true cost of the fare (either in dollars or points), I'm going to shop around for the best price...which includes your competitors. And if having an Award does not let me book last minute travel without having to worry about actual fares, I am THAT much less likely to even fly Southwest in the first place to try to get the Award. When combined with the fact that the "points" in the new system never actually expire, you have a disaster of a program that makes me FAR less likely to use your services...and isn't the point of a frequent flyer program to encourage loyalty?
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