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Over the past year, we’ve seen changes to frequent flyer programs for many of the major carriers. Whether these frequent flyer programs have been spun off into separate companies or values of frequent flyer rewards have diminished, a number of frequent flyers (especially business travelers) are questioning whether or not these programs are still worth it. US Airways has just made changes to their Dividend Miles policy in order to combat escalating fuel surcharges. Keep reading to see how the changes will affect you as a member and to get a sense of what could happen with other frequent flyer programs over the course of the next year… |
From US Airways:
“Beginning May 1, 2008, Dividend Miles will award the actual number of miles flown rather than a minimum number of miles flown for each segment. Also, members who redeem miles for award travel within 14-days of departure on usairways.com will be assessed a quick ticketing fee.”
So, there is potential to accrue more miles, but there are also additional fees on the way. I would love to hear from readers who are frequent flyers. Are changes like these a benefit or another way the airlines are making things a little less about the customer and a little more about the bottom line?
How is there a potential to accrue more miles? They are going to award *actual* mileage instead of minimum 500. Right now, if I fly CAE-CLT, which is barely 100mi, I would accrue 500 dividend miles. Starting 5/1, I will only accrue the actual mileage.
Comment by Aleks — February 15, 2008 @ 9:10 am
Agree with Aleks. They aren’t giving fliers any opportunity to get more miles, in fact it’s LESS miles that you’d be getting. For flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles, right now you get 500 miles. They’re only about 321 miles apart though so you’re missing out on almost 200 miles per flight between the two cities. What a rip off.
The author obviously did NOT know that the current policy is the minimum award miles you get per segment is always 500 miles. Whoever wrote that needs to do more research and obviously is not familiar with current frequent flier programs as real frequent fliers.
Comment by Kelley — February 21, 2008 @ 11:00 am