Well, the calendar finally ticked forward far enough for me to start looking at availability. For the return trip, there are no real nonstop options from Barcelona at this time, so I knew I’d be connecting. Furthermore, I followed Lucky’s advice and used the Continental website to perform my search. Not that I ever doubted, but boy was he right about it being a better way to book awards than United.com. Of course, November isn’t exactly a peak travel time for US-Europe travel, so I’m not surprised that availability was out there, but I have to say, it was easy to find exactly what I wanted.

For the return, I was thinking Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Munich. There is no First Class availability right now, but Business is available and I nabbed 2 seats. A321 service to Frankfurt and then 747-400 service from Frankfurt to Dulles. Continental.com could not assign seats so I rang up the Continental elite line and retrieved our Lufthansa confirmation numbers (we are in separate PNRs for the return) then gave Lufthansa a call. Row 3 on the A321 and row 1 on the 747-400, which I’m pretty pleased about. Something about riding in the nose of a 747 appeals to me. Also, I’ll keep an eye out for First Class, and if availability happens to appear, I might switch to that. Business is plenty acceptable for a trans-Atlantic flight, but this is an important trip for us, and a visit to the First Class terminal in Frankfurt would be icing on the birthday cake for sure.

Note: This is reposted from 12/24. The original post went missing due to a technical error.

In any event, as I was doing important work today, it donned on me to check and see if United had opened up award availability for the IAD to FCO nonstops next October. Sure enough, first class was available at the “saver” rate of 67,500 miles per person departing on her birthday. While Business is plenty acceptable for a flight to Europe, this is an important event and I wanted to travel in style.

I realize connecting in Frankfurt and visiting the Lufthansa First Class terminal would really be “in style,” but in this case, the ease of nonstop flight carries more weight for us. And all things being equal, one can do worse than United First Class….it could be United Coach. So I nabbed 3E and 3F on the Boeing 777 nonstop to Rome. I’m happy. I don’t have to worry about shopping for the return for several days as we won’t be departing Barcelona until November 16th. Hoping for good award availability karma! For now, I’m quite pleased to have First Class seats to Rome. Who says you can’t use miles?!

In other news, the bonus miles awarded will change for the typical mid-tier flier. Premier Gold members, the typical 50,000 mile flier, will now receive 50 percent bonus miles as opposed to the 100 percent bonus that United Premier Executives receive today. Premier Platinums, a new 75,000 mile or 90 segment tier will receive 75 percent bonus miles, and only Premier 1K’s or 100,000 mile or 120 segment tier members will receive 100 percent bonus miles. I think these new tiers align most closely with US Airways Dividend Miles.

Personally, I think it could have been worse, and rather than a lot of United members moving on to other programs like AAdvantage, Dividend Miles and SkyMiles, I have to wonder if the future of these programs isn’t headed towards looking a lot more like the new United program and Dividend Miles rather than AAdvantage and Delta SkyMiles. I have to give the new United MileagePlus a little more thought over the next few days before I say more. But believe me, I’ll have more to say.

In summary, the rumored changes include a plus up to class of service bonuses ranging from 125 percent for your basic Y, B, and M fares all the way up to 250 percent for F and A fares. As far as status levels go, the new MileagePlus would offer 4 status levels, Premier Silver, Premier Gold, Premier Platinum, and Premier Diamond. Now, this is where things get tricky. If the rumors turn out to be true, United will add a minimum spend component to the usual miles/segments requirements. For example, the base status of Premier Silver would be granted to fliers who a) fly 25,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs) or fly 30 segments, spend $2,000 dollars in revenue, and fly at least 4 segments on United. But there’s yet another way to earn Premier Silver, spend $5,000 dollars and fly 4 United segments. I won’t review the rumored qualification requirements for each status level here, but I think you can see where this is headed. United is going to attempt to closely tie elite status to revenue, and not just mileage flown.

In my case, I spend considerably more than $2,000 dollars per year on air travel, some for personal reasons, more for business. Trouble is, I can’t absolutely direct all of that to just one airline. Would a requirement like this spur me to try and be more loyal? Not likely. If anything, I’d move to an airline and program where things are a little less convoluted. It doesn’t get a lot of press, but American AAdvantage made a tweak to its program years ago that effectively rewards higher revenue travelers. At American you qualify for status via segments, miles, or points. With elite qualifying points (EQPs), American awards more or less based on fare type. So with a full Y fare, you earn 1.5 EQPs and 1 EQM. If you are a traveler who typically buys higher fares, you will be rewarded accordingly by attaining elite status or higher status faster than a traveler who only buys the lowest fare which earns 0.5 EQPs (but still earns full EQMs).

If the rumors about the new MileagePlus come true, color me unimpressed. I don’t think customers that book the lowest fare are necessarily unprofitable. Yes, they search for reasonable fares, but might they not also carry a MileagePlus Visa and charge every penny they spend to it? That same customer probably also eats only at restaurants that participate in the Rewards Network program, and does all of their online shopping via the MileagePlus shopping portal. In all of these cases, miles are being sold and revenue is being earned by MileagePlus and United.

I suppose my point in all this is that I get the idea of rewarding high spenders. It’s just that I think there is a way to reward higher spend travelers without penalizing others. American gets it right in my book. This rumor about MileagePlus, which may have been a trial balloon for all I know, is less than stellar. It’s going to be interesting watching the new MileagePlus unfold this fall.

What will the new card do for you?  The new card offers some benefits that will be of interest to United fliers, this one included.  The offer available on this and other Boardingarea.com blogs lists the following:

• “Up to” 40,000 bonus miles (25,000 miles after first purchase, 5,000 miles after your first use and adding an authorized user, plus 10,000 miles when spending $25,000 on your card in a calendar year)
• Annual fee of $95 dollars is waived the first year
• First bag for you and one companion is free
• Priority boarding (sounds like between Premiers and general boarding)
• Two United Club passes each year
• Double miles on United purchase (1 mile per dollar on others)
• You can read the full scoop plus terms and conditions as well as apply for the card here.

Overall, not a bad card.  The priority boarding and first bag fee waiver are worth money to me.  I’m currently a United Premier Executive, but it’s looking increasingly like I’ll be lucky to maintain Premier this year.  If I do, this card isn’t that great of a value for me.  If I fall short and lose status, then I will definitely consider switching my Mileage Plus Select Visa to the Explorer Visa because I value an honest shot at overhead bin space for my carry on more than I do double miles for dining out and groceries, but that’s just me.  You may have different needs.  No matter what, if a little United flying is in your routine travel plans, but not quite enough to maintain elite status, then this card is worth a look.

* Edited to add:  After closely reviewing Mrs MJonTravel’s offer, I found that it was only for gas, grocery, and dining purchases.  My offer on the other hand covers: “…. bookstores, clothing stores (including shoe, accessory, and specialty apparel stores), convenience stores, department stores, dining establishments (excluding fast food/quick service restaurants), movie theaters, video rental stores, Theatrical stage productions, concerts, shows, contract entertainers (including comedians, magicians, and DJs), and their supporting services (including ticket, booking, and casting agencies and equipment services). Purchases not eligible to receive bonus rewards include, but are not limited to, purchases made at superstores, warehouse clubs, discount stores and their affiliates. Online and catalog purchases are not eligible to receive the bonus rewards unless the merchants have correctly identified and billed the transactions.”

Again, your mileage may vary.  Read carefully if you got an offer.

Delta seems to struggle with award availability, but I really do believe that has more to do with their awful booking engine than anything else. I’ve seen enough anecdotal evidence around the interweb to lead me to conclude that while their availability isn’t as good as United or American, it’s not as bad as Delta.com would lead you to believe if you don’t do your homework. Then there’s US Airways, which I’ve not earned a single mile on in years (credit US flights to UA or CO), but in my experience hasn’t had the worst availability in the world. And again, there’s enough evidence out there if you look that many have successfully burned large numbers of US miles for great Star Alliance partner awards that make me feel like Dividend Miles might not be the worst mileage program on the planet.

Of course, the bobble-heads in the traditional media latched onto this study like it was delivered by Moses. Call me an AApologist, but I think American’s award availability is a heckuvalot better than middle of the pack, and same for United. Both airlines have certainly worked out well for me with redemption, and I’d say my success rate is a lot better than mid-range. That said, the average success rate in the study was 68.6 percent. I wonder if that’s good or bad? What do you think. Frankly, I think that’s an OK number. Now…27.1 percent for Delta? Not cool on the surface, but what was the study looking for? Apparently, not apples to apples comparisons of availability. I’m so late to the party on blogging about this that I won’t bore you with analysis. Take a look at Gary’s excellent take on the subject here.

But back to my post title. My point is you can’t allow a single study like this to make you throw up your arms in defeat and switch to one of the airlines at the top. Live in Atlanta? What good is switching to Virgin Australia or GOL gonna do for you? Granted, there are some partner opportunities to take advantage of if you think a little outside the box on your mileage plan, but try getting a comp upgrade on Delta with your Virgin Atlantic # in the reservation. That’s an outlier of an example, I know, but my point is, you have to do what works best for you. Maybe that’s crediting your Delta flights to Alaska, or if you really care about Medallion benefits, you just have to stick with SkyMiles and realize that you have to do a little homework (or a lot) to effectively use your miles. Or if time is on your side, you forget that you’re a hub captive, accept connections as a fact of life, and fly United or American. These programs, almost all of them, can still be richly rewarding if you do your due diligence, and make them work for you. IdeaWorks or not, I plan to keep earning and burning miles because so far, it’s good for me. It can still be good for you too!

I tend to fly United for my personal and some work flying, but Delta is almost exclusively work-related flying by virtue of Atlanta being the city I fly to most for work purposes.  I will likely fly Delta enough to maintain Silver Medallion this year based on work travel alone.  If I were to dedicate my personal trips to Delta, I would easily maintain Gold Medallion, perhaps even Platinum.  But SkyMiles just doesn’t hold a candle to Mileage Plus or AAdvantage, and for now, the frequency program is enough to sway me from dedicating additional flying beyond what’s required by my work travel to Delta.  (One roundtrip to Miami to catch a cruise, and one First Class award to Seattle in June excepted.  80,000 miles for that Seattle trip.  UGH!)

Then there’s United where I’m Premier Executive.  While I’m not very far along in maintaining that status for 2012, things will pick up for the remainder of the year, and I’ll certainly make the Premier cut….and with a little judicious mileage running, Premier Executive.  Living in Washington, DC, United is a great option for long-haul nonstop from Dulles.  Better yet, as long as US Airways remains in the Star Alliance, I can fly them for short-haul domestics in/out of DCA which happens to be a 15 to 20 minute cab ride from my home.  United, Mileage Plus, and the Star Alliance work great for me living in DC, and I plan to focus as much flying as possible with them for the rest of the year to maintain my elite status.  I won’t hesitate to do a series of mileage runs after Labor Day when fares typically fall off a bit to maintain my status.  And next year, I’m going to do a better job of taking advantage of some decent fares in the late January/February timeframe that sometimes appear.

I should’ve done a better job with planning for next year’s elite status on United earlier in the year.  You need to be really plugged in to how you are doing with ensuring you hit your status goal for the following year from the very beginning of the year, and I didn’t do it.  Not cool, but a mistake that can still be easily repaired at this point.  How do you plan for your elite status goals each year?

Click here.

Some fees are actually going down. For example, the fee for changing your origin or destination on award tickets will be dropping immediately to $75 dollars for all Mileage Plus members below 1K and Global Services status who are exempt. For tickets issued on or after June 15, 2011, the fee evolves into a tiered pricing structure with General Members continuing to pay $75 dollars while Premiers and Premier executives will be out $50 and $75 dollars respectively. There are other changes which United details here.

All in all, these changes aren’t that bad, and for elite members, they’re mostly beneficial. That said, I am not a fan of paying any extra surcharge for booking your trip less than 21 days before departure. That fee is, and always has been, a pure money grab and I do not care for it. Frankly, I don’t even think non-elites should be charged this fee. Let’s face it, if you’re down to booking a trip less than 3 weeks in advance, you’re more likely to have to use “double miles” awards anyway. Isn’t that indignity enough?

Why is United doing this now? I think they really are just aligning with Continental. But with oil prices headed north, I think the fee structure that they thought might be slightly more revenue positive is the one they went with. I’m betting a lot more non-elites than we think actually use their miles for simpleton trips, and wind up booking closer to departure than they might like, especially with fares are high as they are in many markets. Just a thought…that I can’t back up with hard data. In any event, I can’t help but think that some other airlines may be looking at tweaking the fee structure on their award programs to boost revenue. Personally, I hope American’s fee waiver for elites on close-in bookings is the model that wins the day. Will I get my wish? Doubt it. Though it is gratifying to see that all award fees for United’s top elite 1K and Global Services customers continue to be waived. Perhaps I need a 1K card?