A pleasant surprise in my email today. Effective 1 January 2011, Delta frequent flyer miles no longer expire.  Delta still has wording enabling accounts to be terminated for non-activity and non-response to contact (whatever that means).  So it isn’t quite in agreement with the email wording – “no asterisk, no fine print, no ifs, ands or buts”.

I think it is a good move, particularly those who have gotten orphan miles (eg through involuntary rereoute onto Delta from another airline).  Gary Leff isn’t quite so convinced.

I’ve updated my summary of frequent flyer mileage expiry policies for all major airlines.  Hopefully some other frequent fleyr programs follow suit.

Some frequent flyer programs have promotions for purchasing miles.  Normally buying miles is poor value relative to other ways of earning miles, unless you have an urgent need to top up an account for a specific award.  However, some promotions make it worthwhile to buy miles outright.

• American Airlines – until 31 December 2010 a bonus of 2000 miles for every 6000 miles purchased, and the total purchase limit (per year) is increased to 60,000 miles (80k with bonus).
• BMI – until 12 December 2010 a bonus of 50%, thus 24000 miles (16k + 8k bonus) costs £207.
• Delta – until 31 December 2010 a 100% bonus if purchased with DL branded Amex, read View from the Wing’s thoughts on it here.
• US Airways – has had frequent 100% bonuses, but there is no current promotion.

Some more offers, that are less valuable, include:

• Alitalia – until 31 January 2011, a 30% bonus.
• Lufthansa – until 31 December 2010, a 20% bonus.
• United – until 15 December 2010, a 20% bonus.

As posted on Flyer Talk, there is a large devaluation of Miles & More premium awards from 1 January 2011, with many going up by over 20%.  Other changes include one-way awards will become 50% of the return award cost (currently 75%) and tweaks to some award rules.  Upgrade costs remain unchanged.

Time for me to cash in my stash, and re-evaluate my frequent flyer mileage-accrual plans for 2011.

Qantas has announced a raft of changes to their frequent flyer program which will become effective over a period of several months.

From 1 October 2010:

• GAIN Silver status requires 300 status credits to earn and 250 to requalify (down from 350 and 300 respectively).
• GAIN (temporary) Partner Gold status can be applied to anyone on reaching 2100 status credits (currently limited to partner residing at the same address).  Offer valid only until 3 May 2011 and cannot be combined with Platinum+ benefit (see next bullet point).
• GAIN (net) new Platinum+ benefit at 2400 status credits – a choice of Complimentary Gold (replaces current Partner Gold benefit), 3 complimentary Qantas valet parking or chaffeured transport invitations, or 50,000 bonus points.

From 1 December 2010:

• LOSS increase in award assistance and change fees (eg from 2500 to 3500 points)
• LOSS increase in points transfer fee
• LOSS removal of option to pay lost ticket replacement fee in points (cash fee is unchanged)
• GAIN reduction in replacement card fee (from A$25/2500 points to A$10/1000 points)

From 1 February 2011:

• LOSS Qantas Club members and Silver lose priority check in on domestic flights (benefit is retained for international).
• LOSS Platinum loses anytime lounge access, but can use lounges on arrival provided flying on Qantas, Jetstar, Jetstar Asia or Oneworld.

From 4 May 2011:

• GAIN Silver gets increased award availability for classic awards flying Qantas (an existing benefit for Gold and Platinum).
• LOSS 2nd increase in award assistance fee for international tickets (to 6000 points, currently 2500)
• LOSS increase in service fee, and these are added to any other applicable fees

From 1 June 2011 (travel date for tickets purchased on or after 1 December 2010):

• LOSS change in checked baggage allowance for domestic economy class from weight concept to piece concept (1 piece with maximum weight less than old limit).
• GAIN change in checked baggage allowance for domestic business class from weight concept to piece concept (2 pieces with maximum weight per piece).
• GAIN Qantas Club members, Silver, Gold, increase in checked baggage allowance for international business and first class (excluding travel via Americas)
• GAIN Platinum increase in checked baggage allowance for international all classes (excluding travel via Americas)

Overall changes are:

• negative for Bronze (no status)
• negative for Qantas Club
• mixed for Silver – lose some benefits and gain others
• negative for Gold (due to the higher fees)
• mixed for Platinum – lose some benefits and gain others
• small positive for Platinum+ even though the threshold is higher there are more options which helps those for whom the current Partner Gold benefit is worthless

I’ve been a member of Virgin Blue’s Velocity Rewards program for a while but have, until now, never bothered with using their flexible points+cash redemption awards.  I didn’t see a lot of point when the award cost is a direct function of fare and the points saved is about 1 point per cent, ie not great value.  However, this flexibility is great for clearing out an account without wasting odd amounts of points.

What other programs can you do this with?

Changes to the airline alliances continue with confirmation that Shanghai Airlines will leave Star Alliance at 31 October 2010. 

The alliance status of some of the Chinese airlines has been up in the air for a while due to the complicated and evolving cross-ownerships in each other – Shanghai is in the process of being merged with China Eastern, which earlier this year announced an intention to join Sky Team.  China Eastern is itself partly owned by both Cathay Pacific (Oneworld) and Air China (Star Alliance). So it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Shanghai Airlines would leave Star Alliance.

Travellers on Shanghai Airlines will now have a period of a year or two without alliance benefits but existing Star Alliance awards on Shanghai Airlines for travel after October will be honoured. Those flying on paid tickets on Shanghai Airlines from November will no longer be able to earn Star Alliance frequent flyer status miles.  Whether redeemable miles can continue to be earnt will depend on the frequent flyer program being credited to as some may continue to have Shanghai Airlines as a non-alliance partner and others may drop them.

Recently both EU and US regulators approved anti-trust immunity for American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia on the important trans-Atlantic routes with minimal conditions.  Oneworld was the last of the 3 main airline alliances to get approval to co-operate closely on flights between USA and Europe.  This means finally members of British Airways Executive Club and American AAdvantage will (in the near future) be able to earn and redeem on each other’s flights which has been a source of irritation for many frequent flyers for years.

Today, Oneworld announced Air Berlin will be joining the alliance (hat tip View from the Wing).  No firm date has yet been given but normally it takes 12-18 months for an airline to complete entry into an alliance (Air India joining Star Alliance being a notable exception to this rule of thumb).  Air Berlin is considered by some to be an odd choice – they aren’t quite full service nor low cost, and remind me a little of Australia’s Virgin Blue.  I’ll be watching how well they integrate into the alliance with interest.

The next step in the integration of bmi into Lufthansa is the inclusion of each other in the list of airlines eligible for status bonuses from 1 August.  Miles & More elite members can get their 25% status bonus when flying bmi (and they count for HON Circle miles), and Diamond Club Gold status members can get their 35% status bonus when flying Lufthansa (but oddly not for Swiss, Austrian or Brussels flights).

I had to laugh at the wording of the Diamond Club email. Describing the parent airline as a partner is an odd choice of words.

Reader Nun recently made the following comment

I’ve been following “How to get to” for a while. One thing I don’t understand is the strict treatment of the term “alliance.” Just because an airline belongs to an alliance doesn’t mean that’s all the partners they have or that’s all the routes they have. It’s often possible to get somewhere in a codeshare. For example, Iberia has lots of IB coded flights which are actually flown by Vueling. Vueling isn’t part of oneworld but the codeshares are. There are lots of examples. Just a thought…

Good question Nun, and of wider relevance than just for the “how to get to” series of posts.  It is true I base the information on the airline operating the flights, not allowing for codeshare or partner flights. There are reasons for this, which I’ll explain below.

What is a codeshare?

A codeshare is where an airline markets a flight but it is actually operated by a different airline. Eg Air New Zealand codeshares on Aircalin flights between Auckland and Noumea, and Aircalin codeshares on Air New Zealand flights on the same route.  There are different types of codeshare agreements between airlines but that is not important for this discussion.

What is a partner flight?

Most frequent flyer programs (FFPs) also partner with some non-alliance airlines. Sometimes this is limited to a specific route, and other times all routes are included. Some FFPs even partner with airlines that are members of a competing alliance.  For the purpose of this discussion a partner flight excludes flights by other airlines within the same alliance.

Why the operating airline matters (codeshares)

Almost all alliance fare products are limited to flights on airlines within the alliance. There are some limited exceptions (such as Oneworld distance based Global Explorer around the world fare). The fare rules require both operating airline and marketing airline to be within the relevant airline alliance.

For mileage earning and redemption the situation is more complicated, as follows:

• intra-alliance codeshare (eg American codeshare on Qantas flights between USA and Australia) – full earning, status earning, award redemption okay
• marketing airline is the airline of the FFP, operating airline is not in the alliance (eg Air NZ codeshare on Aircalin in relation to Airpoints) – full earning, may or may not earn status miles, award redemption okay
• marketing airline is not the airline of the FFP but is another airline within the same alliance, operating airlines is not in the alliance (eg Air NZ codeshare on Aircalin in relation to United Mileage Plus) – in Oneworld generally earn miles and status miles and allow award redemption, in Star Alliance and Sky Team generally non mileage earning and no award redemption
• marketing airline is not in the alliance but is a partner of the FFP, operating airline is in the alliance (eg Aircalin codeshare on Air NZ in relation to Airpoints) - earn miles, may or may not earn status miles, generally allow awards

Why not include partner airline flights?

Partners of one frequent flyer program are not normally also partners of all other frequent flyer programs in the same alliance.  A Flyer Talk thread on Star Alliance partner airlines illustrates – for example Virgin Atlantic is a partner of several Star Alliance airlines, but others are not partners with Virgin Atlantic.

Going back to Nun‘s question. I haven’t included partner airlines in the alliance listings in the “how to get to” series of posts because they are useful only to some frequent flyer programs and generally not useful for alliance products or awards.  To include every airline flying to a country would mean some long lists and information that would quickly become out of date. I get around this by listing the main non-alliance airlines as “other”. The reader is left to check which ones may be useful for them for mileage earning or award redemption purposes.

When I saw an email header of amazing awards available now my suspicions were raised. Opening it I saw it was promoting a frequent flyer shop where I could waste my miles on such things as a bar of soap fo 2,300 miles. Unfortunately it wasn’t 1 April.

I suppose the only good thing that can be said about scams such as this is that it may hold off devaluations for the awards I really use and value, at least for a little longer.