United’s response to the premium cabin earning rates changes: better than I expected

Posted by Seth Miller on January 3, 2013 under frequent flyer, points | 12 Comments to Read

Well, the bad news is that United Airlines has confirmed the new earning rates for premium cabin fares on many partner airlines. In posts today on FlyerTalk and MilePoint the company offered up an explanation and a full listing of the affected fare classes (which pretty much matches the list I had produced) and also an explanation. Apparently the old rates were a mistake:

In March 2012, when we migrated to a single system, we unintentionally increased PQM and PQS earnings for some of our partners to our former OnePass levels, instead of taking them to their intended MileagePlus levels.

While these higher earning levels remained in effect for the remainder of 2012, we are now reinstating the PQM/PQS earning rates for the following carriers and fare classes to 100% as of Jan. 1, 2013:

• Air New Zealand (NZ): A, B, C, D, E, J, O, U,Y, Z
• Asiana (OZ): A, B, C, D, F, J, Y, Z
• Croatia Airlines (OU): A, B, C, D, F, Y, Z
• Egyptair (MS): A, B, C, D, F, J, Y, Z
• LOT (LO): A, C, D, P, Z
• Singapore (SQ): A, C, D, F, J, P, R, S, Y, Z
• South African (SA): B, C, D, H, J, K, M, Q, S, Y, Z
• TAM (JJ): A, B, C, D, F, J , Y, Z
• TAP (TP): B, C, D, J, Y, Z
• THAI (TG): A, B, C, D, F, J, P, U, Y, Z
• Turkish (TK): C, D

I’m not entirely sure I buy that it was a mistake, particularly given how often they changed things around right when the initial announcement was made for the new program. Still, in a rather unprecedented move, the company has agreed to honor previously ticketed flights at the old earning rates:

We realize that some of you booked flights on these partners prior to Jan. 1 and were expecting the higher PQM/PQS earnings. In this particular case, given the circumstances, we will honor the higher rates regardless of your travel date. There are a few complexities involved with posting miles at the higher rates, so please bear with us. Specifically, if you booked your ticket through United, we will proactively adjust amounts after their initial posting (typically within a few days of when the original flight is credited). However, if you booked through someone other than United (like another airline or travel agency), you will have to contact the MileagePlus Service Center after your miles have initially posted in order to make the adjustment.

This will actually net me a few extra miles on my upcoming Bangkok-Haneda flight on Thai Airways so I’m pretty happy about that.

Related Posts:

• United guts premium fare earning rates on multiple partners

Quick earning rate comparison for new Star Alliance partners

Posted by Seth Miller on June 22, 2012 under frequent flyer, points | 3 Comments to Read

With Copa and Avianca/Taca now in Star Alliance the other partner carriers are busy updating their earning charts. Well, some are more busy than others. A couple carriers haven’t updated their earning charts yet, but a number of them have. And, like always, I enjoy looking at the data to see if there are any particularly strange earning rate anomalies or gaps in the programs. Looking at the rates across six different programs there are three which are missing sufficient data so it is hard to know what is going on.

Still, the trends seem to be reasonably clear. Crediting to Aegean’s Miles & Bonus or Ethiopian’s ShebaMiles program isn’t a bad deal if you’re flying in premium cabins. Also, not surprisingly, the lowest coach fares credit rather poorly in those programs. Also of note is that some programs identify Taca and Avianca as the same carrier, some include Taca Peru and LACSA and some list only one of the programs. A bit confusing, to be certain.

Full integration of the data is available in the calculators on the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools site. Some tables showing the new rates are also shared below.

Business Class Avianca/Taca

Economy Class Avianca/Taca

Business Class Copa

Economy Class Copa

Related Posts

• Star Alliance seizes Central America
• Copa inches closer to Star Alliance membership
• Date set for Copa and Avianca-Taca to join Star Alliance
• Code-sharing coming to Central American competitors
• Copa likely to join Star Alliance
• The new LATAM headed to OneWorld

Reading the tea leaves for MileagePlus partner earning rates

Posted by Seth Miller on February 26, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points | 7 Comments to Read

With just a week to go before the new MileagePlus program launches for United Airlines and the OnePas program of merger partner Continental officially disappears, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the new program. Earning rates for flying on partner airlines is among the major points still unknown. In the past couple weeks a test website for the newly merged web presence of the company has been available (http://pss.united.com) and even more recently some details regarding earning rates for partners has shown up on that site. I am hesitant to consider this data completely authoritative for many reasons, among them that the carrier has explicitly stated that the site is not official, but there is enough information there that I figured giving it a first pass was worthwhile.

Each of the programs had about 500-600 rules for earning on Star Alliance partners; the new program is no different in that regard. Of those, somewhere between 20-40% seem to have at least one aspect of the earning rates changing as part of the new program. That’s a lot of new information to process.

In most cases the changes reflect the company choosing the rates from one of the two programs which is being retired; there are, however, a few instance where the numbers are completely new. And, since many people like to wonder if the program is trending more towards the legacy United or Continental way of business, my rough count suggest that in those cases where the two were different and one of the legacy rates was chosen, Continental "won" at a 2:1 clip.

So, what are the changes of note? Here are a few, broken down by partner:

Aegean

• Four economy fare buckets – P, T, U & V – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
• Two economy fare buckets – Y & B – will earn fewer EQMs per trip. The are now at 100%, the legacy United rate, versus the 150% rate that Continental offered.
• Four premium cabin fare buckets – A,C, D & Z – will now earn 125% EQMs per trip. This is a downgrade from the legacy Continental rate (150%) and an upgrade from the legacy United rate (100%).

Air China

• Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, F, J, Y & Z – will earn 100% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy United program. This is a downgrade from the OnePass program (150%).

Asiana

• Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
• Two discount economy fares – G & T – will see earnings at 70%. This is an increase from both the OnePass program (50%) and the Mileage Plus program (0%).

Austrian

• Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program (100%).
• Deep-discount economy fares – S & W – will earn only for flights within Europe, at the rate of 100%. This is a downgrade from the Mileage Plus program and an upgrade from the OnePass program.

bmi

• Two economy fare buckets – L & U – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
• Three full fare economy and premium cabin buckets – I, S & Y – will earn 100% award miles and 150% elite miles. This is in line with the legacy Continental rates and an upgrade from the legacy United rates (100%/100%).
• Six premium cabin buckets – A, C, D, J, P & Z – will earn 125% award miles and 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. The EQM earning rate is an upgrade from the 100% earnt in the legacy United program.
• All fares earn 500 mile minimums, matching the OnePass charts and an upgrade from the United charts.

Blue1

• Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, J, S, Y & Z – will earn 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. This is an upgrade from the legacy United program (100%).
• One discount economy fare bucket – O – will earn at 25% RDMs/EQMs. This matches the legacy OnePass rate and is an upgrade from the legacy United rate (0%/0%).

EgyptAir

• Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
• Seven deep-discount economy fare buckets – G, L, S, T, U, V & W – will earn no credit, matching the legacy United program; this is a downgrade from the 25-50% rates they earnt in the OnePass program.
• Two economy fares – Q & K – will earn at 100%, matching the legacy Mileage Plus program and upgrading from the 75% rate in the OnePass program.

Ethiopian

• Three premium cabin fares – C, D & J – are upgrading from 100% to 150% EQMs. This is an upgrade from both legacy programs (100%).

Lufthansa

• Most premium cabin fares see an upgrade to the award miles earning rates, in line with the previously discussed earning rates for United flights. These rates are much higher in most cases than the legacy United or Continental rates.
• For discounted economy fares – L & T – the rates will match those of the legacy United program, earning 100% on intercontinental flights and on intra-Europe flights which connect to intercontinental flights. The OnePass program offered 50% credit on all flights in those fare buckets.

Swiss

• Similar to Lufthansa, most premium cabin fares will earn at much higher award miles rates. In addition, the EQM earning rates for those fares will be increased to 150%, matching the legacy Continental rates and improving from the 100% that United used to offer.
• Three discount economy fares – K, L &T – disappear from the earning charts completely, a downgrade from both legacy programs.

US Airways

• No more 500 mile minimums for flights, a downgrade from the OnePass program and matching the United program.
• Only 100% EQMs on Y and B fares, a downgrade from the United program and matching the OnePass rates.

Croatia AIrlines, Singapore, Thai & TAP

• Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.

For Air Canada and TAM the earning rates are not yet loaded on the site, and the TAM page shows some data from bmi and some from TAM. For Copa it does not show an elite earning bonus, though that is unlikely to actually be the case.

The only chart that appears to remain the same across the board is that of partner Turkish Airlines.

Non-alliance partner EVA will see a much broader partnership, with many more fare buckets available for earning. The rest of the non-alliance partners look to be pretty much the same, though I didn’t give those charts as thorough a review.

Again, please remember that the analysis here is from unofficial data and should not be considered necessarily accurate, though it is accurate from what was on the website when I looked at it today.

And, should these rates end up being accurate, it would appear that this is a case where the company being somewhat one-sided in where they favor a legacy program will work out well for customers. In nearly all the cases that the legacy OnePass rates were picked it was an upgrade for the Mileage Plus rates. The same cannot be said for the cases where the legacy Mileage Plus rates prevailed.

Related Posts:

• Decoding fare buckets on the new United

Ethiopian Airlines joins Star Alliance

Posted by Seth Miller on December 13, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 5 Comments to Read

Ethiopian Airlines became the third African carrier to join the Star Alliance network this week, growing the alliance to 28 carriers. Of those 28, 16 provide service to Africa, covering 110 airports in 48 countries. The move also integrates Ethiopian into the fare and award products, though some integration on fare products won’t occur until January 2012.

The move also integrates the carrier into frequent flier earning across the alliance. Thus far I’ve seen earing details for Asiana, Continental, United Airlines, Turkish, TAP Air Portugal, Air Canada, Lufthansa‘s Miles & More and Agean Airlines. Those earning rates have been incorporated into the calculators on the Travel Tools site. Generally speaking most of the carriers are providing 100% earning rates for all economy fares and a bonus for business class fares. Full details about the rates can be found on the Travel Tools Update here.

Aeroplan cracking down on partner bookings??

Posted by Seth Miller on December 24, 2010 under frequent flyer, News | Read the First Comment

First there was the announcement that Air Canada’s Aeroplan program would require flights on AC metal to earn elite status. Now there are rumors floating around that booking options for award flights – particularly on partner airlines – are being artificially limited by the company.

Previously one was always able to check for the award inventory directly via a number of different tools (AwardNexus or www.ana.co.jp are the most popular and comprehensive for Star Alliance) and then feed the flights to an agent segment by segment. Now the agents are apparently limited to only being able to sell the seats they see on their search screens. Among other things this restricts some carriers, including Asiana and Swiss, from being displayed at all. Not very helpful.

Currently partner bookings are still being processed by managers but it is not clear how willing they will be to process such requests going forward. Either way, it is a rather unfortunate devaluation of the Aeroplan program. Coming on the heels of their wins at the Frequent Traveler Awards program this past November these devaluations are especially unfortunate.

More discussion on this recent development here.

Related Posts:

• Aeroplan to require Air Canada travel for status

Fuel surcharges rolling back

Posted by Seth Miller on December 19, 2008 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

Finally some good news in the world of fees and surcharges!  Most major international airlines are cutting them now that fuel costs are dropping back to early 2007 levels.

Recently bmi announced that they were removing fuel surcharges from flights to/from Heathrow, and then they expanded that plan to remove the surcharges on all their regional flights in Europe.  The other British carriers have also announced major cuts, with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic both trimming their fees.  The amount varies depending on the cabin and trip length, but every little bit helps.  Then again, the surcharges don’t seem to be changing for the premium cabins, so maybe it doesn’t help so much.

Most of the major Asian carriers are reducing as well, with ANA, JAL, Asiana and Korean all announcing cuts in the past week or so.  The cuts range from 30-70%, which is pretty impressive.  That being said, the ANA and JAL cuts are coming down from some ridiculously high levels and they are at the lower end of the range for the cut amounts, so those flights will still have a rather significant surcharge associated with them. 

Here’s the thing – we almost certainly won’t see lower fares because of this.  The surcharges will decrease but the carriers will almost certainly attempt to raise fares to match the decreases.  So why does it matter?  In a word, rewards.  Reward tickets are subject to “taxes and fees” so they pay for fuel surcharges in most cases.  This can render a reward ticket virtually useless for many trips.  As the surcharges are traded out and fares raised to compensate folks buying tickets will pay the same price but folks redeeming for a reward trip will see their costs reduced significantly.  That’s a great thing.