No news is generally good news in the miles-and-points world. Unfortunately for those of us who obsessively track our account balances in hopes of cashing in our points for aspirational trips to the far stretches of the globe, 2015 was filled with a lot of frequent-flier news. Here are the year’s biggest changes that might affect your 2016 earning plans.
Frequent-flier programs go revenue-based. Delta and United already punched fliers in the gut last year with the announcement of revamped loyalty programs that would award travelers points (and status) based upon how much they spend rather than how far they fly. But it wasn’t until this year that many travelers realized the full brunt of the changes. Now, only a tiny segment of super business travelers comes out ahead.
Then, in November, the other shoe dropped when American announced it would follow suit and go revenue-based, as did Air Canada. This leaves Alaska as the lone holdout among the major North American airlines. Thankfully, Alaska has decided to stay a distance-based program — at least for now.
Photo: Victor/Flickr
Programs devalue. Meanwhile, British Airways whacked one of the most valuable aspects of its Avios program for North American fliers, announcing it would be raising its short-distance mileage redemptions of less than 650 miles from 4,500 points to 7,500 points (still a pretty good deal). And that came months after the carrier increased the cost of its redemptions for premium classes.
Air Canada didn’t do Aeroplan fliers any favors either, devaluing some of its award chart.
Screen capture from Delta website
Delta complicates everything. If it wasn’t enough that Delta overhauled its SkyMiles program, stopped allowing stopovers and announced plans to take away benefits from elites, the airline got rid of its award chart altogether, basically showing that it would now be charging whatever it wants for awards at any given time, and not allowing travelers to have any real conception of what their miles are worth.
DoT kills mistake fares. Those of us who are true miles geeks have spent our fair share of time scouring the Internet for mistake fares. But thanks to a widely-publicized glitch that allowed travelers to book $75 roundtrip fares between London and New York, the DoT pretty much killed mistake fares, saying that those buying a fare that is obviously the result of a glitch cannot count on the ticket being honored.
Via: Lufthansa World Shop
New Partnerships emerge. Luckily, 2015 did bring some positive news for frequent fliers. Singapore Airlines and jetBlue launched reciprocal mileage earning. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines announced a new partnership with Icelandair, as well as a codeshare partnership with Emirates, which allows for reciprocal lounge access and priority check-in.
Virgin America entered a rather unconventional partnership, becoming the first airline to partner with Airbnb. The carrier is offering guests the chance to earn points for stays with the homesharing company. First time users have the opportunity to get a major boost to their points bank, with new guests getting a 1,500-point bonus and first-time hosts earning a whopping 20,000.
Of course, those of us who have been collecting miles for a long time know that this game is always changing, and there are always new ways to maximize the miles that we earn.