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"Are you aware that United has created a two-tiered structure for their award travel? The "saver" category, for fewer miles, seems to contain only red-eyes. The "standard" category (everything else) costs twice as many miles per ticket. The r/t coast to coast flights I just booked cost 40k miles. In effect, they've diminished the value of Mileage Plus miles by 50 percent. Still, with the shape United is in, I thought I better fly before my miles become worthless altogether.
"Keep up the good work." (Susan - Davis, CA)
[Editor's Note - The so-called unrestricted awards have been with us for several years. With restricted awards harder than ever to obtain, more program members are being forced to redeem at the higher unrestricted levels. As we've argued here, that amounts to an unpublished increase in award levels, since the average number of miles redeemed for an award ticket is being forced higher.]
"This writer had accumulated many frequent flier miles on several airlines, including 89,052 miles on Delta, one of the airlines mentioned in today's Wall Street Journal.
"I will not bore you with a lengthy dissertation but I had colon cancer in 2000 and spent much of 2001 and 2002 in hospitals and rehab. During that period Delta reduced my mileage to 14,182 because the time for usage had expired.
"I explained the extenuating circumstances which caused the time to expire in two letters neither of which have been answered.
"I realize there is nothing to be done about their policy but every rule has exceptions. Their heartless treatment will keep me off Delta in the future and may be a contributing factor in their existing problems.
"I am only boring you with this because it is what you do and I hope in some small way it helps you in your analysis of airlines." (George B. - Westlake Village, CA)
[Editor's Note - Airlines have considerable discretion in these matters. And the specifics of this situation may well warrant an exception. Don't give up hope yet.]
"Flew SONG for the first time yesterday. LOVED the real-time TV. Made the flights to/from TPA and BOS so much more enjoyable.
"If SONG and JetBlue can have real-time TV, why can't the big carriers follow suit?" (Marva - St. Pete, FL)
[Editor's Note - SONG and JetBlue also offer more legroom, on average, than do their "full service" counterparts. Such disconnects are both cause and effect of the industry's current troubles.]
"I recently checked a fare from the east coast to the west coast on Orbitz.
"If I booked it thru Orbitz as a Northwest flight it was $100 dollars less than if I booked on Delta or even on Delta.com. All of the flights were on Delta not northwest.
"If you don't believe me check it out. PHL to SNA, 10/14 return 10/21. So fly Northwest instead of Delta. Can anyone explain this? Why can Orbitz sell a Northwest ticket on Delta flights cheaper than they can sell the exact same flights thru Delta." (John)
[Editor's Note - These are undoubtedly code-shares, where Northwest sells seats on a Delta-operated flight as though it were a NW flight. Although it may be counter-intuitive, it's not unusual to see the second carrier undercut the prices offered by the airline actually operating the flight. In any case, it has nothing to do with Orbitz... they're simply posting the fares the airlines have authorized them to offer.]
Until next week...
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