14 November 2008

New Sneaky Devaluation of FF Currency

Stealth devaluation of the Frequent Flyer Currency has been occurring for some time. Now here is the latest one. Skyteam announces an upgrade from full fare coach to Business Class for 25,000 miles.

OK sound reasonable right? Well not exactly. Why would they invest all this time and effort to do something without a gimme on the back. The gimme being that it will be full fare prices as the flex. This program is clearly targeted at the newly constrained corporate traveller who has seen his "privileges" curtailed and he wont be allowed to fly in C/J class. Skyteam must have looked at their forward bookings and thought - oh dear we need to do something about our yields.

On the positive side it does mean that Skyteam sales people may have a tool to play with when negotiating with corporates. Giving them access to this facility might swing revenue from another carrier. Right now everyone is scrapping for every passenger.

Longer term though this will be a loser for FF premium guys. I will not be surprised if (after seeing the recent survey from Delta) that the 6 international upgrades that used to accompany your Platinum miles renewal each year, goes the way of hot meals in coach.

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