Catering cuts effective 09/01/14

[john john]

Passengers pay for first class all the way to departure time
It all about the fare buckets and suitable available times using miles for free travel will be at the top for the list when traveling

 

[737823]

Passengers pay for first class all the way to departure time
It all about the fare buckets and suitable available times using miles for free travel will be at the top for the list when traveling

 
And your points is?
 
Josh

 

[john john]

And your points is?
 
Josh

Don’t let free tickets upgrade. Use miles form the start for first
Limited 12.5K award free tickets so free tickets are at a higher cash in.

 

[jimntx]

That I agree with. There are differences between booking an award ticket in F/C or in coach. If you select coach because you don't want to use more points, then you sit in coach. Or, make sure that the upgrade to F/C deducts the points for a F/C award ticket--50,000 vs. 25,000. I'm seeing more and more EPs book coach fare tickets expecting to get upgraded to F/C at the gate. And, being ticked off when they don't get upgraded because F/C is full. Same rules should apply to purchased and award tickets--buy coach, sit in coach.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Agree, and it's certainly not a technology limitation. All you need to do is file private fares in a currency code that's used for internal purposes only. Doing it that way would also make it easy to collect the taxes and fees using miles. Gets annoying to have to always pay the PFC's with a card.

are there any US airlines or other global airlines for that matter that allow taxes to be paid with miles?

I would be surprised if any US airlines will ever allow miles to be used for taxes.

 

[eolesen]

If you select coach because you don't want to use more points, then you sit in coach.
...
Same rules should apply to purchased and award tickets--buy coach, sit in coach.

As long as there's a policy of space available upgrades for elites, there's a pretty good argument that it should be done consistently.

A ticket paid for with a DBC voucher is eligible for an upgrade.

A ticket paid for with miles isn't.

Both are technically free to the customer, no?

 

[USFlyer]

Miles are a liability on the balance sheet, yes.

However, using miles for taxes would result in an expense, with corresponding cash outlay, to the airline on the income statement.  I doubt any airline would ever do this.

 

[eolesen]

And yet, a transportation voucher can be used to pay for taxes and fees.

What's the difference? From an accounting standpoint, they're both accrued liability.

 

[WorldTraveler]

transportation vouchers are for a specific dollar amount - and their value is usually related to a paid ticket.

are there examples of any airlines - US or global - that allow miles to be used to pay for int'l taxes?

USFlyer's perspective is very likely to be accurate.

If AA or another US airline chooses to allow miles to be used for taxes - which have to be paid - then I don't think either he or I are willing to acknowledge it, but I agree that it is highly unlikely to happen.

 

[eolesen]

Here's one example I'm shocked you didn't know about:

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/use-miles/pay-with-miles.html

Taxes/Fees:

Taxes and fees payable with Pay with Miles include only U.S. excise and departure/arrival taxes, airport charges, segment fees, the September 11th Security Fee, and international taxes and fees normally included in the fare. Change fees and other fees are not eligible to be paid with the Pay with Miles benefit.

Even though you've said it's "highly unlikely to happen" I can only imagine that it will suddenly become something highly innovative and a common sense move that all other airlines will strive to mimic...

There are others, but I'll let you do your own research.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Here's one example I'm shocked you didn't know about:http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/use-miles/pay-with-miles.htmlEven though you've said it's "highly unlikely to happen" I can only imagine that it will suddenly become something highly innovative and a common sense move that all other airlines will strive to mimic...There are others, but I'll let you do your own research.

Goes to another zero cred example.

Not quite sure what this has to do with catering cuts at AA.

 

[eolesen]

Catering died out as a line of discussion a week ago.. it moved onto upgrades, and then into why no upgrades on an award ticket yet I can do one on a ticket bought with a voucher.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Catering died out as a line of discussion a week ago.. it moved onto upgrades, and then into why no upgrades on an award ticket yet I can do one on a ticket bought with a voucher.

If you can tie that to Kevin Bacon, you have a winner.

 

[USFlyer]

The DL option you cite applies to those with a DL SkyMiles credit card, so I'm guessing (and it's only a guess) the credit card company negotiated this as part of its agreement with DL.  Airlines are paid cash for the miles earned with credit card transactions, so the income in effect offsets the expense.

 

[WorldTraveler]

precisely.


it is not a general benefit as part of the program but an exception.