Another week that about the best thing that can be said is that it’s over. News that United MileagePlus is essentially cc’ing the SkyMiles 2015 program overtook most everything else that happened in the travel space this week. The reaction – anger. I’ve called this move inevitable before, and I continue to believe that. However, just because my current flying patterns leave me slightly advantaged in a revenue-based world, one shouldn’t take that as a lack of empathy to everyone’s concerns. Someday I’ll have a different job, or no job, and my flying patterns will change. Will the tiny bit of lifetime elite status I’ve earned be worth anything, or even still exist? I hope so, but only time will tell. As you might expect, there was a lot of news around the blogs this week.

  • Gary takes me to task for calling the outcry over revenue based programs a “Great Big Ol’ Bag of Nadda.” This wasn’t a great read because it linked to me, and Gary disagrees with what I said. It was great because of the advice contained in the last sentence, “The best advice is to understand what kind of flyer you are, how you’ll do in the changes to your airline’s program, and whether or not another program will reward you better — like American, or like a frequent flyer program based outside the U.S.” Great advice!
  • I live in Atlanta, but admittedly do not watch a lot of local news. I’m really glad I didn’t see this news piece that Lucky tells us about – an air traffic controller in ATL jokingly telling an approaching jet to go around. Oy. Nothing raises the one hair on my head more than reporters using words like “scary” when it comes to routine aviation matters like going around. Granted, this was a dumb thing for the controller to do, but still.
  • And then there was my favorite take on MileagePlus 2015 from Rapid Travel Chai.

Weekly Recap

This weekend, take a break from miles and points drama, spend some time with your family, or do something else you enjoy. Have a great weekend!

-MJ, June 14, 2014