US Airways Masks Frequent Flier Devaluations by Calling Them Customer Enhancements
When I told people at the Frequent Flier Program conference that customers wanted airlines to stop using spin to hide negative program changes, US Airways (NYSE: LCC) apparently failed to get the message. This week, US Airways made a splash with what it calls "Award Travel Made Easier." Instead, the airline has simply devalued its program and increased the number of miles required to redeem for awards.
US Airways is calling its new program GoAwards. Currently, US Airways has two award levels - Saver at a certain level and Standard at double that level. (Yes, there are currently some off peak awards as well for cheaper redemption during soft times.) The new program will add another level. There will now be Low, Medium, and High in addition to the off peak levels.
The rationale for this is theoretically to give people more options to use their miles, but the reality is that this simply allows the airline to raise its award levels and make people use more miles to fly. Let me explain.
On a domestic trip booked today, the coach Saver award is 25,000 while the Standard award is 50,000 roundtrip. Under the new program beginning in January, the Low level is 25,000, Medium is 40,000 and High is 60,000. More choice, right? Yeah, but that's not necessarily good for customers. Delta has already done something very similar, so we can use that as an example of how this makes sense for an airline.
There is already very limited availability for the Saver award, and we can expect that to get squeezed even further. I have enough miles for an award in Delta's, United's, and American's programs so I generally compare all three. I've found that when Saver awards are usually available on United or American, Delta has that set at Medium. So only the lowest of the low flights have Low availability. On the upper end, Standard currently offers last seat availability. That benefit will still be there, but it will now cost an extra 10,000 miles.
While US Airways may call this an enhancement for customers, it's really just a way to get people to burn more miles for less. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this if they were up front about it. It's the PR spin that just makes me, and many customers, angry.
[Updated 11/15 @ 1001p: It appears that medium and high will act similarly to off peak and low. A day is either medium or high and that is the number of miles required for a full standard award without capacity controls on that day. The days appear to be random, however, but we'll see how it works in practice.]