Author Topic: AS devaluation of EK redemptions  (Read 28570 times)

Offline ilherman

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #140 on: April 01, 2016, 12:29:58 AM »
Sorry guys for not writing up the second chapter so Juicy.

I am falling asleep.... But I hope that point was made. 

If I am off don't hesitate to comment.
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Offline ilherman

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #141 on: April 01, 2016, 12:32:28 AM »
Things like this take longer than two days. Last program restructuring I worked on took a year from start to finish, and it wasn't major, though obviously these circumstances and the specific change r much different than that of a typical deval.
Okay so change it to 20 days  ;)

ALOL. The only problem with your theory is that it's a pretty big oversight to not know that: "no notice changes especially piss off customers."

Nah, that is the smallest problem. I mean DL did get away with it. Why can't you believe that someone in AS thought they could do the same. It is not my theory, Lucky wrote about it and it sounded the closest to the truth.
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Offline EJB

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #142 on: April 01, 2016, 12:36:39 AM »
I don't buy the claim that AS had 0 notice. As to why they gave us 0 notice, to each his own theory.

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #143 on: April 01, 2016, 03:58:40 AM »
Gotta love the implication that the EK partnership is in order to reward their West Coast BIS flyers and not to sell miles to cc companies and pax

My bet is the large amount of redemptions on EK comparative to other uses was raising their average redemption cost and hurting some accountants, so they found a simple solution. Whoever made the decision didn't realize he should be giving notice and like most people is too proud to backtrack.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2016, 04:02:18 AM by PlatinumGuy »
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Offline benjie1305

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #144 on: April 01, 2016, 07:19:02 AM »
Huh?
More like placing the blame on Sam Huang.

More like Daraius which funnily TPOL kinda goes off on today as the mysterious not so mysterious Deal Killer.
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Offline CS91

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #145 on: April 01, 2016, 08:04:12 AM »
More like Daraius which funnily TPOL kinda goes off on today as the mysterious not so mysterious Deal Killer.
That Deal Killer article is hilarious!

Offline shauly

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #146 on: April 01, 2016, 08:41:41 AM »
That Deal Killer article is hilarious!

It would be if it wasn't so spot on.

Offline benjie1305

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #147 on: April 01, 2016, 08:57:41 AM »
I do hate the Q&A Part mentioning the “travel-hacking,” intended to exploit Mileage Plan’s award routing rules

because they could have then simply changed the routing rules / been more stringent on not allowing those.
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Offline benjie1305

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #148 on: April 01, 2016, 03:16:41 PM »
Lucky's turn:

I have a friend who works at Emirates, who shared with me what really happened. Emirates was pissed at Alaska for the number of first class redemptions coming through their program. They wanted to cut off Emirates first class redemptions altogether for Alaska Mileage Plan, and the new redemption rates were looked at as a compromise. The main goal was to make the product so highly priced that only a tiny fraction of people would redeem for it.

This is part of why I find it so hilarious that Alaska is pointing at “travel hackers,” as they’re calling them. They knew exactly what was going on, and were profiting hugely off of it. Internal reimbursement rates between airlines are low, and Alaska was making tens of millions of dollars selling miles to people they knew wanted to redeem for Emirates first class.


While it does shed a bit more light and confirms some things, I do love how all of them just shift blame around. If it wasn't for bloggers advertising xBM's and purchasing miles for this, there wouldn't be "that many redemptions for EK F coming through their program".
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Offline EJB

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #149 on: April 01, 2016, 03:18:07 PM »
Lucky's turn:

I have a friend who works at Emirates, who shared with me what really happened. Emirates was pissed at Alaska for the number of first class redemptions coming through their program. They wanted to cut off Emirates first class redemptions altogether for Alaska Mileage Plan, and the new redemption rates were looked at as a compromise. The main goal was to make the product so highly priced that only a tiny fraction of people would redeem for it.

And who's to blame for the lack of notice? EK or AS?

Offline benjie1305

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #150 on: April 01, 2016, 03:19:38 PM »
And who's to blame for the lack of notice? EK or AS?

AS didn't want to swallow the pain for 30 days.


Thus, no notice.
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Offline AJK

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #151 on: April 01, 2016, 04:48:29 PM »
Wrong. Emirates had enough, and they  threatened to remove F as an option altogether. As a compromise, and likely due in large part to the fact that EK didn't want a deluge of last minute bookings ala AA deval, both AS and EK (and from the facts, its clear it was as at EK's urging), agreed that AS would change to higher rates without notice.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2016, 04:51:57 PM by AJK »
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Offline AJK

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #152 on: April 01, 2016, 04:56:11 PM »
What ^ said. Of course they had to do something to cover the damage.

AJ, you think that the following happened today in Alaska's HQ?

9:00 AM: Hi, this is Ibrahim from Emirates, I would like to inform you that we decided that you need to raise your award pricing for our airline and the changes will be as follows. NA-EU 180K for a one way in F instead of 100k, there are more changes, I will email you everything soon. The changes need to take place 10 minutes after you get my email with the final prices. Have a good day.

9:05: Alaska calls an emergency meeting for the IT teem and who not to make the update as quickly as possible.

9:20: All the updates are in place.

10:00: The Alaska HQs starting to get tweets, emails, phone calls from panicked members as to what happened, they answer everyone, sorry it was Emirates who forced us into it.

12:00 PM: The phone rings at Alaska. AS: Hello.
EK: Hi this is Ibrahim again.
AS: Hi.
EK: (in an angry tone) Don't tell me hi now! Why you guys make us look so bad! Why you tell everyone that it is our fault. I warn you. Allahu Akbar.

12:05: AS calls an emergency meeting once again and orders EVERYONE to change the version of the story and tell everyone that IT IS NOT EKs fault. It was due to travel hackers.

12:10 Without thinking too much if the new reason makes sense, AS changes the story, writes up a blog post and yalla.

Or AJ wait for my next post to what happened and you will get to decide as to what really happened.
Uhm, yeah. Pretty much. See above.
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Offline EJB

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #153 on: April 01, 2016, 05:20:20 PM »
Wrong. Emirates had enough, and they  threatened to remove F as an option altogether. As a compromise, and likely due in large part to the fact that EK didn't want a deluge of last minute bookings ala AA deval, both AS and EK (and from the facts, its clear it was as at EK's urging), agreed that AS would change to higher rates without notice.


Agree w most except the "from the facts it's clear that it was at EKs urging.." to devalue without notice. Ek could have put pressure a number of ways, including ridding themselves as a partner or raising costs to AS. It could have been a joint decision to devalue without notice, it could have been an EK decision, but it also could have been an AS decision. I don't think the lack of notice was "clearly" at EKs urging.

Offline Buruch

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #154 on: April 01, 2016, 07:19:56 PM »
Why couldn't EK just release fewer seats / release only closer to flight?

Offline benjie1305

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Offline Aaaron

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #156 on: April 02, 2016, 09:41:32 PM »
One time change permitted to existing bookings.

Good news for me.  Although it doesn't mention change in class; wondering if I can convince them to let me go from J to F if it opens?

Offline ual902

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #157 on: April 02, 2016, 10:14:53 PM »
How many  JL points for one way JFK DXB BKK on EK F?

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #158 on: April 02, 2016, 11:21:11 PM »
Emirates could very easily limit AS's PCC from F availability or at least a portion of it. Pretty sure they still do just that even with the current levels.

AS could've also constrained availability a la CO.

The simple answer they are thrilled to sell it for the right price.

״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline ilherman

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Re: AS devaluation of EK redemptions
« Reply #159 on: April 03, 2016, 01:46:21 AM »
Emirates could very easily limit AS's PCC from F availability or at least a portion of it. Pretty sure they still do just that even with the current levels.

AS could've also constrained availability a la CO.

The simple answer they are thrilled to sell it for the right price.
Exactly my thoughts. I still think that the above story from Lucky is not the whole picture.
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