=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2007/03/27/BUGK8ORT7L= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 27, 2007 (SF Chronicle) Airline miles start flying away/Customers need to scrutinize new stricter r= ules David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer Use them or lose them. Frequent-flier miles are going away -- not all of them, and not right away. But several of the nation's major airlines, saying the rapid buildup of unused miles is raising their operating costs and eating up administrative time, are imposing tighter new deadlines for using the miles -- or, at least, showing some activity in members' mileage accounts. The latest to change its frequent-flier program is United Airlines, which recently shortened to 18 months from three years the time which its Mileage Plus accounts must show some action or be closed, with loss of the miles. Late last year, Delta Air Lines also shortened to two years from three years its Sky Miles expiration date. US Airways, too, has moved up to 18 months expiration for its Dividend Miles program. Long accustomed to racking up miles not only by flying, but by shopping, eating out or renting cars from airline partners and having long periods in which to redeem those miles -- consumers unaware of the changes could lose their miles, airline experts say. In recent years, the increasing scarcity of award seats on desirable flights has become an issue. Now, travelers have something new to watch out for. "These new policies mainly apply to two groups," said Chris McGinnis, editor of Expedia Travel Trendwatch. "First are occasional fliers who have accumulated a few miles here and there, once or twice a year, and have never had enough miles for the basic 25,000 mile redemption for a free domestic trip. These people are not truly frequent travelers anyway and don't really belong in frequent traveler programs. There are billions of miles accumulated in these accounts that most likely will never earn enough miles for a free trip, so I don't blame the airlines for trying to clean this up," McGinnis said. "Second, and more importantly, this impacts those members who have earned a lot of miles in the past, but have moved to new jobs that don't require frequent travel, or they have retired, and their accounts have become inactive," he said. "Many of those members have thought, mistakenly, I believe, that these miles would remain in a 'bank' and that they would hold onto their miles until retirement or some far-off date when they would have time to take the trip of a lifetime to Australia or wherever. These are the folks that stand to lose the most if their accounts remain inactive." As word of the program changes has filtered out, travelers are grousing about the shorter deadlines. On travel Web site www.upgradetravelbetter.com, angry fliers posted their comments. "This may be good for the bottom line, but it stinks for the frequent flier," wrote a correspondent who identified herself as Diane. "It won't do anything to make customers loyal to these kinds of airlines. The airlines seem to forget that they need more customers to grow. First, they squeeze their employees to stay afloat and now they are squeezing their customers." Most customers are taking news of changes calmly, said United spokesman Jeff Kovick, adding that the Chicago carrier notified members of its Mileage Plus program by direct mail and e-mail of the pending changes. To date, the 48 million Mileage Plus members have rolled up 508 billion unredeemed miles, and that's just too many, Kovick said. The airline tightened its deadline because unused accumulated miles are viewed as an expense and tracking them takes time and effort that could be put into something else. Also, United wanted to reward customers who use their miles, Kovick said. "This change is going to make our Mileage Plus program better for United= 's most loyal customers while also reducing our operating costs," he said. Delta Air Lines spokesman Anthony Black said the carrier's Sky Miles program has been revamped to make it easier to use. A reward calendar at www.delta.com allows members to see reward seats on scheduled flights, and the Web site offers a variety of ways to keep frequent-flier mile accounts current. A spokeswoman at US Airways said halving the time for redeeming Dividend Miles "would make it easier to use our frequent-flier program." Asked about the number of members and miles, she said that information was proprietary. Cut miles for better service? United has in part explained the tighter deadlines for its program by saying fewer customers would compete for reward seats once membership rolls have been pared. This rationale doesn't necessarily fly with aviation watchers, however. Randy Petersen, who runs the Web site www.flyer.com and has written wide= ly about frequent-flier programs since their inception in the 1980s, said "All three airlines say with their changes they'll have fewer people chasing the miles and that makes more seats available. Honestly, I don't think there's any way to quantify that." There is no industry standard for frequent-flier programs. Major carriers such as American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines have not changed their expiration periods for redeeming miles. Some low-cost carriers, which only recently introduced frequent-flier programs, have tighter redemption deadlines than their larger rivals. Miles on JetBlue, for example, must be used within one year. Some airline analysts say the programs at the big carriers that introduc= ed frequent-flier miles 25 years ago have grown so unmanageable that something had to be done. "You can earn miles by buying grapes, you can get miles by buying something at the hardware store. Frequent-flier programs have nothing to do with hardware stores," said Terry Trippler, an airline expert in Minneapolis who has worked with several travel Web sites. "The airlines want to get some of these miles off the books. I don't bla= me them for doing it. They are not frequent shopper programs," said Trippler, who compared today's frequent-flier programs to the trading stamp craze of the 1960s. "They are trading stamp programs without the stamps," he said. But while the airlines may be tightening up, keeping mileage programs active is actually quite easy, airline spokesmen say. United's Kovick points out that simply buying something, anything, using an affinity card -- a credit card issued by a United partner company -- keeps the account open, with miles in it. How hard is it to keep miles Aviation pundits agree, with caveats, that keeping miles is easy. "The rates for affinity credit cards do tend to be higher than on no-fee cards, and this can be a concern if you carry a monthly balance," noted Randy Petersen on his www.webflyer.com Web site. In an interview, he added that loading up with one more credit card may not be a good idea because so many American consumers are already carrying debt. Instead, Petersen suggested, you might simply want to use your miles. "Gee, you could even go flying," he said. Expedia's McGinnis agrees. "My advice is redeem miles now," he said. "Do not think of your frequent-flier account as a bank. It's not. The value of the miles in frequent-flier accounts is completely up to the whim and financial conditions of the airlines, and based on what we have seen, that value has decreased." E-mail David Armstrong davidarmstrong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -----------------= ----------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".