Blog Post Stop faking like you care about devaluations

[Matt]

We had another devaluation this week- the Chase Ultimate Reward program removed Korean airlines as an award partner, drama ensued, and then I think it came back. As of the time of writing this post I haven’t bothered checking, because I really don’t give a crap. In fact, when the news broke (I imagine before it hit the blogs) on the Forum my response was:

Well at least I didn’t spend any time figuring out that award program before they yanked it.
​

In the past I have written some posts about devaluations, I think I may have written about the American and United ones, these are my two main programs for international travel (even after devaluation). But going forward I doubt I will unless it specifically impacts a trip I am planning,and I share a workaround.

Most of my ‘travel’ news comes in from Twitter, and when a program devalues I see all these hashtags bashing Delta, United et al – are these people really upset, or are they just whiners, or are they faking it so as to keep the pressure on the airlines from totally gutting their programs? Of course, there are the bloggers who break the story, and therefore become the expert source, so you have a group of people following around a couple of eejits all crying about the news that an award that used to cost 50K now costs 57.5K (the bastards!)

I mean, honestly I LOVE United – and all of the airlines. I’ve flown on dozens of flights with them, and their partners and all I am spending is some points that cost next to nothing to acquire, and some taxes.

Who gets hurt by devaluations?


Actual loyal travelers. Those who spend thousands of their own money and insist on giving it one airline over another not based on market forces (price) but on what color plastic tag they get assigned. The work travelers are spending someone else s dime (and IMO should be going for the lowest cost fare) and leisure travelers shouldn’t be spending a single penny.

I still struggle to wrap my head around the notion that people who know how to travel hack will spend anything out of their own pocket to ‘buy’ status that then later devalues – I have heard all the arguments about ROI from Executive Platinum eVIP upgrades, but none of them standup against:

In the past 5 years I have not spent a dollar of real money on airline travel outside of award fees.
​

So the mileage runners get hurt – they embark upon a strategy to acquire miles and pay over the odds for them. When the program devalues they feel cheated, I don’t want to say I told you so but….

The people who don’t appreciate the value of a mile get hurt too. There are people who fly in Business and First on a whim, and pop off on.. trips? I add the question mark as many of these folk don’t actually go anywhere or do anything cool, they just fly from A>B and check into a local Hyatt (no more Hilton since they devalued!).

My weird strategy


I’ve avoided Delta for all these years of ‘travel hacking’ because people who know better call them SkyPesos. Guess what? I just started collecting them. I’m going to fly Delta, for ‘almost’ free and I am going to love it. And if they devalue again before I get enough Pesos collected i’ll fly a different airline until I get the new level. Trust me, I can earn faster than they can devalue.

Devaluations are to be expected, and there will be more to come. When they do I won’t be mad at all, my points are collected strategically, and at almost zero cost. Most importantly, I’m happy. I have seen enough of the world for free already, so should award travel go up in smoke, I’ll be glad that I loved and lost.

My advice to you – keep low balances, book tickets early so that you avoid being caught with miles that do devalue. But when you inevitably are, don’t get mad about it, the entire frequent flyer loyalty program is a massive charade, and you should be grateful for what you have received already. It’s not to late for you – please stop spending your money on travel, you should know already it can be done for basically free. And if you find yourself the victim of a brutal and heartless devaluation, just get over it, remember the next devaluation is going to be worse than the present one, and one day, you might not be able to travel with points at all.

The post Stop faking like you care about devaluations appeared first on Travel.

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[smittytabb]

I expect devaluations and try to hedge against them by earning and burning and diversifying my points and ways of collecting them. I agree in theory with your argument, but I do think that there are exceptions. If you travel to far flung places and try to go for the kind of experiences you suggest are of better value than Vendôming it, you run into situations that absolutely require paying for them. Sure, you could use the Barclays, but sometimes the cost is just too high for that. Or you have a very special trip like Antarctica for example. And you watch for a scary great deal like a 50% off sale on a cruise (just booked one of those by the way) and you just saved a ridiculous amount of money on something you know you will do anyway because it is major bucket list. You cannot book the flight way ahead on miles and you cannot wait for the space to open up at the last minute either. So, you buy the ticket and you will likely get upgraded because you are EXP. Your argument is based upon your current personal circumstances. What you do works for you and it is fantastic. But, sometimes paying for travel if you do a lot of it makes total sense. Or if you had a family with a lot of children like I do, always using miles can be next to impossible in every situation. Giving my children the chance to travel was extremely important to me and it has made a difference in all of their lives. All have studied abroad and several have lived abroad. In order to make that happen in the midst of all the other things going on, and because there were four of them, paying for certain travel experiences made sense. I think it can be easy to want to make it tidy and be able to say all travel is free or close to free. For me, it is about maximizing value as much as possible, but not skipping out on travel experiences because I cannot game them to the max. This is another kind of yes, and strategy.

 

[InstinctX]

Matt, I heart your titles ... they're so titillating and sometimes salacious... I only caught the first 2 words of the thread in my browser.... thought I read it as "Stop Faking It..."

I was like, oh my ... have to check out it right away LOL

 

[sriki]

Haha...I had the same reaction. A lot of the people in the 'business' need driving factors. Sometimes, they exists on their own, eg: a lucrative CC offer or great award sweet spot. When those have been beaten to death, there is a need for new material. So begins the quest for news and any small news will be exaggerated to get some eye balls (hits) and a few savvy ones even try to justify their outrage/enthusiasm as CYA against people calling them out.

EDIT: I am also miles poor and that's intentional. I redeem for tickets as soon as I get enough miles which means I usually have my next destination lined up and working towards it. It's rare for me to get caught on airline devaluations though I jinxed myself now. Hotels on the other hand is a different matter and I like to collect them points as many as I can.

 

[Matt]

I expect devaluations and try to hedge against them by earning and burning and diversifying my points and ways of collecting them. I agree in theory with your argument, but I do think that there are exceptions. If you travel to far flung places and try to go for the kind of experiences you suggest are of better value than Vendôming it, you run into situations that absolutely require paying for them. Sure, you could use the Barclays, but sometimes the cost is just too high for that. Or you have a very special trip like Antarctica for example. And you watch for a scary great deal like a 50% off sale on a cruise (just booked one of those by the way) and you just saved a ridiculous amount of money on something you know you will do anyway because it is major bucket list. You cannot book the flight way ahead on miles and you cannot wait for the space to open up at the last minute either. So, you buy the ticket and you will likely get upgraded because you are EXP. Your argument is based upon your current personal circumstances. What you do works for you and it is fantastic. But, sometimes paying for travel if you do a lot of it makes total sense. Or if you had a family with a lot of children like I do, always using miles can be next to impossible in every situation. Giving my children the chance to travel was extremely important to me and it has made a difference in all of their lives. All have studied abroad and several have lived abroad. In order to make that happen in the midst of all the other things going on, and because there were four of them, paying for certain travel experiences made sense. I think it can be easy to want to make it tidy and be able to say all travel is free or close to free. For me, it is about maximizing value as much as possible, but not skipping out on travel experiences because I cannot game them to the max. This is another kind of yes, and strategy.

I'm fine with paying for travel that can't be booked with points (such as the cruise you mention) but I think the logic fails when you talk about EXP. Anyone earning EXP is missing out on the ability to shop around for prices, or paying for way too much travel.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn't experience travel, this post says you shouldn't grumble when programs devalue as they are already a gift.

 

[PainCorp]

We do care. I don't collect UA miles any more because of their devaluation.

 

[smittytabb]

I'm fine with paying for travel that can't be booked with points (such as the cruise you mention) but I think the logic fails when you talk about EXP. Anyone earning EXP is missing out on the ability to shop around for prices, or paying for way too much travel.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn't experience travel, this post says you shouldn't grumble when programs devalue as they are already a gift.

Not a grumbler, so with you on that. I think the bloggers often try to grumble to create a movement to have their readers contact the airlines to salvage their own lifestyle, so it is hyperbole at best and self serving at worst. I live 5 minutes from an airport served only by AA and when I fly to Chicago, which takes 30 minutes tops, I get 500 miles each time. I have enjoyed having the WN companion pass this year because one of my sons is at university at an airport served by them, but it is 2-3 hour drive for me to get to the closest airport served by WN. So, for me AA EXP makes sense. I travel a lot on AA awards and Avios as well. I probably travel a lot more than many people anyway - about 175,000 to 200,000 miles a year. So shopping around for me involves knowing that if I don't fly AA, I have to drive a ways to use the ticket and that is more costs and less convenient for me. I do it for things like (almost) free tickets, but it is something I am less inclined to do regularly. So I fly AA and am glad that is the only one in town rather than United or Delta, believe me. I have not missed an upgrade but twice in the last 18 months and one of those was when I had to turn around and take a flight that had already boarded in an emergency. All of my AA travel on international has been upgraded to business class from the cheapest coach fare either by systemwide or by other upgrades. I think the benefits I get from EXP are worth the cost to me, especially given my limited options out of my small airport. Again, I think you are working off of your own situation which is living in a market that has many more air travel options than most. Shopping around for you is very different than shopping around for people not geographically able to fly multiple airlines. What you and many other do in large metropolitan areas where there are more options is not generalizable to others living in communities not served by multiple airlines or even multiple airports.

 

[smittytabb]

We do care. I don't collect UA miles any more because of their devaluation.

I agree. I rarely stay at Hilton anymore and I used to collect United miles and have been lukewarm on the idea until I was offered complementary Platinum recently. I used to book 50,000 mile business class tickets with them all the time.