westjet tweaks its program -- it's now a bit more competitive

westjet recently announced its latest improvements to its rewards program. i would definitely say its an improvement to its current program in that it rewards users for increased travel. it becomes a frequent flyer program rather than a rebate program.

until october 29. 2014, members earn 1% back in westjet dollars on the first $1,500 spent in a year, and then 2.5% back on everything after that. note that taxes and surcharges are not included.

after october 29, 2014, they are introducing new tiers:

the minimum earn remains the same, but on amounts after $1,500 a year, the earning rate increases from 2.5% to 3%. after $4,000 a year, it increases to 5%. again, taxes and surcharges are not included.

milestone awards

the milestone for getting a bonus $35 westjet dollar voucher remains the same -- it is awarded after $1,500 in spending. however, in the old program, one would get an additional $25 for every $1,500 spent after that. these are gone in the new program. at 5% of each dollar spent, each $1,500 increment would yield $37.50 above what one would have earned if they were to have just gotten 2.5% back under the old program. therefore, this new scheme, even without the milestone bonuses, is a good thing for consumers. and one does not need to actually hit the individual $1,500 thresholds to get the bonus (i.e., it's not all or nothing).

the companion flights remain the same. after spending just $4,000 a year, you can get a free companion flight anywhere westjet flies. this can potentially be quite a value. (in the old program, the first companion flight was awarded after $4,500 a year in spending).

flight benefits

in trying to copy most of the legacy airline frequent flyer programs, westjet introduces flight benefits. now that westjet has started to charge for its first bag, silver and gold status now have extra value. it's like what star gold (and previously, what star silver) does for the star alliance member carriers.

there's no way to get unlimited lounge access, even after having spent $6,000 a year on westjet flights. but you are able to get priority boarding and security at the highest level.

overall analysis
without a doubt, this is a better deal than what they used to offer. i also appreciate that unlike air canada's aeroplan or american airlines' aadvantage (where you could credit your westjet flights to), you get the equivalent of cash. you don't have to hunt for award space. you don't have to take flights at inconvenient times just to use your miles. you can use them whenever you want.

i like that they reward people who fly more with their airline. it shows the frequent flyer that the airline understands how important frequent and repeat flyers are. the little perks such as advanced boarding are helpful so that a frequent flyer will never be forced to gate check their carry-on luggage in an effort to avoid the check-in fee.

i like how all flights count towards "status" in an equal sense. lowest fares will earn lower westjet dollars, but it still counts in a real way when trying to achieve the next tier. unlike air canada, domestic tango fares (which are typically $65 + tax less than their flex fares) will only fetch you 25% of the status miles, and it is only by paying the flex fare will you get all the miles that you've actually flown. it just feels more fair.

i still think there is room for improvement. partner airlines don't count (unless it's a westjet flight number). the flight benefits are not applicable to partners. you're also limited to the few routes that westjet flies, and there is more to this world than canada.

but i don't want to focus on those small details. in reality, i think this is an excellent step that westjet has taken.

lifetime status on AA: westjet flights take you there ... eventually.

i preface this post with the fact that lifetime status doesn't really mean your lifetime. given the fact that programs can be devalued in at a moment's notice, the allure of lifetime status is not what it used to be. alliance members can change, benefits can be "enhanced", programs can fold, and airlines can disappear. what we think is great now shouldn't be counted upon in the future.

american airlines' lifetime status program used to be quite the unique gem out of all the programs with lifetime status. it used to be that 1,000,000 points earned in any fashion (i.e., buying flowers, credit card spending, flight miles) would earn you lifetime gold status (oneworld ruby, similar-ish to star alliance silver). 2,000,000 miles would get you lifetime platinum status (one world sapphire, similar-ish to star alliance gold).

other programs that offer lifetime status have much more stringent ways of earning. asiana airlines requires 500,000 status miles (any alliance partner airline) for lifetime diamond plus status, one million status miles for lifetime platinum status. both of these map onto star alliance gold status. united airlines was a bit more stringent, requiring one million butt-in-seat miles on united metal for lifetime premier gold (and higher lifetime levels for each additional million). air canada requires one million status miles on air canada metal for lifetime elite status. it's possible to buy air canada's million mile status by buying recurrent flight passes that earn 8,000-10,000 status miles a month.

in december 2011, american changed their rules to make it only butt-in-seat miles that counted towards lifetime status. you could no longer earn it by credit card spending alone, for instance. but what i didn't realize was that the wording was quite generous:

Starting on December 1, 2011, base miles earned by flying on American Airlines, American Eagle^® or the AmericanConnection^® carrier or any eligible AAdvantage program participating airline will count towards Million Miler status.

 unlike the other programs, these need not be status miles. so it all made sense when i saw that my westjet points were crediting towards lifetime status miles on american despite not counting towards yearly status requirements. american has a lot of airline partners beyond their alliance.

so for those who are flying a combination of american airline partners on a frequent basis, westjet is not a complete loss in terms of status.

have frequent flyer miles dictated who you fly with?

i wrote about how i chase status on the star alliance a few days ago. i took a look at my booking patterns and realized that yes, frequent flier (FF) miles do actually dictate who i book with.

of my last 32 paid transborder/international segments in the last 24 months, i have:

• 3 segments with air canada (2 of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 2 segments with us airways (both of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 27 segments with united airlines

not surprisingly, i do have a booking algorithm that i have when booking. this assumes that both airlines:

• have flight times that fit within my desired schedule
• do not exceed a pre-determined maximum number of connections

1) domestic travel
if westjet (WS) and air canada (AC) are the same price (comparing WS fares with AC's tango fares), i'm pretty neutral. i'm willing to book on AC simply because of the bonuses of status and the in flight entertainment which i think is a lot more flexible than WS'. if westjet is a few dollars cheaper (my threshold is 5-10$ -- a very small threshold), i'll book with WS. at least with WS, i will get 100% non-qualifying miles via their partner, american airlines. (note: only valid on fare codes Y/V/B/Q/L/M/P/G/X/D -- they don't make it easy to find on their own website,  but fare codes can be easily found via expedia or the on the fly app on iphone). this is in comparison to the 25% non-qualifying miles that i can get with AC.

being based out of YVR, it's quite easy to drive to SEA and fly from there back home to canada, although it's certainly more inconvenient. recently, i flew to ottawa from seattle instead of vancouver so that i could earn 100% status miles on united (UA). on a semi-mileage run, i booked SEA-SFO-IAD-YOW to maximize the points while paying a cheaper fare than what YVR-YOW direct would have cost.

2) transborder travel
recently with AC, they re-arranged some of their booking codes to include fare codes T/L/K in their tango category for international flights. unfortunately, this means that for many other frequent flyer programs (like asiana airlines), all T/L/K booking codes, regardless of whether they are flex (previously tango plus) or not, now only earn 50% miles. flights within canada or between canada and america can be labeled as flex but are booked under fare code T/L/K. frustrating, really.

if i leave from vancouver, i will choose a star alliance carrier over a non-star alliance carrier. if the price is the same and i can get 100% status miles on asiana airlines, i will book AC. otherwise, i book with UA. non-star alliance carriers need to be 100$-200$ cheaper for me to book with them as that is the cost of a) baggage fees, b) extra time needed to travel without the benefits of status, c) cost of lost status miles.

3) international travel
AC has quickly made many fares for international destinations into tango fares. not that they made these fares any cheaper, rather, they simply reduced the mileage earned to 50%. UA, in contrast, still provides 100% on all economy fares. their prices, at least out of YVR, are close enough to AC's to justify the extra cost for double the status miles. therefore, in order to maximize mileage, i have started to hunt around on competing non-AC star alliance carriers. for instance, there is a trip to hong kong and another trip to mumbai being planned at the moment, and i'm finding myself looking more and more at UA rather than AC. for the same price, why not get twice the miles?

short conclusion:
yes -- the availability of frequent flyer miles really does affect which carrier gets my traveling dollar. what are other variables that you use to determine who you fly with?