Thai Airways ROP Flip-Flopping on New Mileage Requirements?

[JeezeLooeze]

With an announcement by THAI that from 1 September 2014 50% more miles will be required for upgrades, on 31 July I rushed to transfer credit card reward points to my ROP account and then to claim my upgrade seats before the mad rush by others and high possibility all available upgrade seats would be booked out before the 1 September deadline. I even made a miles purchase to top up my miles for the upgrade as I was not to fly THAI in the next 31 days nor was there enough time to accumulate enough credit card points before the deadline.

Then after returning from the THAI office I went back online to check that my upgrades were in order only to find a new announcement by THAI : "Royal Orchid Plus Awards Remain at Current Levels" and that THAI "will continue to develop a dynamic and changing program that will both reward and engage you".

It seems to me that this "dynamic and changing program" with last minute changes is pressuring ROP members to purchase flights and upgrade or otherwise use up their miles only to find it isn't necessary and a lot of time and effort wasted. The new announcement does not give a new time frame for any future changes and they basically admit they can change their minds on a wim with little or no lead up time which will require constant engagement by ROP members to keep up with them. I'm not sure this will be entirely rewarding.

[DogNo1]

Well, I think that ROP members are fortunate compared to those of us on United's Mileage Plus program. I just had to cancel a FC trip from Tokyo to Los Angeles that I had booked last year for 127,500 miles. Rebooking that trip will now cost me a whopping 340,000 miles! On UA 33, a 787, you don't even get first class for that. Instead you now get a class which is called Business First. It is actually just a business class seat being pedaled as though it were a true FC seat. The 787 has two and a half classes: economy, economy plus and business first. Flying has become terribly expensive since I am just too old now to endure a cramped economy seat.

[vaultdweller0013]

Well, I think that ROP members are fortunate compared to those of us on United's Mileage Plus program. I just had to cancel a FC trip from Tokyo to Los Angeles that I had booked last year for 127,500 miles. Rebooking that trip will now cost me a whopping 340,000 miles! On UA 33, a 787, you don't even get first class for that. Instead you now get a class which is called Business First. It is actually just a business class seat being pedaled as though it were a true FC seat. The 787 has two and a half classes: economy, economy plus and business first. Flying has become terribly expensive since I am just too old now to endure a cramped economy seat.

That's because, apparently, United didn't have any Saver Award seats left, otherwise it would have been 130,000 miles.

If you do a direct comparison, say business class, BKK to LAX, THAI to United, the United saver is 140k and THAI is 170k. Up until the end of this year, United miles would generally accumulate much faster if you had status with them compared with THAI, but with the change to dollar based instead of distance based miles in 2015, they will be roughly equal (for long haul economy flights anyway). Now, if you get stuck, like you did, and end up with Standard Awards, the United miles price is double (which is why most would try to avoid Standard Awards if at all possible).

[DogNo1]

I've checked the UA flights for summer 2015 and didn't find any saver seats available. American sells a limited number of FC seats from NRT-LAX for about $5,000 if you buy far enough in advance. I'll probably do that until I accumulate 340,000 miles in Mileage Plus. I'll also keep checking to see if they make any saver seats available. I'm not happy with the changes in the mileage programs, but then who is?

[JeezeLooeze]

With an announcement by THAI that from 1 September 2014 50% more miles will be required for upgrades, on 31 July I rushed to transfer credit card reward points to my ROP account and then to claim my upgrade seats before the mad rush by others and high possibility all available upgrade seats would be booked out before the 1 September deadline. I even made a miles purchase to top up my miles for the upgrade as I was not to fly THAI in the next 31 days nor was there enough time to accumulate enough credit card points before the deadline.

Then after returning from the THAI office I went back online to check that my upgrades were in order only to find a new announcement by THAI : "Royal Orchid Plus Awards Remain at Current Levels" and that THAI "will continue to develop a dynamic and changing program that will both reward and engage you".

It seems to me that this "dynamic and changing program" with last minute changes is pressuring ROP members to purchase flights and upgrade or otherwise use up their miles only to find it isn't necessary and a lot of time and effort wasted. The new announcement does not give a new time frame for any future changes and they basically admit they can change their minds on a wim with little or no lead up time which will require constant engagement by ROP members to keep up with them. I'm not sure this will be entirely rewarding.

Subsequent to my post above I have since learned from an insider that due to frequently changing political appointments controlling THAI depending on the government of the day, inconsistency in top level management policy and lack of direction has riddled this SOE to its detriment. In this instance increasing the number of miles required on THAI by 50% while not being reciprocated simultaneously on all their Star Alliance partners would mean it would be better value for ROP members to use their miles on these other partner airlines instead of THAI. A case of shooting oneself in the foot.

Edited June 13, 2015 by JeezeLooeze