Not happy with 50% reduction on Velocity points & SC earn on Etihad - what to do?

[Deewhy]

Hi folks

Just realised that the economy points and SC's earned on Etihad economy flights are reducing by 50% for a number of fare classes.

My parents and friends (all seniors) booked back in February/March, a trip of a lifetime to Europe - U class Etihad tickets set for July/August this year. They aren't world travellers - this trip is a huge thing for them - and have a fair amount of investment into the trip. To help them benefit as much as I could I lined them up through Etihad and got them to start Virgin FF accounts to book and earn SCs for VFF, so they could put it towards a award flights through VFF in the future. They were even prepared to lose their 32kg luggage (as an Etihad Guest) in return for 23kg with VFF membersip in order to get the 1 point per mile and Economy SCs.

I've encouraged them to get Virgin aligned credit cards and domestic flights - all done in the last few months in order to benefit from Virgin's Frequent flyer program. So they are now pumping all their business towards Virgin...

But now it's upsetting that their points and SC earn are effectively halved. What was going to be 320SCs (enough for one to get silver membership) and 30K+ points is going to be 160 and 15K points... worse so because I pushed them that way instead of another airline...

Here I was spruiking the wares of Virgin,,,, now it doesn't look so good...

So what can I do? I understand that "conditions may change", but I would have thought that it could be a bit fairer to apply the new conditions to flights booked after the announcement date (1 May 2012?).. Afterall, they booked with the offering of full points and SCs, and now it's changed. [Is that legal to sell something and then take it away?] Do you think VFF can be a bit lenient towards them? Which way would be best to approach it?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[lovestotravel]

I understand that "conditions may change"

That's about it

Nothing you can do about it

 

[cmon0005]

Can you change to a higher fare class?

 

[nlagalle]

Did that change happen last year though? I am sure there was a thread about it..

 

[pmdg7444]

Deewhy, if you are chasing max points, and not SCs, you may like to consider switching to OZ club where your fare class still earns 100%.

Etihad Airways (2010.12.20)	First	F, A, R	150%
Business	J, C, D, W, X	125%
Economy	Y, E, B, H, K, M, Q, L, V, U, T	100%
No-Miles	O, Z, I, N, S	0%
Minimum Mileage		Actual

downsides obviously are that there's no DJ recognition, however, redemption rate is reasonable and your mentioned for both ur parents travel should be enough to redeem one return Y ticket on Star to SE Asia.

Not trying to sell you another FF program but I think its good food for thought

 

[fitzy6]

Hi all, newbie to AFF here.

I flew with Etihad back in March from MEL-LHR and sent in the retro claim prior to the June change over date to the new points system but have not received the points as yet. Does this mean that I'm eligible for the points and SC's based on the old system or will I only earn the 50% reduced points with the new earn rates?

 

[ywwol]

Crediting rates are based on the travel dates, not the claim date.