United News - Bad and Good

[fauxklore]

I got an email from United that, effective 1 July, they will give only actual mileage for short hops instead of the 500 mile minimum. That certainly changes the equation for me on the puddle-hopper from Denver to Colorado Springs. I'm also glad that my upcoming trip to the Springs is in June.

The good news involves their upcoming new service (in October) to Dubai and Moscow. The good part is that the Moscow service will be into Domodedovo (DME), not Sheremetyevo (SVO). Why is that good? Because DME has an express train connection to central Moscow. SVO has bus service to connect to the metro system, but Moscow traffic is horrendous. Not that I'm planning a trip to Moscow in the foreseeable future, having been there twice, but there is always the chance of going through there on the way to somewhere else. (Solovetsky Island, for example, interests me.)

On the personal travel front, my plans for Madagascar are coming together nicely. I was amused today to get an email from the travel agent I'm working with reiterating (at the request of the Malagasy agent he works with) how rough one segment will be. But it will get me to places that are decidedly off the beaten track for Western tourists and should be well worth it.

Comments

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

I got the United note as well. I wrote it off as being yet another way they are making frequent flyer miles useless. I'm betting my last use of them was my trip to Nashville last year.

[fauxklore]

I don't think this specific change does anything to make the miles useless, since they didn't change anything about accruing segments for status (which is one of the bigger benefits of ff miles). In this case, they are jumping on a bandwagon, not leading it for once.

The "all miles expire if you don't have activity every 18 months" thing was far worse

Both my trips to Madagascar and Cambodia this year are courtesy of United miles (and their Star Alliance partners), by the way.