I really don't get the business sense behind doing this. I know I'll probably continue flying with EI a lot, but I might tend to use another carrier instead, even needing to go via somewhere else to get to DUB, just to be able to earn a few points. I've been a firm defendor of EI up until now, but I'm starting to get the impression they feel they can just say "we've added X number of new routes and lowered fares" as an excuse to get rid of any pax perks they feel like. Anyway, aren't frequent flyer programmes about customer loyalty building? So what are they going to do know to build loyalty? I sincerely hope they know what they're doing.
Going totally off topic, sorry, but this morning I posted regarding todays DUB-TLS service, and as I was immediately moved to the "spectators gallery" and only got one 'typical pprune" response making mock of me for bring up this, but here goes again. I happened to be at TLS this morning (I live and work just beside), saw their EI 533 service pushing back from the gate, then returning to the gate after five minutes positioned just a few metres from the gate. Continuation of the story, another EI 737-500 arrived in TLS this afternoon and took off from TLS for the EI 533 10.45 am departure to DUB at about 17.40. The original aircraft that came in this morning is now parket here at a remote stand, and from what I could see (at some distance) there is some sort of black mark (looks like a hole, but as I said, I say it from a distance and thus cannot confirm) on the tail of the aircraft. There was a person, possible maintenance, up on top of the fuselage looking at this mark when I was watching. Anyone know what the problem is?