Sky Guide Terms & Conditions Changing In 2013
Frequent Traveler University – LA
For those of you not in attendance at Frequent Traveler University this past weekend in LA, you really missed out!
It was a great experience meeting many of the FFU Readers and Twitter Followers in person!
Although there was some overlap with what was presented at Chicago Seminars, on a whole I really enjoyed FTU and learned quite a bit.
It is amazing from talking to random people at FTU, how much new and useful tips and tricks you can learn.
If you missed out on this FTU, you can always join the party next April in Washington D.C. More information here.
I highly suggest you come and check it out!
Sky Guide Terms & Conditions Changing
For the past few flights I have taken, I have been using Sky Guide Executive Privilege Club to get extremely cheap Lounge Access.
Below is a photo from my most recent Sky Guide visit to the AA Admirals Loounge at LAX last night.
Needless to say, being face to face with a Qantas 747 was pretty awesome!
If you don’t have Elite Status or have a Credit Card that has Lounge Access, then it costs $50 a day to enter a Lounge!
Thankfully with Sky Guide Executive Club, you can get 12 Lounge visits per a Calendar Year for about $19.99 + the cost of mailing in your receipts.
I have used it 6 times so far without issue.
The best part is that Sky Guide will reimburse you with a check for the Lounge Passes that you purchase.
Similar to the US Government, it seems Sky Guide has run into a “fiscal cliff” and is not making as much money as they hoped with program. Therefore they are making significant changes to the program in 2013.
Major Changes
Link to the above page can be found here but basically for Lounge Access, the following new restrictions will apply:
- Members may only submit and receive reimbursement for one lounge pass per month, per Club membership number.
- Visit must be completed by member prior to reimbursement submission.
- Original lounge pass receipt must be submitted within 30 days of use of pass.
So while members of Sky Guide will still be able to purchase Lounge Passes, the major change is that you can only submit 1 Lounge Pass for reimbursement per a month.
This would be fine EXCEPT that most people don’t only take One Way trips…
With these new changes, you would only get Lounge Access on 1 leg of your trip, so choose wisely…
While it is still better than nothing, the value of the program has now been severely downgraded.
Honestly I am not surprised that they made this change because people figured out that you could buy and print Lounge Passes online. So they would buy 12 of them at a time at $50 each ($1,200) and then submit them all for reimbursement every year. Basically $1,200 in free Credit Card spend every calendar year.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a $19.99 Annual Fee won’t be profitable for Sky Guide if they are paying out $1,200 every calendar year.
Come January 2013, I plan on submitting a request to cancel my account and refund my $19.99 membership fee since the terms of the program have clearly changed.
It is unfortunate that it was by sheer accident that I saw the changes to the Sky Guide and was not informed by email or snail mail. There are going to be a lot of pissed off Sky Guide members come January 1, when they try and submit their $1,200 in Lounge Passes for reimbursement and get nothing.
Thankfully, I still have the American Express Platinum Card which gets me Lounge Access for myself and a Guest at almost all Lounges except United.
-Parag
Don’t ever miss another FFU Update or Travel Deal!
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, or Email!
