This is one of those questions i've always had, but could never figure out and never asked...

If you've paid for the ticket, why do the airlines feel it necessary to actually USE the ticket to get the miles?

Because it would be abused by people buying super cheap fares just for the miles. You could buy miles cheaper than a ticket.

Imagine if Southwest did that (which is a bit of an extreme case), you could just go to their website and buy the four cheapest R/T tickets for under $200 and have an unrestricted award ticket. It would totally break Southwest's program and they'd have to scale it back dramatically ... the same goes for other airlines to a lesser extent.

Because you get frequent flyer miles, not frequent buyer miles. Their purpose is to reware those who get on planes, not just buy low fare tickets.

I have tens of thousands of dollars worth of unused tickets, so I know what you mean. But would anybody want to buy a ticket and not use it intentionally? Presumably this would be to help you reach a status level, or gain an award, both of which would cost the airlines something, so they make you fly.

I disagre with Beckles. Who would pay $800 to get a "free" ticket on SW?

I also disagree with cordelli. The airlines want to reward for revenue contributed. The programs are in place to maximize revenue in a competitive environment, period. Some of the programs are changing to reflect the emphasis on revenue.

Of course you can buy miles at any time, but it is not very cost effective.

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United UGS, 1K, Million Mile Flyer
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

I think he meant $200 total for 4 RT Southwest tickets. The reward ticket goes for $325 on ebay I read somewhere here.

You have "tens of thousands of dollars worth of unused tickets"? Plural of ten meaning more than $20,000 worth? What do you mean by unused? Do you mean that is the value of tickets you have paid for but not yet used because the flight dates are in the future? Or do you mean that is the value of restricted tickets you purchased and did not use, the flight dates have passed and are now not worth anything?

You also have the issue of exactly when is a ticket "unused" such that miles could be awarded? Certainly, not right after the flight was missed. On certain fares, tickets can be reissued for up to 1 to 2 years from the original date of issue, depending on the fare type. Most fares can be reused later as long as you cancel the original flight reservations before departure. So, they'd have to have some complicated way of keeping track exactly when tickets expire in order to award miles. I doubt this is worth it for them or for the passengers.

[Edited for spelling]

[This message has been edited by Steve M (edited 09-26-2003).]

Well, there's a whole forum on FT for people who do "milage runs"; I'm sure they'd prefer to not actually have to fly to get those miles!

fiat_owner

Are you kidding? I love going to Anchorage for an hour!

These are portions of tickets when I had to change my travel after the first flight. Many of them are from many years ago when I had to travel coach, and were non-refundable. Others were exchangable, but had expired. I had almost $30,000 worth of these when I looked at them several years ago.

I understand. That part of my post was a rhetorical question, with the answer immediately after it.

Understanding that SWA is an extreme example, but this summer I purchased RT tickets for $66.40. Four of those cost $265.60. Besides Ebay, there's at least one website that's buying Reward tickets at $300, leaving a nearly $35 "profit". If you didn't have to ride, SWA short flights would be sold out (but empty) and long hauls would be full with free riders (remember, SWA has no reward ticket capicity controls).

Even more, 25 of these flights would equal a Companion Pass, meaning that a FTer could "earn" $875 (if he sold his Rewards tickets) AND get a one year pass! Given sales and bonus mile programs, similar situations could occur on other airlines.

That's one reason why you have to fly, not just buy.

(For the record, the rules say that SWA Rapid Rewards are fully transferrable, but may NOT be sold.)

If anybody has $30,000 in unused tickets that are going to be expiring, oir have expired, then you have answered the question, there is no need for the airlines to give miles on them.

I believe that there are many people who would buy a ticket and not fly to get the miles to maintain their status, just as if you go into any of the hotel forums there are people booking rooms at places they will never spend the night, sometimes just checking in and going back home ten minutes later.

Another thing is that if they gave you the miles when you buy the ticket, that ticket might be exchanged for a different one at a different price and distance. Personally, I'd like to see them give miles for revenue spent (maybe something like 5 miles per dollar?) And as I stated before, some airlines are heading roughly in that direction anyway.

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United UGS, 1K, Million Mile Flyer
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

that's why i started this thread, or at least asked the question, why didn't the airlines focus on revenue spent rather than actual miles flown in creating their programs. If you had a non-refundable fare, the miles would be posted; otherwise, miles would not be posted until the expiration of the ticket. Seems to me to make alot more sense than going through the exercise of making folks do mileage runs. if you spend the money for a ticket, and don't use it and it expires, for whatever reason, why should you not get the miles? it just never made any sense to me...