Mileage Run Discussion - Made a MR Rookie mistake - any suggestions?

Last year I was happy to get to PE on UA and Gold on NWA. This year, thanks to the double miles/segments promo at UA, I'll hit 1K there but am coming up short on NWA (live close to MSP, can't bring myself to call it Delta yet) for Plat. Since I have a lot of banked miles, I got the bright idea to book a MR using miles ... I know, pretty dumb thing to do. Now, when I try to cancel the itinerary online they're trying to charge me $100 to cancel and redeposit the miles in my acct. Does anyone know whether there's any way around this fee, other than just taking the flights? Really don't want to do that, still need to come up with about 2500 miles but first thing's first.

Won't be doing any flying for my job before the end of the year, will be driving to Fargo for several weeks. If I could figure out a way to justify flying from FSD to FAR when I can drive it in 4 hours, I'd do it every week - I'm going to do it one week with a RAP leg, but will still likely be about 2000-2500 miles short. Considering how many hours I've spent in delays at MSP in the last 3 weeks due to problems with NWA flights/planes/weather/runway construction, they should make the 10,000 "Customer relations bonus" miles MQM ... but I rant and I digress. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I wouldn't worry too much about it - with the new "rollover" provision, your "extra" qualifying miles will roll over to 2010 so will make requalifying for gold (or qualifying for platinum) that much easier next year.

i've out smarted myself many times....if the mi's are worth $100, pay it.....don't sweat the small stuff and be glad that it isn't the $150 that aa charges.....good luck....

Yeah. $100 is such a small amount. I know it may seem large at first, especially when you're thinking of $0, but in the long run, it's small. Think of it as a payment for a lesson.

<snip> Since I have a lot of banked miles, I got the bright idea to book a MR using miles ... <snip>

Now that is the funniest thing I've read in a long time! Welcome to the FT confessional. :D

Come on, can anyone do better?

Does NW/DL charge a fee if you change your reward trip dates (but keep same routing)? If not, then you could consider postpone this reward trip to some time next year as a mini vacation. Book a real (paid) MR trip this year to meet your elite aspirations on NW/DL.

Last year I was happy to get to PE on UA and Gold on NWA. This year, thanks to the double miles/segments promo at UA, I'll hit 1K there but am coming up short on NWA (live close to MSP, can't bring myself to call it Delta yet) for Plat. Since I have a lot of banked miles, I got the bright idea to book a MR using miles ... I know, pretty dumb thing to do. Now, when I try to cancel the itinerary online they're trying to charge me $100 to cancel and redeposit the miles in my acct. Does anyone know whether there's any way around this fee, other than just taking the flights? Really don't want to do that, still need to come up with about 2500 miles but first thing's first.

Does NW/DL charge a fee if you change your reward trip dates (but keep same routing)? If not, then you could consider postpone this reward trip to some time next year as a mini vacation. Book a real (paid) MR trip this year to meet your elite aspirations on NW/DL.

You might even do better, keep the dates changed, so by the time the travel dates are near, you may have already achieved Platinum, when there might be no fees to cancel awards!!

After multiple calls to Delta at various times of the day and night, this morning I was finally able to get ahold of someone with a sympathetic ear, told him that this was the first time I've tried to use my Sky Miles and I made a mistake, and was hoping that he might be able to do something about waiving the $100 redeposit fee. He initially said nobody could do that for me, was rather short with me, but then he put me on hold, came back and said he was able to waive the fee by using the type of waiver that's given to Platinum users. I was most appreciative. :)

A big thank you to all of the Flyer Talk faithful who provided me with various options - you rock! Now I just have to check the mileage run links to figure out how to get about 3000 Sky Miles without spending an arm and a leg flying out of my smallish airport.

After multiple calls to Delta at various times of the day and night, this morning I was finally able to get ahold of someone with a sympathetic ear, told him that this was the first time I've tried to use my Sky Miles and I made a mistake, and was hoping that he might be able to do something about waiving the $100 redeposit fee. He initially said nobody could do that for me, was rather short with me, but then he put me on hold, came back and said he was able to waive the fee by using the type of waiver that's given to Platinum users. I was most appreciative. :)

A big thank you to all of the Flyer Talk faithful who provided me with various options - you rock! Now I just have to check the mileage run links to figure out how to get about 3000 Sky Miles without spending an arm and a leg flying out of my smallish airport. great news ^ and thanks for posting back. good luck on your MRs DL has awesome fare out of IAH and WAS area.