<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by doglover:
My experience is primarily with NW/KLM...
Difficulty - even for a top level elite to use my miles without extensive preplanning ... especially if I need 2 or more tickets on the same routing.
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Using NW miles on KLM is getting extremely difficult. KLM makes very few seats available, and they open the transatlantic seats a month earlier than the intra-Europe flights that you need to go anywhere beyond Amsterdam. And you don't even have the option to rulebust on the KLM flights!
NW won't let you book part of the itinerary and wait for the rest to open (DL did this for me on AF flights this year... kudos to DL!) NW requires you to ticket immediately with whatever seats are available, then charges you $50 to change anything at all.
Maybe I'll get lucky and NW will replace KLM with AF. I really like to fly KLM but the ordeal of getting summer seats even 11 months ahead is a deal-breaker.
I sure wish Goldpoints hadn't pulled that 50% devaluation and forced me to convert to miles immediately. It would have been great to be able to put the miles into whatever program is working best at any given time. And they would have deferred incurring the cost of buying the miles. What jerks.
To those griping about Hilton's VIP devaluation: get over it. The old award levels were ridiculously generous, and unsustainable. We had a much longer ride than we deserved.
Oh, and one other thing. Southwest Airlines rules! Check that board for a secret 15% off sale that started today, and book your mileage (credit) run now!