I posted this on another thread and decided to start a new topic on this subject matter.

Late last summer I decided to fly up to Fairbanks to visit old friends from my Alaska days over the Winter Solstice and Christmas holiday. I cashed in miles for the trip.

I have a bit of a pet peeve with the AS online mileage plan reservation system. It seems like the online system tries to throw various sticks into your spokes whenever attempting to use miles for a trip. I notice that connection times are often quite inconvenient when you search for flights on AS. It only occurs when all the flights are on AS. If you have an option to fly solely on or connect to a partner carrier like AA or DL, connections are almost always convenient. This has been going on for several years.

Often the only options available for 25K miles (was 20K until the change) when flying AS require you to fly from your home airport (in my case ACV) to SEA or PDX on Day 1, then connect to your final destination the following day. That requires you to stay overnight in a hotel at the connecting hub. If you want to connect the same day, the miles required for the trip are quite a bit higher ie 40K.

With this trip, I arrive in Seattle at 3pm. If I want to connect to the 6:55pm flight from SEA to FAI, it would cost me 20K miles (one way) to get from ACV to FAI. If I connect to the 8:55pm SEA-FAI flight, it is only 12.5K miles one way. Since I didn't have enough miles for the earlier flight and didn't want to purchase the 3K miles I was short in my account, I am stuck in Seattle for 6 hours. Fortunately I have friends in Seattle and plan on taking public transit into town, eating dinner and getting a good buzz on before heading back to the airport. The southbound leg cost me 27.5K since I am flying the Sunday after Christmas. In total I used 40K miles for the trip.

No other airline mileage program that I am aware of, play this type of game when you try to fly to your destination in the shortest amount of time possible. With all the schedule cuts, the issue is compounded. I've had a United Airlines mileage account since 1980's and I am always able to find good connection times whenever I cash in miles for a trip. I must say, that is not always the case with UA when you try to purchase a ticket between two city pairs, but it doesn't seem to be the case when you use miles. Not sure if this is an unexpected result of using a computer program to run the reservation system or if a human in HQ made the decision to torture potential customers and mileage plan members. If that is the case, I would prefer to go back to paper tickets and a telephone based reservation system. Or I'll just take an extra day or two off from work and drive.

OK I am done complaining. I wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year!!