Originally Posted by carolyn0226

Hi all -- I am new to FT, so I apologize if this is covered elsewhere (I tried to search, I promise).

My question is this: I am a member of the Executive Club and have a bit over 50,000 miles, but I can't seem to use them! My route is generally SFO to LHR or GVA. SFO is my home airport. I recently booked a flight from SFO to LHR for October; I tried in vain to book a flight using miles, but the website claimed there was no availability for months on end (not even to Manchester, nowhere close). So I paid for a flight in WT and was hoping to use miles to upgrade.

When I called BA to ask why the "use miles to upgrade" link was unavailable, I was told this was because I booked a "discounted ticket," which ultimately meant I did not pay an extra fee for a flexible ticket. I pointed out that BA should make that clear on their website -- it isn't as though I purchased a ticket on sale or anything! I paid nearly $1,000 for the base fare. Base fare and discounted fare are not and should not be synonymous. Even so, the agent tells me, there is no availability to upgrade on my flight (either leg) with miles anyway.

Ok, so more than 2 months in advance, there is no availability for either a reward ticket or MFU. What are all these miles for then?

I'm seriously considering switching allegiance to Virgin, but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on whether using miles on Virgin is just as difficult. It's frustrating to me to have collected all these miles that appear to be useless. Does BA have a particularly strict policy about using miles, or is this common?

Especially now that Virgin has linked Flying Club and Elevate miles (I fly Virgin America domestically), I am particularly interested. Thoughts would be very helpful. Thanks guys!!