Admit defeat? Never! Get tapping on the keyboard again and make sure you win round 2 (and tell us all about it on FT).

In a slightly similar way, it reminds me of an offer my Dad had from BA back in 2003. He was given two f.o.c J returns to either DEN ^, somewhere in Egypt or somewhere else which I also found unappealing . He had no time to use the tickets, and was fully commited holiday-wise that year. He wanted to give them to me, his son. He rang BA, they said no, the offer was purely a gesture to him and a travelling companion of his choice. Then he wrote to BA, same response. Then he wrote again - pointing out that if it was a gesture to say thank you to a Gold member for something - why not let the Gold member in question get full enjoyment out of the offer by passing the two DEN tickets to a close family member, and 'up&coming' BA regular. On this third approach, BA relented, booked the tickets in my name - and that was the start of a love of US fly-drive holidays which has continued to this day.