Originally Posted by
drvannostren
I've been accumulating points with the idea that I'd use them one day when I'm a bit more broke or find myself with an extended period of time off. I'm a novice user at best though, I try following along with you guys and can't replicate what you do but I can get maybe half way haha. That said I'm not the naïve fool that goes "well I wanna go to CDG and it says it's 65,000 + $800, so I'd better just suck it up and pay". No research? No reading of even the not that fine print? You're gonna get jobbed a bit.
That said, let's say hypothetically either all those users started being a little more FTesque OR they just stopped booking anything with an AC leg to avoid charges. What do you think would happen? Would the availability of seats plummet, while AC seats would remain at whatever level they are or higher, thus kinda forcing you into them?
I know earn and burn is probably a better idea, but I don't really see myself earning for that long either so I'm not lifetime hoarding, so I think hanging on to them for a little while at least won't hurt me too much.
+1
Right now the miles we earn are not bananas, i.e., they are not "going bad" or have an expiry date. In the beginning, no one had expiries on them. Then airlines started adding expiries. Then people with either 5 miles or 5 million miles started panicking that they would lose them and so there might have been a bit of a rush to earn and burn. Then airlines saw the light of day and got rid of the expiries.
Everyone has their own ideas of what they would like to do. Sure, the old days were nice where you could use what you worked hard to earn, to get a ticket on those saved miles. But then fee-creep set in. Now, as we know, the fees added to a miles/points ticket can often be almost the same as buying a Tango or Flex.
I don't see any carrier who charges fees on these tickets to change that policy anytime soon. So we either have to plan way in advance to get the seats plus plan the route to keep these charges to a minimum if zero is not possible.