Originally Posted by
BigE
flights update: After waiting about 20 days, instead of the promised 8, they finally got back to me. (It might have been longer had I not been bugging them. )
At that point, they told me that none of my flight dates would work because they spanned more than one month. I asked where in the T&C it mentions anything about this. They admitted it's not in there, but there is a clause saying "subject to availability" and that they can change the rules whenever they want. Recall that they deleted Hawaii from the list earlier as well.
I was able to find a trip that I could use, but of less value. They seemed to want to stick to nearly the lowest available airfare, which was about $270'ish in this case (though I did get United and I will earn miles, apparently). I had to pay $50 in taxes and fees, which surprised me, since award tickets are only about $11. They said that $10 was a travel agent fee.
In the end, I didn't really save any money (given that the Rite Aid prices I got online weren't great), so it definitely wasn't worth the trouble and frustration (unlike for the Hyatt certs). After they denied my first 3 choices, I had to book that flight on my own, and it was getting close to departure so I lost a little bit there. The flight I did get from the Rite Aid promo was technically worth about $220, but if I waited for a sale and chose different dates, I probably could have gotten it for much less.
Speaking of Hyatt certs, I'm still waiting on my own. I asked them to send them early, and they said they would, but it didn't happen.
This was my experience as well. I called multiple times in order to get the flight booked and it still was over 2 weeks after I submitted the form. At first it looked like they were going to be able to book one of my choices, which were expensive transcontinental flights, but then those flights became unavailable for booking.
Ended up booking a flight on dates slightly outside of the advertised range in the terms and conditions because there were no available dates to my 3 destinations over the next 3 months. I was also charged all of the taxes that are charged on a normal revenue ticket, not just the $11 9/11 TSA fee charged on award tickets, and a $10 fee. But I called the airline to change the flights the day after purchase with no problem; they said any refund would have to be on the credit card that was used to purchase the ticket.