[QUOTE]Originally posted by JerryFF:
1)..and it would be extraordinarily complicated to award miles at the time of purchase to one kind of ticket but not to others.

A: well, since the airlines already have millions of rules....

2) You could always go to the airport and check-in for your outbound flights and at least get those miles.

A: really? didnt know that.. they do not take out the miles after finding out that the passenger did not board?

3) If you just want to buy your miles, that can be done in other ways for (typically) 2 cents/mile. For your roundtrip ATL/LAX/ATL (which is actually about 4000 miles), you could just purchase those miles for about $80, less than half of the $198 fare you quoted.

A: that is different, BASE miles for status was my original intention...but, just curious, where and how does one go purchase 2cents/mile?

thanks to all for the responses, thought it would be nice if the airlines would come out with some rules like that, imagine, las month, one could have purchased DL BOS-LAX-BOS RT U fare for $109.00, surrendered the tkt, got the double bonus miles (12,000?)without having to fly at all... result: with a completely sold out but almost empty flight, there would be less traffic at the airport, less work for the ground crew, less air rage, less stress for the FAs, less payload for the plane(saves gas)...etc.

airline gets the money, passengers who dont fly still get the miles, those who do fly dont have to sit in the middle seats, everyone is happy....

[This message has been edited by belle3388 (edited 07-09-2000).]