this soluion would create a real problem for the airlines. Almost all of the awards would be redeemed, even if just $10 at a time. With Miles you have to hit a threshold first. Even if only 25K miles, hell that may be years before a casual traveler can get a free ticket (even assuming no blackouts). If they give me a $10 cert, I will just use it on the next flight.
I know I have "wasted" miles in the past in small quantities and I think the airlines count on this. If everyone was able to redeem every mile they had the airlines would be even more bankrupt than they are now.
Originally Posted by StSebastian
I, and I'm sure there are a number of people that fly this way, help fill up seats that were going to be empty by jumping on the planes at the last minute when a nice sale comes up. Once I got started with that, I stuck with the airline and started making more leisure travel specifically on that airline because that's where I had the status. Now I buy tickets for what I need and when I need to go, though I do go look for a decent deal.
If I hadn't been able to get status on some of the cheap tickets I started out buying, I doubt I'd have continued buying tickets and spending more as I do now. The hotels are a lot harder for me to hit status, and in general I don't have any loyalty to a hotel chain. I don't think I'd fly as often or stick to particular airlines if I hadn't earned and maintained status, since I do it as a voluntary leisure activity and not for business.
I can see the advantage to an airline having a dollar-based system, but I think the bonuses many of the airlines have implemented for more expensive classes of tickets address that issue pretty well.