Originally Posted by nycden
I've never, ever had a problem using my miles...not sure why some folks claim that they can't use theirs. Hell, my account rarely goes over 100k because I keep using them.
Originally Posted by channa
But with reasonable flexibility (e.g., carrier, routing, dates, etc.) and an understanding of the partner networks and combinations of carriers you can use, they're much easier to use. Having redeemed over 1 million OP miles in the last 12 months.
Originally Posted by Jaimito Cartero
I've burned through more than 500,000 miles in the last year I've burned 175k miles since December , and booked a number of rewards for next Christmas.
This illustrates what I am saying. Most people who burn miles are Platinums who travel a lot anyway for business or pleasure, so adding a 20th and 21st international trip in a year won't be a problem as they are away traveling almost every month and one way or the other they will have somewhere they can go to (on an award ticket) anytime of the year. If an award is not available they pay for the ticket. Chances are if you make 20 international trips a year at least 2 will have award availability. Even if they did not have the miles, chances are that they would still make most of the (award) trips, so indeed it is a genuine way of saving money for them.
Also they all have flexibility in their life, and either travel a lot for work or have a job that allows them great control of their time. Personally, I can barely plan what I will do next month talkless arrange a reward trip for December.
For the onepass members who do not fly that often but build up a moderate amount of miles in their account it is extremely difficult to find convinient awards - if they had places and time to fly to, they would also be plats. I suspect for many silver and gold elites their onepass account serves little more than to collect miles rather than reward their loyalty.