I tried to redeem points for a domestic ticket last night, and the experience was so frustrating I think I'm going back to using my Mileage Plus Visa instead of the Premier Pass for everything except booking plane tickets.

I was on hold for 30 minutes before I could speak to an agent, from about 10:10 p.m. Eastern to about 10:40. When I finally got through to someone, she was very friendly, but had no seats available for 25,000 points on the flight I was looking for (I was trying to use points for a ticket for my girlfriend on a United flight I'm already booked on -- for May, so this is nearly six months out). There were practically prairies worth of open seats on the plane, but I couldn't get one for under 52,000 points, and I have only 49,000 right now.

For 25,000, the only available options involved odd connections on Frontier. Since my flight's out of IAD, I was looking for other options there, and the only thing available involved two connections, one through Buffalo.

I ended up booking a saver ticket using 25,000 Mileage Plus miles on my flight, and when I get another few thousand ThankYou points, I'll get her a 52,000 point ticket on the same flight and cancel the MP reservation to get those miles back.

In general, though, waiting a half hour to find out my points were practically useless was pretty disappointing. I'll still buy tickets with this card to get the double points, but for my run of the mill spending, I'm ditching it.