Well Everyone...it draws to a close.
I cashed in my miles for a first class ticket to Venus and am going to disappear into the Venusian tropical swamps just to try and get my free lunch, so much for TANSTAAFL! That would be on a partner airline so they can't track me as well as they normally would.
They moved faster than my bank did. It took my ff program 2 days to catch the error and deduct it. When by bank double depositted $3000 it took them a whole 7 business days. (and nah don't worry, I wouldn't have kept that except I check my FF almost daily and bank once a week so things come to light at a different speed).
Thanks