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A Cautionary tale...Did I do the right thing changing award booking?

A Cautionary tale...Did I do the right thing changing award booking?

Old Jan 16, 2019, 6:53 pm
  #1  
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A Cautionary tale...Did I do the right thing changing award booking?

Around the time I joined FT I booked 2 Business class tickets R/T for 220,000 miles (each) to FRA. After months of reading and learning I did a new search today and decided to rebook with a less desirable itinerary but a lot less miles and, as a bonus, better planes. It cost me $300 to put 440,000 miles back in our accounts but I got our desired destination and dates, I got them on one PNR and I was able to use knowledge gained on FT to realize 105,000 miles X 2 is worth the change fee. So, thank you FT advisors. Anyone new or unsure ASK questions and read topics you don't even realize you need to read.
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Old Jan 16, 2019, 7:30 pm
  #2  
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You live and you learn in this game.

$300 for the miles you got back via re-booking is a palatable learning experience in my opinion.

I think we have all "overpaid" a time or two for an award when there was better inventory/routing/planes to be had. But does that negate the great deals and savings we usually find? Not by a long shot.

But do realize that sometimes, if you need to get somewhere, that you might just have to pay the big bucks (or big miles in this case) to make sure you get a ticket. The primo inventory may never appear in time to get it ticketed.
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Old Jan 16, 2019, 8:18 pm
  #3  
 
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Originally Posted by jtav559
You live and you learn in this game.

$300 for the miles you got back via re-booking is a palatable learning experience in my opinion.

I think we have all "overpaid" a time or two for an award when there was better inventory/routing/planes to be had. But does that negate the great deals and savings we usually find? Not by a long shot.

But do realize that sometimes, if you need to get somewhere, that you might just have to pay the big bucks (or big miles in this case) to make sure you get a ticket. The primo inventory may never appear in time to get it ticketed.
He paid $300 to get back 210k miles and sit on better planes, albeit with a worse itinerary. Hardly a "learning experience". The learning was the months of FT reading that got him to find the new itinerary and essentially buy back his miles for ~1/10th of a cent per mile. No brainer really.
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Old Jan 16, 2019, 9:00 pm
  #4  
 
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Optimally, the OP would have found a schedule or equipment change that would have caused the redeposit fee to go back to $0, but it's great that the OP is satisfied with the outcome!
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Old Jan 17, 2019, 4:27 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by hipquest
Around the time I joined FT I booked 2 Business class tickets R/T for 220,000 miles (each) to FRA. After months of reading and learning I did a new search today and decided to rebook with a less desirable itinerary but a lot less miles and, as a bonus, better planes. It cost me $300 to put 440,000 miles back in our accounts but I got our desired destination and dates, I got them on one PNR and I was able to use knowledge gained on FT to realize 105,000 miles X 2 is worth the change fee. So, thank you FT advisors. Anyone new or unsure ASK questions and read topics you don't even realize you need to read.
Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the OP have been charged $175 (not $300) to reinstate the miles from 2 roundtrip award tickets?
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Old Jan 17, 2019, 5:20 am
  #6  
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Only if the miles came from a single account. There's a reference to 'our accounts' in the first post.
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Old Jan 17, 2019, 4:25 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by emcat
He paid $300 to get back 210k miles and sit on better planes, albeit with a worse itinerary. Hardly a "learning experience". The learning was the months of FT reading that got him to find the new itinerary and essentially buy back his miles for ~1/10th of a cent per mile. No brainer really.
You are right, reading FT gave me the knowledge to even know I could/should look. Also, I'm a she

@jtav559 "The primo inventory may never appear in time to get it ticketed." Exactly why I booked originally and I may do it again but y'all taught me how to save on the change fee among so many other things.
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