Read it and Weep...
 

I found out today, when my mother-in-law arrived at the airport, that she had used 35,000 UA miles to fly ("FC") from BUR-SFO!! AND she got terrible scheduling (flights too early and too late, here too long even for her...) It was enough to make a grown woman cry. Next year we will buy her ticket for her. To think that there is a flight to Maui that could have been had ..... :(

It is quite tragic how ill-informed people are about their consumer options. When the currency is not cash, people have a harder time understanding their options and the best returns/value.

Woah, what an incredible waste of miles. :(

I just booked a 35k trip from HNL-SFO on UA for a friend and I thought that was a waste of miles... (flight was around $500) For your M-I-L, though, not worth weeping over. I hope she enjoyed the flight, learned a lesson and moves on.

aloha

To be honest, I didn't have the heart to even begin to tell her what she had done. I just resolved to send her a ticket next year before she could even think about doing it again!

Funny how things like this makes us mile-mongers cringe.

On AA, just got 4 tix for LIH-LAX-MIA-LIM-MIA-LAX-LIH at 35,000 miles each. :)

Hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, but she could have flown First Class on those flights for even fewer miles.

That's because United has had an "Award Sale" on flights of under 750 miles for several months now, thru the end of the year:

Is BUR-SFO a CRJ?

oh brother.

It can be. But they also fly 737s and A320s on this route.

whose fault IS it really?
 

My first inclination was to wonder how the woman could have been so willing to spend that many miles to fly that routing, and how she could have been "not so smart" about it. BUT, then I think of my own mother, who comes from a time when you actually could and would believe the advice of someone in customer service of a company to which you do loyal business.

What of the person at the airline who so willingly took her miles and didn’t even inform her of better, more economical options? I know some would have but not that airline!

WOW!
what a scam!

...and some people tell me it's wrong to try my hardest to find ways around all the rules in the airline world?

fahgetaboutit!

:)MM

"Read it and Weep"?

oh.

I'm far from perfect on my Airport Identifiers but as I interpret the above it deciphers as:

Lihue (Kauai, Hawaii) - Los Angeles - Miami - LIMA PERU - MIA - LAX - LIH

If the above interpretation is true I must have missed something. Is there an AA reduced mileage sale/promotion going on where one can go from HI to South America for only 35K miles?

Deleted

Maybe you can call UA and tell them that the customer service agent issued the incorrect award, if the short haul awards were available, and recover some of the miles back.

Chances! I don't think that will happen. Chalk it up to a good lesson and let it go!