• Vicki Escarra
• Robert Sahadevan
• Gordon Bethune

My biggest problem is the non-availability of World Business Class awards at the standard award level on Northwest.

Trying to use the miles when I want - even as a top tier. Invariably a segment or two has to be waitlisted, and then its almost impossible to plan a trip. Waitlists don't often clear until days or hours before travel.

The #1 biggest problem is the complete secrecy used in the award seat availability formula.

Even so called "standard awards" do not guarantee award tickets on flights that show available seating.

Promotions that are only sent to certain members of the program and then the promotions don't post properly even when you're eligible for them. Make it consistent and make it work.

Never tried to redeem for free tickets, so I can't speak to that. I'm generally happy with the bonuses I get (though I've been seeing them diminish from one year to the next recently).

1. Difficulty in getting international business/first upgrades (much less awards) on days and routes you want them even if you call 11 months ahead of time and even if you pay for a more expensive base ticket

2. Inconsistent CSR information or inaccurate information given out by CSRs with a tone of confidence and authority

3. Having to carefully and repeatedly track your miles because inevitably something you've earned isn't going to get posted without a fuss

4. If more people earn more FF miles, your miles become worth less

I think one that hasn't been mentioned yet is:

1. In this environment of the Iraq war, Sars, and poor economy, many of us have had travel cut. Even though we are close to the same status as last year, hotels and airlines are not bumping us those extra 5 stays or 10000 miles to get the same status as we had before.

#1-Missing credits and the paperwork involved. Granted, I remember the "good old days" when you had to save your paper tickets and boarding passes for months, then submit them two or three times to get credited. But that was before everything was networked and computerized to the extent that it is today. Many airlines/hotel chains do it right. It seems NW and CO just can not be bothered to make sure that the credits post within a reasonable time, still.

#2-Deflating the value of your past loyalty by increasing award requirements or decreasing the seats/rooms available for award redemption.

#3-Poor customer service on the phone, at the gate, at the reception desk or other point of contact. No business can survive if they must constantly replace their most loyal and profitable customers, because of an employee who forgets that the customer is the one who actually pays their paycheck.

1. Lack of notice about program 'changes/ enhancements' (I don't begrudge the programs needing to make changes for economic or other relevant reasons, but I don't appreciate being SANDBAGGED).

1a. Program policies/benefits for the following year should be announced by mid-year of the current mileage earning year, so we know what WHAT to expect. If we don't like announced changes, we still have a half a year or so to REACT and switch programs to achieve status on an alternate program better to our liking

2. Industry self-regulation
Programs should agree on a yearly CAP on how much an award redemption level can be devalued. For example, if there was a 10% devaluation cap per year, BA couldn't change their F award US-Australia from 125K to 420K in one year; they'd have to devalue much more gradually.

* administrativ rules that are impractible/impossible for (some) foreigners to be reasonably fullfilled (example: UA Mileage Plus asks me for transferring awards to do it in person with an UA agent - but there is none in Switzerland).
* little to no advanced info of upcoming rule changes (LH miles&more)
* bad wording (unsure rules, little training of employees) of promotions (example: StarAlliance promo: fly 5 and get 50'000 miles)
* 0 availability over a whole year of SQ first awards - I offered a flexibility of 365 days ... (tried with LH miles&more and UA Mileage Plus for ZRH-SIN and SIN-MEL)
* 'others' get comped status, for what I had to do it the 'hard' (flying/paying) way (US-carriers)

I'll have to join those who listed award availability as the biggest problem.

Solving that might be a tougher nut to crack.

More of an irritation than a serious difficulty is non-posting promo bonus miles such as for online booking, etc. The programs should put enough resources into software programming.

Lack of partner earning opportunities for non-US frequent-flyers.

To be precise:

1. Continental Award Availability!!!

For the last several years I cannot obtain a trancon award seat on Continental, First class seats on a transcon are never available.

Continental used to offer very good reward availability and outstanding service. Today they are a reflection of their leader: Totally Arrogant and Vulgar.

Posted by Randy Peterson:

*I can NOT combine/transfer with spouse (with BA I can)
*I do not get an award flight when I want it
*No or very limited ways to transfer miles to other programs, leaving me with plenty of "useless" miles in the 5,000 to 19,000 miles range in different Frequent Flyer Programs.

[This message has been edited by USAFAN (edited 08-29-2003).]

Incorrect miles deductions after finally getting an award ticket or upgrade.