The whole devaluation/inflation issues is a nuisance, but I can understand why the airlines do it (even as they are the major culprits in the first place). The whole "FF miles" world has expanded far beyond purely air miles flown -- credit cards, hotels, car rental, mortgages, phone bill, ad nauseum. Just check all the other threads! If a commodity is easy to acquire, its value goes down. Simple economics.

I have been collecting FF miles for 20 years, but it is only in the past 7 years or so that I have travelled enough to get a large portion of my miles from actually flying.

If the airlines want to truly cultivate brand loyalty (and that was how it all started, right?), then I could see them making a distinction between miles earned from flights vs miles earned from non-air partners. And reward the true 'frequent flyer' while giving some (lower) level of awards to non-air mile earners.

But who would blink first?



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Da DOK

I would disagree: Airlines SOLD the mile to credit card companies, phone companies, etc., Airlines got their MONEY ALREADY. They should let customers redeem them, so they should add more reward seats accordingly. If airlines don't add more reward seating, that would be called FRAUD.

I don't care that 8% (or whatever the number is) of seats are rewards seatings. I only care if 8% of miles (sold or flown with that airline) are redeemed each year.

Why when you have the miles you cannot go anywhere without a "mud wrestling match" with CSR. (ei: CO OP, to CLE-HNL 35K miles. Call 330 days before flight & told "no setas available under 70K redemption amount" I made 78 calls in 21 days getting the same lame response. I then phone Houston Corp office & there I get 2 35K seats! WHY?

DL always had 4PM arrival at OGG for 8 years we lfew them, then nonstop to Atl returning home. Now they arrive at 7PM, after stopping at ATL from CLE, then LAX before arriving at OGG at almost 7:30PM last time. Their reason: Pilots do not fly more than 6 hours per their new contract. SO TAKE 2 CREWS! Flying home, we have totake interisland to HNL to get an early afternoon flight instead of 11PM at OGG. Then you are swatted with magazines to wake you up to disembark at LAX & then sit for 1.5 hours with no refreshments, since no one is open at LAX at 2AM, then get back on to fly to ATL.

This year I booked UAL flight for 2/14 CLE,ORD,SFO,OGG since they arrive at 2:30PM at OGG, using my DL SM. Then I read that they parted partners after 3/1/04 & I return home 3/4. So far no phonecall or email telling me I can't fly home on UAL. Maybe since I am booked 330 days in advance it isn't a problem, I hope.....

ALSO why the priority sticker is on luggage that shows up dead last at the airport!

1. CO's award redemption fee. CO's "cost" to redeem an award is the same whether the award is redeemed one day, one week, one month, or one year in advance. Awards have already been "paid" for, but now to redeem an award on short notice, CO charges again. Another way for CO to charge as much as it can for every seat it sells.

2. CO's elimination of the 20,000 mile award.

3. Award availability.

4. Gordo the Liar

I see it is quite common, but I will say it again:

Ability to use miles for standard awards - and not only being able to use them, but the fact that the airlines basically can give no information as to how many seats are allocated and so forth. I suspect that airlines often allocate NO seats for flights they think they will sell out and only release them later at their discretion. Because they divulge no information whatsoever as to how many seats were available, we have no way of knowing.

Considering that they sell the miles for a definate profit - they should at least be straightforward in how they allocate award seats and commit to having a minimum number of award seats allocated for every flight. If I request a flight they should tell me that, for example, "10 seats were allocated and 8 are taken" or "10 were allocated and all are taken." To most people, charging twice the going rate of miles for lifting capacity controls when the system for these capacity controls is a big mystery is quite deceptive.

Total devaluation of the programs, often times in mid-year when you have already invested many miles.

Lack of seat availability for international awards.

Asking for double the normal mileage on redemptions for holiday weekends and certain busy travel periods. They should waive this as a perk for elite members.

Not being able to speak directly to the SkyMiles desk at DL. Currently, you have to deal with an SMS agent who calls the SkyMiles dept. and asks the question for you. IMHO, this is a waste of manpower for an airline that is not making money. They have two people tied up doing the job of one.

There should not be any additional fees for award redemptions, no matter how close to the departure date it is. After all, you are only dealing with an E ticket.

Fees of ~$75-$100 to redeposit miles when an award reservation is cancelled. It is difficult enough to get the awards, so sometimes you need to grab seats far in advance. Then plans change.

When I am booking for my family, this can mean a $400 fee for cancelling "free" tickets which I didn't even use!.

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United UGS, 1K, Million Mile Flyer
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

[This message has been edited by divaof travel (edited 09-05-2003).]

Speaking only of AC's Aeroplan.

Lack of availability on reasonable flights/connections.

Inability to upgrade from Y to J using points.

Ditto.

"All commerce is based on deception."
- George Carlin

Yes.

It's not illegal to call mileage devaluation "exciting".


[This message has been edited by Bidkat (edited 09-02-2003).]

1. Lack of availability at standard levels.
2. Last minute fees.
3. Online booking tools that can't handle advanced search or open jaw travel.
4. Inability to see reward booking class by segment.
5. Elimination of 20K awards.
6. Saturday night stay requirements.
7. Extortionist international upgrade charges and draconian booking policies.
8. Difficulty lining up interline segments.
9. Reduced bonus segment/mile opportunities.
10. Low fare mileage earning restrictions.

Somewhere near the #8 or #9 slots would be: Programs like WorldPerks that exclude CyberSavers or Cash & Miles tickets from mileage earning, and companies like Budget that think 50 measly miles is too much to award for a reservation at a "discount" Website rate. Northwest's case is especially bad because you could pay $200-250 for a domestic ticket or $400-570 for an international and not get a single mile from it. That ruins the deal.

The transparency issue is one that should be pressed, though. Continental, for one, seems to realize it has a potential PR problem and has been doing annual newsletter stories about how the total award redemptions went up this year from last, etc. But they just give one aggregate number, not even differentiating between upgrades and free trips. And we don't know how fast the unredeemed miles are growing, but I'll bet it's at a far faster rate.

My experience is primarily with NW/KLM...

Difficulty - even for a top level elite to use my miles without extensive preplanning ... especially if I need 2 or more tickets on the same routing.

Having to buy Business Level fares before I can upgrade internationally - and even then I'm paying
5/9 of the miles for a free ticket to upgrade

Unexplained differences in 'taxes' for booking the same trip on CO or NW

For some reason - Flying CO metal using my NW miles almost always requires rulebusting... what a crock

Inability to book upgrades while I book

Inability to waitlist for upgrades

Inability to waitlist on KLM for different dates

Inability to book on partner airlines like MH or DL online

Inability to check DL international availability on DL's website

the fact that we need to have 3rd party web sites to check availability like WPAA lister and galileo...

endless bugs in NW's online booking system... calling reservations is needed too often

inability to get answers to basic questions via email... this applies to more than just using miles. the answer is always call reservations....

maybe that's more than 10...

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doglover

1 Value of miles or points that decrease

2 Partner miles non postiong

3 Programm not responding to complain (Hilton, Frecuenta of Mexicana, Air France Frequence plus) or sending not useful answers (Delta)

4 Miles obsolescence (several programs)

5 Difficulty to get upgrades

6 Difficulty to get award

7 Difficultu to keep track of and have an eye on all the promotions

And
8- Paying taxes on free flights, paying sometime some fees of free hotel nights because the employees think it is fair to do so.