OK....so I wasn't expecting "much"....but I just became a FF, and am a novice on the first part of the learning curve....doing some 60,000 miles these last 12 months and the same each year for the forseeable future.

So I decide to book my first trip with FF miles to Rio from Calgary. A round trip costs me between $1,200 - 1,350 CDN each time.

No problem to go from YYC to MIA on Air Canada/Canadian.....with my miles. I don't want to use a lot of the miles for this trip, as I want to save some for another trip.

Advertised air fares from MIA to GIG in Rio are $469 USD or so. (approx.$690 CDN) So I figure...OK...what's $690 ?

Well I get an itinerary from my agent...it's $1,040 CDN !!!

Can anybody here enlighten me as to why my backside is sore right now ? I don't blame my agent.

Any suggestions besides using miles to go all the way ?

Thanks for your help.....interesting sarcasm is also welcomed.

OHHH YOU WANT SARCASIM??? I'm in heaven!!! Okay here's my shot... If you don't blame your agent I guess that only leaves one other person to blame! "we have found the enemy and they are us!"

The advertised fare you saw is probably the lowest one around, but it probably is not available for your dates or is sold out for them.

You could always try a consolidator. www.tiss.com is the one that Travelocity links to, so it may be a good one to use. Depending on your dates, I saw MIA-GIG there for as low 566 USD on Varig and 600 on United. Other dates than the couple I plugged in could be lower or higher. Not quite the fare you saw, but not a killer either.

It can be referred to as two different things.

Used commonly in Supermarkets:

the Loss Leader, for example milk or eggs...price them at a loss, or cost, just to get people into the store to buy more expensive stuff.

Used illegally:

the Bait and Switch, where a company offers a service, for example rug cleaning, but delivers a different product (ie: "stain protection) and charges you for it even though you never asked for it.

Personally I believe airline pricing schemes should be illegal or require full disclosure of ALL seats with all prices and rules for each flight #.

Dorian!

Sounds like your FF miles are probably mostly (or all) with CP or AC?? I don't know how many miles it is for a r/t ticket to RIO, but on Continental, from anywhere in the US or Canada it is only 35k for coach.

I think that is probably one of the best deals in the CO Onepass program, if you consider the $$ prices for tickets to Rio, or other S. American cities. Good luck finding the best deal - perhaps a consolidator as suggested above.

Thanks for your responses everybody.

Cigarman included I realized this quickly which is why I didn't buy the first ticket.

StudentFlyer....

You need to redeem 40,000 miles with CDN+ to go round trip anywhere in South America from Canada. It's not a bad deal either.

motnot and Dorian...

I didn't buy the ticket from MIA to GIG...........I anted up another $210 CDN and am paying to go from YYC-SDU on my usual route and am going to collect the full airmiles reward from CDN+.

Apparently the problem, according to my agent, is that the "ticketing country" is not the "country of origin" of the flight I wanted to purchase and it results in a higher fare. It's a good explanation, but is it true ?

"Bait and Switch" I've also experienced before....and I suspected this was the case as well after some more research.

Thanks again.



[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 06-20-2000).]