Last year, I needed to fly to Alabama for a funeral. On the phone with the customer disservice representative, I learned I had two choices:
1.) I could fork over nearly $1000 for the round-trip (non-stop) flight.
2.) I could surrender roughly 70,000 frequent flier miles I had saved up.
Ultimately, I chose to give up the FF miles, because I was afraid Delta would confiscate them anyway during their restructuring.
Over on the Huffington Post, frustrated traveler Jason Bartholomew tells a ridiculous and shameful story (for the airlines) about trying to cash in some of his miles for a flight from JFK to Orlando. Ordering the tickets 7 months in advance, he’s told there are no frequent flier seats left for the legs he wants. Then, he’s told it’ll cost him 100,000 miles to make the flight work. Later, he learns that the airline wants to charge him to correct their error and change reservations he didn’t even make! His experience is at turns hilarious and irritating, but the screwball comedy of Kafka-esque proportions has a (somewhat) satisfying ending.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, Jason, and take comfort in this: according to Consumer Affairs, the availability of seats for frequent fliers will increase throughout 2007. If you’re looking for some other tips about how to negotiate the messed-up world of frequent flier miles check out these tips: