Mile redemption

Swerve,

Ypu still don’t get it, do you? It is neither a scam, nor dishonest – if it were, regulators in one country or another would have put a stop to it long ago.

Whilst it is true that there are more frequent flyer miles in circulation than could ever be redeemed (and more than the airlines could ever cope with being redeemed were they freely convertable into “free” flights), individual’s miles are entirely redeemable if the individual does as I suggested above – understand how the process works (and the limitations), plan very early, and be flexible with travel dates and classes.

If there is anything wrong with “the system”, it is that some customers (by and large the casual customer who isn’t really a loyal, regular flyer with a specific airline or airline-alliance) have too many unrealistic expectations about getting something for nothing. Now I’m sure Swerve will again argue that this is the fault of the airlines – and maybe to an extent it is. But of course, there has to be a way for new customers to get into the programs, and the airlines won’t know whether they are really worth nurturing until the customer has joined and travelled a bit (or not!). Even if you agree with the idea that the airlines encourage too many customers to join frequent flyer programs, this is not airlines running a scam or being dishonest, but rather the entry requirements being set too low. If anything therefore the reduction or elimination of miles on cheap fares, not allowing customers to join unless they buy a reasonably highly yielding fare in the first place, and the ramping up of the miles needed for awards is a VERY GOOD thing – it reduces the opportunities for such casual and relatively infrequent customers, and therefore focuses the program on the real frequent flyers.

Andy

BMI call center staff dont seem to be very clued up on award tickets. You will have to keep on pestering them untill you speak to “the right person”.

Not sure if you know about the “ANA TOOL” to search for open award seats on airlines with star alliance and partners? Google it for a link. This will be your best friend when it comes to finding an award seat. Then you can ring Diamond Club with the facts that there are open seats for flights X,Y,Z..

As for FFPs being a scam!!! I can only say i have had no trouble at all finding the seats i want. You just need to get creative and be somewhat flexible.

Lee

The system relies on most miles not being redeemed. That is a scam.

As originally intended, as a reward & incentive programme for high-mileage customers by giving them free access to otherwise unused capacity, the scheme was entirely honest. It can still work in that fashion for frequent flyers, & if you fall into that group, it’s fine – for you. But too many have been (quite deliberately) issued. The ratio of the number issued to seats available to fill has got to the point where most are not redeemable. That is dishonest.

Air Miles are absolutely fantastic, it just takes a certain degree of intelligence and research in order to get the most out of the system that is in place.

Because air miles are a scam.

It has never been possible to redeem more than a tiny fraction of them. From the start, more were issued than could be redeemed, on the assumption that many would not be claimed, & that has got worse – much worse. Hence the steady devaluation, & even devalued, the airlines can’t afford to honour more than a minute proportion.

Now airlines are being required to account for outstanding air miles as liabilities, they have to devalue them further, because of the impact on their balance sheets. Making them nearly impossible to use, instead of merely very difficult, is one way. Adding fees to use them is another.

I disagree with. Certainly frequent flyer miles are not a scam. All that is required is an understanding of basic airline economics, a measure of realism in managing expectations, and a degree of flexibility with travel dates – or at least planning well in advance. I am 1K with United (over 100,000 a year), and I manage to redeem the miles I earn – 1st class to the USA and back on exactly the dates I wanted last year, for example.

I had a similar problem with my BA miles a few years back – just could not get anything on the BA service to SYD in Club or FIRST. Kept calling back, and it seemed that as soon as they had been loaded into the reservation system they had gone to others. Skymonster is correct, on popular routes, the seats are sold, not given away, and guess what – SYD is one of those popular routes.

Try and be inventive. I eventually did my SYD return, outbound via SIN with a two day stay – then on to SYD, back to SIN, then an SQ trip to HKG and back with BA from there the next day. Bit of a pain, but did the trick.

TA

Why can’t we choose any flight to redeem our frequent flier miles? There seem to be only few seats allocated per flight.

Because air miles are a scam.

It has never been possible to redeem more than a tiny fraction of them. From the start, more were issued than could be redeemed, on the assumption that many would not be claimed, & that has got worse – much worse. Hence the steady devaluation, & even devalued, the airlines can’t afford to honour more than a minute proportion.

Now airlines are being required to account for outstanding air miles as liabilities, they have to devalue them further, because of the impact on their balance sheets. Making them nearly impossible to use, instead of merely very difficult, is one way. Adding fees to use them is another.

Airlines are hardly likely to deplete their inventory by giving away “free” flights to passengers when they might otherwise sell revenue seats. That was the original idea of frequent flyer programs – to give [likely toi be] unsold inventory to frequent flyers. Airlines have, over the years, had to compromise and release a few seats on popular flights, but that’s about all. Thus, there will typically only ever be a few award seats on any given flight, less so during popular travel periods and more during off seasons. Sydney-USA is ALWAYS in demand for award flights, and you’re not exactly planning to travel in the lowest season. In the case of United, they also sometimes make more award inventory available to their own frequent flyers (i.e Mileage Plus members) versus the inventory they make available to partner frequent flyers. Also in the case of United, I know that they open up award inventory almost 12 months before flight, and if you want an award seat on a popular flight the best time to book it is the day they open it up for award travel – for travel in April, realistically you’re way too late. However, that said, if specific flights do not sell well to revenue passengers, further award inventory MAY be opened up at a later date, so there’s still a chance for you. However, that’s all it is – a chance. If you want to be sure to travel next April, my advice would be to buy tickets. If you are prepared to take a chance, maybe things will open up. And if you really want an award ticket between Sydney and London on United, your best chance right now is to be thinking of travelling in early 2010.

Andy