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Frequent flyer miles
Heres a poll,How many people think these are a scam? If one earns the miles,they should be able to use them whenever,wherever.
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You "earn" miles only because the airline GIVES them to you as a thank you for flying with them. It's just unrealistic to think that airlines can't restrict these awards just as they do the cheapest fares. Grow up. I have 1 million miles on one airline and still have trouble getting some of the most popular awards. However, I understand that the airline needs to sell the seats first, give them away second.
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1 million miles and you still travel at your inconvenience? You're the sucker they look for. They promote double miles on everything and entice the public with travel rewards. If you think they give them to us as a thank you,it is you that needs to GROW UP.
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As long as I do not have to pay for the membership and get perks like pre-boarding and upgrades, I don't see the rip-off. <BR><BR>After all, they aren't scamming anyone out of money with the FF programs.
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If you want fewer restrictions with FF miles, then get a credit card that earns you miles for every dollar spent and is good for ANY major airline. We've had an Amalgamated Bank MC for about 7-8 years and have redeemed miles plenty of times with NO hassles and we always get the exact flights we want. Their only requirements are that you must make the reservations at least 30 days in advance and it will cover a maximum of a $350 ticket (or you pay the balance on your MC). They won't take reservations for small airlines like Spirit or Jet Blue. We love it and charge almost everything on this card so we can earn miles faster. It's so much better than being at the mercy of the fickle airlines and their ever changing rules.
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Methinks Phil never flies...just trolls fodors.com.
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<BR>phil, honey, let's not disturb the free-upgrade first class passengers. <BR><BR>Let's go back to your center seat in coach, it's naptime.<BR>
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As long as I do not have to pay for the membership and get perks like pre-boarding and upgrades, I don't see the rip-off. <BR><BR>After all, they aren't scamming anyone out of money with the FF programs.
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Bravo, CAT and KJ and thank you
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Some scam..I used my FF miles to get two free first class tickets to Australia and New Zealand.<BR><BR>The tickets would have cost $10,000. EACH.<BR><BR>
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Agree with FF above - family is traveling east to west coast first class this summer on ff miles earned in past year through business travel plus charging same to affinity card. No trouble booking flights and we can even make changes since they are fisrt class and ff mile member has an elite status.<BR><BR>I love getting something for free but do not see these as "earned" in the same way salary is.
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Phil, Are you really interested in other people's opinions, or are you just trying to justify your own?
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If one tells me to "grow up" because of my opinion,I take it for what its worth. I admit I am trying to "cash in" and am getting nowhere. I'm sure I'm not the only one to run into this.
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FF miles are of greatest utility in situations where people have flexible travel plans and can tailor them around the greatest availability of seats. That may mean planning far in advance or it may mean bagging seats that open up fairly close to the date of a flight that has a supply of open seats not likely to be sold off. Many programs also offer the option of using double miles to escape capacity controls. <BR><BR>In a perfect world for the airlines, each seat occupied by a frequent flyer on an award ticket would be a seat that would have otherwise gone unsold, so the cost to the carrier of providing the perk would be very low. In a perfect world for consumers, FF miles could be used just like cash to get any seat on any flight desired. Capacity controls and the ability to use extra miles to escape them are a pretty fair compromise.<BR><BR>In my own experience, I've found the mileage programs to be incredibly beneficial. I also know that many people become frustrated, but mostly because their expectations are different than the reality of what these programs provide. <BR><BR>For those interested in learning all that they can about various programs, I would suggest: <BR><BR>www.flyertalk.com<BR><BR>You will be able to learn from people on that board who are extremely savvy about various airline and hotel programs.
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I believe that Southwest Airlines frequent flyer awards are the easiest to use.<BR><BR>Rapid Rewards have only a few blackout dates and are NOT capacity controlled. If there is seat available on the plane you can have it...even when every discount seat has already been sold.<BR><BR>As an added bonus, the reward vouchers are fully transferable and can be used as 2 one-ways or one RT.
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And Southwest still manages to operate in the black and not layoff employees.
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I come down on the side of folks who love the FF programs. My job had me flying 2-3 times a week for over 7 years and I built up huge numbers of miles on several airlines. I've used them for first class upgrades on very long flights, for business class and first class tickets to Europe, twice to Alaska, to New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and for several trips to various places in Canada. I have occasionally had to compromise an itinerary because I couldn't get exactly the flight I wanted but I've always been able to make the trip. I'd guess the retail value of the FF trips and upgrades had to exceed $50K. Not a bad bonus for business flying I had to do whether or not the FF programs existed.
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Phil,<BR><BR>Southwest has a cost structure which is way below that of the majors. If the other airlines could pay their employees what Southwest does..we probably wouldn't be having as many bankruptcies.<BR><BR>According to the Wall Street Journal, the airlines wish they had based their awards on dollars spent (like most hotel frequent guust programs).<BR><BR>That way the business traveller paying ful fare gets a more of an award than the leisure traveller on a deep discount.
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But to my knowledge,SW hasn't the ancillary awards(credit cards,long distance)that the others have. Skymiles has the public charging all services for double miles so they can"cash" them in.Not always true.
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Not only does Soutwest have an credit card affinity program ...but it is aggresssively pushed in the airports close to the Southwest gates.<BR><BR>They also have a long distamce program( with MCI I think).<BR><BR>
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