The wacky airlines, I asked for Los Angeles to anywhere in New England and this is what they offer me at Continental:
Burbank, CA (BUR)
Arrive:

Seattle, WA (SEA)

Change Planes. Depart:

Seattle, WA (SEA)
Arrive:
Detroit, MI (DTW)


Change Planes.
Depart:
Detroit, MI (DTW)
Arrive:
Charlotte, NC (CLT)


Change Planes. Depart:
Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Arrive:
New York/Newark, NJ (View Seats


Change Planes.
Depart:
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)
Arrive:
Portland, ME (PWM)

It takes about 24 hours and they put me on five different planes one-way. I was booking another one from Los Angeles to Colorado, they said nothing available but suggested Burbank to Colorado was open. The itinerary goes Burbank to Seattle, Seattle to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Colorado. WHAT? "But you said you don't have Los Angeles to Colorado available!" "That's right we don't"

FF tickets must be more valuable than gold. I tried to use my FF with USAir 5 times in less than a year. 4 times with no success. Finally was successful but had to book the tickets the second the flights opened (what is it 330 days in advance) and had to use Premium miles (double th enumber of miles).

Before condemning the airline, one key question: How far in advance is this trip you are trying to book?

Really depends on where you want to go. High demand locations, like Hawaii, get snapped up quickly. DH and I picked up 2 regular FF tickets to Minneapolis last October for travel in November. It was not the height of tourist season, not a holiday and we travelled Saturday to Wednesday. I have seen some wacky routings on-line but ignore them.

We've flown all over with FF tickets - including to St. Thomas the week before Easter. Wherever we go, we almost always fly direct.

The only time I had a problem booking early was for next Easter break. I secured our outbound flight to Las Vegas, and called the 1st day available for our return flight. I called at 8am, and already every single seat on every flight that day was gone! So we're flying home through Phoenix.

joe- your proposed itinerary makes my head spin. How far ahead were you booking?

I've never had a problem booking a FF ticket but I always book last minute and for one person.

I tried to book using Continental mileage about 2 weeks ago (mid-May) for mid-December. The 25,000 mile awards were already gone (how many do they actually have per flight?). The 35,000 mile award required a mileage transfer, for which they charge $15 per 1,000 miles. I finally gave up.

Sue, depending on the time of year and destination of a flight, there are usually only one or two 25,000 seat tickets on a flight this far out.

Also, how late in December? From around December 15th to New Years Day is considered peak travel because of the way Christmas falls this year.

I'd also love to know how many FF seats are available for flights.

On USAir, I know it's at least 4, b/c I've often gotten 4 FF seats for my family. One time I called to book, the agent said "there's only 4 seats left", which made me think that usually there are more than 4.

I know there are different types of seats: for USAir, there are seats for USAir FF, and then there seats made available to members of the Star Alliance.

I was able to get UAL Super-Saver FF tickets for my family to Maui but we flew on 2 different planes that arrived about 10 minutes apart. They were all booked but I just kept checking the web site and calling and finally it worked.

For those trying to use CO miles, make sure you ask the Onepass desk to check for partner flights on DL and NW. Some NW flights may show up online, but usually not if the whole itinerary is on NW. DL flights don't show up online.

Also, the Onepass agents will not voluntarily advise using partner flights. They will tell you there's Sleazy Pass (er, I mean Easy Pass for double miles) available. You need to tell them to check on partners - and they'll gladly do it once you ask.

Also, CO domestic standard awards are 25,000 miles, while Sleazy Pass is 50,000. However, you can have one direction using standard and the other Sleazy Pass, for 37,500.

Also, CO and most airlines do not guarantee to have any seat on all flights. Some flights may have a dozen, others may have zero.

I have redemmed miles on USair, Amcn, Northwest and Cont'l - never had a problem getting pretty much what I wanted.

Do you go online to see what is available with your miles? Most of the airlines have an option to redeem miles online and will show exactly what is available on the dates needed.

In response to how many ff seats/flight - the answer is, it varies. Some flights have none, ever, even if you try to book 330 days out. Others, obviously have more. And the number is not fixed, but can change as date of flight gets closer. I suspect each airline has some expensive capacity projection model that they use to determine number of free seats, just as they manage the number of paid seats available at a particular fare.

Like many, we have been flying several times/year on ff seats on various airlines and in general find they becoming more difficult to book. In order to get RT flight at lowest number of miles, it often involves a weird itinerary, leaving on 5:30 AM flight, etc. But we also have flown family of 4 to popular summer destinations for free.

If anyone could figure out the airlines overly complicated pricing system, they could write a book and make millions.

Well, they don't want me taking up one seat Los Angeles to Boston, but they'll happily put me on that SAME PLANE as long as I fly 3 other legs first, taking up a seat on more of their flights than I need to.

And they wonder why they're in trouble.

They do open up more seats a week before travel but who can wait that long to book, taking a chance that something might open? Basically, empty seats left a week before travel they'll let you have, providing that the plane is only 2/3 full.

It's terrible!

Seemed to get much worse after they went and hired that damn David Spade!

Maybe I'm unusually lucky?

So far this year, I've cashed in 112,500 miles for 5 domestic economy tickets.

1. 25k United miles on USAirways nonstop flight DFW-PHL-DFW

2. 25k British Airways miles for on AA DFW-LGA-BGR, BGR-LGA-x-EWR-DFW

3. 25k AA miles on AA for the same itin as No. 2 above

4. 37,500 AA miles on AA for 2 tickets DFW-EWR, BOS-DFW (courtesy of AA 25th anniversary promotion with 25% off miles)

All of these FF tickets are requested no more than 4 months in advance.

Guess nobody wants to go to Texas this year 'cept you and the Bush clan.

Actually, from what I've gathered on Flyertalk, AA's FF program seems to be the best when it comes to redeeming seats (25k for economy, 45k for First).