Dealing with Airline Frequent Flyer Programs

M

MikeUT00

Guest
What had been y'alls experience with Frequent Flyer programs? Has it been like pulling teeth trying to get itineraries y'all want? Did anyone have any good experiences with respective programs? Continental OnePass? American AAvantage? Southwest Rapid Rewards? Which do y'all use? Specifically interested in hearing experiences with redeeming miles ...
 
I recently dealt with JetBlue. Essentially either they changed their program or lied to me when I signed up, because unlike southwest, the voucher is not good for any seat, just seats that are earmarked for them, and they go fast. While I will continue flying them, I am done with my Amex JetBlue card other than places that only take Amex.

American used to have a great program on their netsaver fares where you could use 10-20k miles, and pay a significantly reduced amount for a flight. I wish they would bring that back as it is damn near impossible to use their miles anymore.
 
Ive used American and Delta miles in th past. Delta has been the most difficult to deal with because they limit the number of rewards flyers on every flight. Im sure all carriers do but it seems that Delta limits more than American does. Ive had difficulty finding reward seats 3 months in advance with them before. You sometimes need to book even further out for reward travel to international destinations with them.
 
I use American all the time and use the AAnytime award. Cost more points but I can travel when and where I want
 
at least AA has now added AAdvantage award travel to the website so you can search what dates are available and what reward level. That's a nice feature.
 
Johnny, is that a unique feature? I know Continental has the same feature on their website. I guess I just thought everyone did it.
 
Always thought One Pass was good if you are a little flexible with the dates/times. Went to Hawaii once with miles.
 
At least on American, Hawaii is one of those markets that usually has a very high allotment of AAdvantage seats.
 
I have only dealt with SWA and AA, but it all depends on route, days traveling, time of year, etc. I have never had a problem outside of 60-90 days of scheduling. But for places like Las Vegas, NY, etc.....they are hard to get.
 
That is true that AAnytime is costly, but I have 2 million life to date and 750k miles remaining and still accumulating.
 
well then yeah for you it's wonderful.

that's like asking trump what kind of car you should buy and he says a bentley.
 
Frontier's program is good and easy to use. I've never had a problem with SWA either, but as was noted earlier, there have been some changes made that will affect availability on popular routes like Vegas and Orlando.
 
Does anyone have any horror stories from dealing with the programs? Times when you weren't able to find an available no matter how flexible you were? Rude support staff? Not letting you redeem miles?
 
I was just going to get on and say how great SW program was, but I just had some major problems using a free flight to get to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend. I think they must have changed their policy to a very limited amount of RR seats on a flight, because I couldn't use it on a flight that had a ton of open seats.
 
Any other comments? I personally use Continental OnePass the most. Stories about them?
 
I have a new philosophy on the AA miles.... use them for the free first class fare. When i tried to book a flight to Vegas from KC last year I got stuck on the freaking 10pm Saturday night flight to Vegas, and coming back on the redeye arriving Thursday morning.

Oh yeah, and the flight was in August (5th) and I booked the award in JANUARY. You cant tell me that a flight over a non-holiday weekend is that booked out that I cant make the reservation 7 months in advance??? That royally peeved me off.

Turn around and in December (11th), I have another flight to vegas. This time I use the First class 45k mile option. I get the exact flight I want, and the exact return flight I want as well. No fuss no muss.

Considering that when i started using AA miles in 1993 it only cost 12,500 miles to get a free flight (15k mexico, 20k Eurpe off-peak, and 25k peak) and its now 25,000 miles and only going higher (30k for Mexico, 45k for Europe off-peak, 60k peak), I figure I need to spend the miles now rather than later when they are worth even less.

My father has over 3.5 million miles on Continental, and they STILL wont let him use the miles on certain dates. Hell my mother has 1 million continental miles by herself and is an Elite status memeber and rarely, if ever, gets the offer to move up to first class
 
With the recent airline changes, new charges, gas prices, etc.., have things changed any involving the programs?
 
I'm in SWA and Continental programs. I've used two free flights on SWA to get to Vegas in two weeks. I just collected a third free flight last month on SWA. So far, no complaints.

I regularly get upgraded to first class on Continental flights from Houston to Austin (Silver Elite and climbing). I'm not as familiar with the free flight requirements on Continental, so I have to read up on the program.

Speaking of reward pts, I'm a platinum member of priorityclub.com pts (Holiday Inns, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental). I've racked up so many through the years, that I always have enough for 2 free nights in Dallas for OU weekend at Hotel Indigo downtown. Our CU trip this fall will be free lodging too for our brewery tour.

Traveling for work sucks with a family at home, so I try to take advantage of these types of programs.
 
I've already qualified as a continental onepass gold for next year. I've never redeemed miles for a ticket, only use them to score transatlantic upgrades. I'm a swa rr member, but I stopped giving them my business two years ago after they placed me on a restricted travelers list.

I'm very happy with continental. the elite help desk line is beyond helpful.
 
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