Lot of miles but not easy to spend

[chipmaster]

Intersting article in the Wall Street Journal Today

 

175 BILLION miles were awarded to Americans, a full 2/3s were thru affiliate credit card incentive / rewards. WOW, 1 BILLION+ miles from not even flying! No wonder it is so hard to redeem. Airlines making minimum real airfare revenue but from obligations to fly and receive minimum reveneu..

 

It was interesting the success in scoring redemptions are:

Southwest 99%

Alaksa 75%

 

US Air 11% :eek:

Delta 13% :eek:

American 58% :eek:

[fbgd]

I have read that one of the few reasons some of the US airlines are liquid is because of miles sold to third parties. The Chase and Citi relationships with United and AA respectively come to mind.

 

I wonder how the success in redemption is calculated. Sometimes you need to compromise on date, time, or class of travel to get what you are after.

[parody]

Link to WSJ article.

[6rugrats]

I think a lot of people never try to redeem their miles, and others simply have no idea how best to do so. You can tell that by some of the posts on this forum. It takes some work and willingness to compromise sometimes to use your FF miles.

[Fattony]

Intersting article in the Wall Street Journal Today

 

175 BILLION miles were awarded to Americans, a full 2/3s were thru affiliate credit card incentive / rewards. WOW, 1 BILLION+ miles from not even flying! No wonder it is so hard to redeem. Airlines making minimum real airfare revenue but from obligations to fly and receive minimum reveneu..

 

It was interesting the success in scoring redemptions are:

Southwest 99%

Alaksa 75%

 

US Air 11% :eek:

Delta 13% :eek:

American 58% :eek:

 

I'd be interested in seeing the details on the trips used in the "success in scoring redemptions" status cited. Just domestic flights? Comparable length of flights? Redeeming miles for, say, a Denver-Dallas flight on Southwest isn't equivalent to getting an Atlanta-Tokyo flight on Delta. It is, for sure, harder to redeem miles now, and this has been well publicized for a long time. It's gotten worse as airlines lose more and more money. Some people have taken to using miles for hotels, rental cars, etc. We had lots of Delta miles and were having difficulty finding uses for them, so recently cashed in almost all of them to score upgrades on an international flight (first had pay for full fare economy). You might check forums on Flyertalk.com for discussions on using miles with different airlines.

[greatam]

ALL the more reason to consolidate miles into one airline/one alliance and try to obtain status with a particular airline. Partner airline flights are often available when parent airline flights are not.

 

And I don't know of an airline that doesn't allow you to get ANY seat in the house for double the miles (is there one???). But most people ONLY want the "saver" award tickets, so instead of being creative to come up with the extra miles or actually using the extra miles they already have, they say there is no availability. I wonder how many times THAT computation went into the statistics.

 

A subscription to Expertflyer is the best $5.00 per month I spend for travel. I can work the system and even though the routing may be "wacko" to some (no nonstop/2 or 3 connections), I RARELY have a hard time using my miles. You truly do have to be flexible and creative but there are many, many, many ways to use those miles for flights.

[parody]

And I don't know of an airline that doesn't allow you to get ANY seat in the house for double the miles (is there one???).

 

I think that jetBlue still allows one to redeem FF miles without doubling. From their website:

No blackout dates

 

There are no blackout dates for Award Flights—get any seat, any time. As long as there is an available seat and you have enough points, that seat is all yours.

 

But, accumulating FF points is difficult and they expire after 12 months of inactivity.

 

In contrast, some FF tickets on Spirit Airlines require more than doubling and seats are still capacity controlled!

[frugaltravel]

But, accumulating FF points is difficult and they expire after 12 months of inactivity.

 

Most give you at least 18 months, some 24 months, CO basically never expire. Read the fine print and there are tons of ways to extend your miles without flying.

 

In contrast, some FF tickets on Spirit Airlines require more than doubling and seats are still capacity controlled!

 

I have seen some awards on Delta requiring MUCH more than double the "saver" rates. Delta is probably the worst US legacy frequent flyer program right now by far. The main good thing about them is that they still allow free stopovers on domestic award tickets.

[klfrodo]

I once used AS miles for a first class berth on Amtrak R/T Seattle to LA.

Great trip.

[cindep]

I guess we've been fortunate in that we always plan far ahead to use our FF miles. We've been successful in using them on Delta every time (so far). Maybe our desires and expectations have been less than some people. We're using our points to upgrade to BE on our flight to London this summer. Since we only needed a one-way flight, it was a good use of our miles (since the one-way coach fare was fairly expensive anyway).

 

We also have USAir miles which we've so far not been able to use. Since we fly out of Charlotte, those miles are REALLY hard to use! So we keep flying them annually to keep the miles "active" and hopefully we'll get to use them one day.

 

You just have to be willing to do the research to get your best deal with the miles you earn. Although I have to admit, we've started using more credit cards that have a cash-back travel bonus instead of air miles as we can ALWAYS use those!

[6rugrats]

We also have USAir miles which we've so far not been able to use. Since we fly out of Charlotte, those miles are REALLY hard to use! So we keep flying them annually to keep the miles "active" and hopefully we'll get to use them one day.

 

 

You can use your US miles on other Star Alliance carriers; your award flights don't have to be on US. Also, there's no need to fly to keep your miles active if you don't want to. You usually just need to have some sort of activity in your account (car rental, hotel stay, etc.).

[mek]

I think a lot of people never try to redeem their miles, and others simply have no idea how best to do so. You can tell that by some of the posts on this forum. It takes some work and willingness to compromise sometimes to use your FF miles.

 

I was able to get my air for DH and myself for our Sept cruise on Delta RT Cincinnati to Miami and RT Cincinnati to Barcelona on Continental for our December cruise. 110,000 points for the 2 Continental tickets and I bought the 2 Miami tickets using 44,000 Amex points. I have always been able to figure a way to use points to get where I want to go.

[jillyfish]

I've noticed the difficulty in using USAir miles!! :(

We've got bunches of 'em. Anytime we want to go somewhere, I check to see if I can use some of them and no dice.

We may have to just take a trip somewhere THEY want to send us with miles. :p

[fbgd]

ALL the more reason to consolidate miles into one airline/one alliance and try to obtain status with a particular airline. Partner airline flights are often available when parent airline flights are not.

 

I think most of the US carriers allow double the miles for a guaranteed seat. However, all my FFPs are outside the US and of those only Miles & More allows you to use double for a seat.

[cindep]

I guess I'm sort of glad to hear someone else has issues with USAir and their program. We would have possibly flown them to the UK this summer, except they wouldn't "guarantee" us the upgrade to business at the time of booking. You have to wait until something like 24 hours before departure to see if there are premium seats available and THEN use your miles. Too much of a gamble for me when Delta confirmed the award upgrade availability and booked us accordingly.

[PennyAgain]

Due to business travel, I always have more miles than I can use. I get tickets for family members.

 

If I Want to go somewhere on my own time, I'm willing to spend double miles and to fly first class.

 

The miles don't improve with age!

[Bramcruiser]

I agree with those that say that one has to stick with one loyalty program. Its also obvious that no one loyalty program is alike and thus you have to find the one right for you.

 

I've been lucky in that I have always been able to book a flight on my points every time I wanted to use them to go somewhere. Now, of course,one still has to consider booking in advance (which I do except in one case and that one I ended up booking because of the extraordinary measures one agent went to on a phone call that I just couldn't say forget it) and popularity of or just number of flights to destinations. I had to book a trip to South Africa close to a year in advance to capture those free seats that are so hard to get. But even those I got!

 

Also an airline with a big alliance (such as Oneworld, Sky Team or Star Alliance) helps as that will help in expanding choices available to international destinations. Credit cards are also a big help. If I didn't use my loyalty credit card and just relied on the number of times I fly I probably would still be collecting and going nowhere. The cards help but of course I do not recommend financial irresponsibility. Like everything, use the credit card wisely.

 

David

[Gunther1]

I have beaucoup miles with them (unfortunately have to stick with them, as they are the only ones that fly to my parents). Unless you are wearing blue socks (and of course the right shade of blue), you fly on the 16th of the month, went to McDonalds's three days prior, want to leave your house at 3am the day of departure, and saw a yellow rabbit on your way to work yesterday, you can never use the miles...unless you want to use triple the number of miles they advertise for a free flight.

 

IE it's IMPOSSIBLE to use them 99.97% of the time :(.

[frugaltravel]

I have beaucoup miles with them (unfortunately have to stick with them, as they are the only ones that fly to my parents). Unless you are wearing blue socks (and of course the right shade of blue), you fly on the 16th of the month, went to McDonalds's three days prior, want to leave your house at 3am the day of departure, and saw a yellow rabbit on your way to work yesterday, you can never use the miles...unless you want to use triple the number of miles they advertise for a free flight.

 

IE it's IMPOSSIBLE to use them 99.97% of the time :(.

 

That is SO true with Delta. Someone recently posted on Flyertalk that they saw Delta wanted 635,000 miles for a round trip business class ticket from the US to Europe (I forget the city pair, but he posted a screen shot of delta.com). "Low" award level should be 100K miles. Double miles should be 200K miles. Can you even imagine 635K?????? Skyteam = absolute worst value for redemption (and don't even talk about the huge fees Delta imposes for award tickets originating outside the USA).

[PhoenixCruiser]

I just used some of my Delta miles and it was so easy. The dates and times were perfect. Phoenix to San Juan and back in December for 70,000 miles pp. The cost of the flight is $705.00/pp.

 

Piece of cake :D

 

###

[frugaltravel]

I just used some of my Delta miles and it was so easy. The dates and times were perfect. Phoenix to San Juan and back in December for 70,000 miles pp. The cost of the flight is $705.00/pp.

 

Piece of cake :D

 

###

 

First class, I hope? But I don't think so.

 

I never use my miles for a 1 cent/mile value, which you apparently used. I used 25K miles for a ticket to Alaska that would have cost me $1,000. That is a 4 cent/mile value. Have used 100K miles for round trip business class to Europe (for a ticket worth over $4,000 though I would never pay that much).

 

My guess is that you used "high" award levels (35K miles per person each way). The "low" level is 35K miles per person ROUND TRIP and "medium" level is 50K miles per person round trip. The "high" award level is supposed to be available if Delta is selling any economy seat on the flight - generally the easiest award ever to book since if the flight is not totally sold out, it should be available.

 

Piece of cake, but Delta took advantage of you. I would prefer TWO trips to San Juan in economy for the same 70K miles, or using only 60K miles per person round trip in FIRST CLASS from the continental US to San Juan.

 

As I said, Delta has the worst value for redemption. Thanks for confirming that :D

[fbgd]

I just used some of my Delta miles and it was so easy. The dates and times were perfect. Phoenix to San Juan and back in December for 70,000 miles pp. The cost of the flight is $705.00/pp.

 

Piece of cake :D

 

###

 

Shocking value if you ask me...I have redeemed 25,000 miles to save $3000.

 

That is SO true with Delta. Someone recently posted on Flyertalk that they saw Delta wanted 635,000 miles for a round trip business class ticket from the US to Europe (I forget the city pair, but he posted a screen shot of delta.com). "Low" award level should be 100K miles. Double miles should be 200K miles. Can you even imagine 635K?????? Skyteam = absolute worst value for redemption (and don't even talk about the huge fees Delta imposes for award tickets originating outside the USA).

 

That has to be an error of some kind...

[chipmaster]

:eek: Hopefully these are really miles and not dollars to miles conversion. If they are dollars your actual reward was a tad over 1%.

 

For true airline miles, miles are miles and you get them anyways so they are really free so great if you can use them, frustrating if you can't. The real interesting thing I found in the article is that 2/3s of miles reward aren't miles flown but dollars spent! For miles earned by spending dollars on CC which many include also a annual fee and danglers like bonus miles do the math carefully. Many cash back cards give you a minimum of 2% cash. There are also reward cards out there that can yield you as much as 8%. Everyone has different value, all the miles but can't use it is no good, all the points at hotelss that you might not stay is also no good, but any value that is lower then what you can get for cold hard cash isn't a reward card its a clever ball and chain card.

 

I just used some of my Delta miles and it was so easy. The dates and times were perfect. Phoenix to San Juan and back in December for 70,000 miles pp. The cost of the flight is $705.00/pp.

 

Piece of cake :D

 

###

[greatam]

For true airline miles, miles are miles and you get them anyways so they are really free so great if you can use them, frustrating if you can't. The real interesting thing I found in the article is that 2/3s of miles reward aren't miles flown but dollars spent!

 

For the average leisure traveler flying with miles from a credit card, using double miles may not be the most efficient use of those miles, but it sure beats letting them go to waste looking and looking and looking for those saver awards. And then of course complaining that they can't use their miles.

 

MOST people have NO IDEA how to use them efficiently. The miles accumulate through purchases, they look on the airline website, find SOMETHING that matches what they want to do and the miles they have and redeem their miles. They rarely spend time "learning the ropes" on how to get maximum VALUE out of those miles. So please don't berate those who used their miles in the way they found best for them.

 

We should be very thankful people ARE redeeming their miles, even at double, triple, whatever rate. All those outstanding miles are an airline liability on the old balance sheet. While sales of miles are keeping airlines afloat, unredeemed miles are a huge liability. When the airlines go to the bankers for money for this, money for that, that liability could topple another airline into merger or bankruptcy. We sure don't need any more consolidation or prices will rise appreciably.

[frugaltravel]

Someone recently posted on Flyertalk that they saw Delta wanted 635,000 miles for a round trip business class ticket from the US to Europe

 

That has to be an error of some kind...

 

Obviously you don't accrue Delta Skymiles. :) No error at all. You can follow the discussion here:

 

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1084559-new-world-record-even-dl-sm-best-class-alright.html