Booked my Summer Vacation Today

[KC Scott]

Spoiler Alert: "If you don't use frequent flier or loyalty programs - just move on to the next thread"

The fucking hoops Delta makes you jump through to use miles is unreal....... You keep submitting dates and hope they're not booked out so you can use your miles. Until today that is, when I figured out how to use the "pay with miles" alternative. Not only was I able to get the week I wanted, but was able to use fewer miles and not get clocked with the $10 per ticket fee :?

It's weird fucking games to play with your "loyal" fliers - and even when I called Delta Gold help they didn't mention it as an alternative - I had to Stumble on it by accident. Well I finally have this shit figured out - I'd sure like to have the two hours of my life I wasted this afternoon back.

On a separate note, American's loyalty program is one of the most sparse in terms of partners I've ever seen. I typically use miles I've built up on other partners for shit like the car rental. when we Ski in March, my 5 days of SUV rental will be courtesy of 40,000 Midwest Air miles I'm using on Hertz. all American hasfor car rentals are some shitty little one and two day passes that CAN'T be used with each other. How much sense does it make to get a 2 day rental free then pay $95 per day for the other 4 when I can get a full week minivan for $249. Hilarious.

[Rootbeer]

I never want to fly on enough airplanes to rack up that many miles, but if I ever did, I don't think I would complain about a $10 ticket charge when I'm getting the rest of the flight for free.

[KC Scott]

And if I could have found the dates and reasonable flights when I logged on I wouldn't have bitched, it had far more to do with getting jerked around by the Delta website - hiding flights / unavailability of dates etc. There are 6 of us going and putting this shit together is the worst part. If you ever do have to fly every single week of your work life you'll start to get the same sense of entitlement for loyally flying the fuckers - trust me.

[Rootbeer]

Yeah I can see that.

I hate air travel. If I'm closer than 10 hours from someplace, I'll happily drive.

Okay maybe not happily. I'll begrudgingly drive. Still not taking an airplane. Especially since I gotta drive 3 hours just to get to the airport.

[Lillian Vernon]

Nobody gives a fuck about this.

Signed,

Everyone but Rootbeer.

[Bill Lumbergh]

Delta is the 2nd worst airline in the world and they bought the WORST one....Northworst.....so you get what you pay for. My company only uses SOUTHWEST.......best in the business.

[Ken]

Spoiler Alert: "If you don't use frequent flier or loyalty programs - just move on to the next thread"

The fucking hoops Delta makes you jump through to use miles is unreal....... You keep submitting dates and hope they're not booked out so you can use your miles. Until today that is, when I figured out how to use the "pay with miles" alternative. Not only was I able to get the week I wanted, but was able to use fewer miles and not get clocked with the $10 per ticket fee :?

‘Pay with miles alternative'? Uhh… isn’t that what you were trying to do the first time? What’s the difference between what you did the first time and the second? Using miles is using miles. And I also assume that you AT LEAST knew that there was a SkySaver and SkyChoice option, right? … but it doesn’t sound like the case since you were surprised to be able to book with miles using, well… less miles- i.e. SkySaver.

It's weird fucking games to play with your "loyal" fliers - and even when I called Delta Gold help they didn't mention it as an alternative - I had to Stumble on it by accident. Well I finally have this shit figured out - I'd sure like to have the two hours of my life I wasted this afternoon back.

What’s the difficulty? Didn’t take me long to figure out the ropes with United, all two of them. Pretty simple really. Standard and Saver Awards. 25,000/50,000. Booking the awards is just as easy whether online or via a phone agent. Shit, I could book a dummy, award intinerary online with United right now and be back here in 3-4 minutes. And for the record, I’ve almost never had any issue with booking award travel on dates I’ve wanted.

[KC Scott]

‘Pay with miles alternative'? Uhh… isn’t that what you were trying to do the first time? What’s the difference between what you did the first time and the second? Using miles is using miles. And I also assume that you AT LEAST knew that there was a SkySaver and SkyChoice option, right? … but it doesn’t sound like the case since you were surprised to be able to book with miles using, well… less miles- i.e. SkySaver.

I guess I didn't explain - The flights I wanted wern't available at the mileage level (32,500) and I looked over two months worth of flights to find them since there are 6 of us on the trip. Then, after I had called the Gold line for help, i started searching the "normal" method of booking and with the "pay with miles" option found the exact flights I wanted and they only cost 30K each. It doesn't make sense to even use the old method since the lowest seats (25K miles) were nowhere to be seen and even the 32,500 were none existent.

How far in advance do you typically book award travel on United?

What’s the difficulty? Didn’t take me long to figure out the ropes with United, all two of them. Pretty simple really. Standard and Saver Awards. 25,000/50,000. Booking the awards is just as easy whether online or via a phone agent. Shit, I could book a dummy, award intinerary online with United right now and be back here in 3-4 minutes. And for the record, I’ve almost never had any issue with booking award travel on dates I’ve wanted.

Totally different on Delta - like I said it's a major circle jerk to play with your best customers.

[Ken]

Okay, that clears it up.

How far in advance do you typically book award travel on United?

Honestly, it’s been usually only a few days before travel. I’ve redeemed MANY awards just a couple days in advance- those have been my needs. Further, most times I’m able to redeem saver awards (25,000 miles). Now, I should explain also- 1.) I’m top tier on United, so award availabilities, including saver awards, are pretty good for us. 2.) It has always been domestic award, not international.

Us United frequent fliers have been pretty ticked at United for what’s called ‘Starnet blocking’. While all other star alliance members’ award travel inventory matches exactly what the other star alliance carriers post, United does not. For example, if Lufthansa has 6 seats available in biz class for their members, United does not show this for their Mileage plus members. On the flipside, if United has 6 seats available, Lufthansa’s frequent flier program shows just that- 6 seats available for its members. Given its members, Star Alliance is very strong in the Asian market. Too bad us United fliers can’t redeem much in the way of award travel to Asia. This is what pisses most of us off.

But, for domestic travel, no issues whatsoever. Overall, I don’t have much issue with United’s frequent flier program. They’ve treated me well.