Tricks for Turning Frequent-Flier Miles Into Tickets
What the airlines don’t want you to know…
Randy Petersen, InsideFlyer
Frequent-flier miles are supposed to earn free tickets for air travelers—but more often, the miles earn them hours on hold waiting for customer service representatives to tell them that no award seats remain on the flights they want. Various obstacles, many of which are set up purposely by the airlines, make converting hard-earned miles into tickets an increasingly frustrating chore.
The airlines finally have begun to respond to the mounting frustration with flashy new on-line tools and updated policies that make miles a little easier to redeem—but only for travelers who are savvy enough to understand their options. The best strategies to help you turn award miles into flights…
CHECK WEB SITES
All of the major airlines now offer Web sites that let frequent fliers secure award tickets without waiting on hold for a phone rep. If the date you initially select is sold out, color-coded calendars make it easy to identify alternative dates when tickets are available. (See details for individual airlines on page 6.)
Unfortunately, these Web sites have some limitations…
They are not very good at finding alternate itineraries. If no ticket is available for, say, Los Angeles to Denver on the day you want to fly, the site may not automatically check flights out of other LA area airports, such as Burbank or Ontario (California) International, or flights into Colorado Springs. You would have to run through all of the possible combinations yourself.
They don’t always check for indirect flights, which would require stops and possibly transfers to different planes along the way, particularly for shorter trips that normally would be direct flights.
They will not find available award tickets on all partner airlines. All of the major airlines have partners, including many foreign partners, but the Web sites won’t show you all their flights even if your frequent-flier miles make you eligible for them. Examples: Delta, Continental, Northwest or Alaska Airlines miles can be cashed in for tickets on any of those four carriers—but not through their Web sites.
Solution: A good airline phone rep knows how to handle all of these problems, so it is worth calling if you can’t find the flight you want on-line.
IMPROVING YOUR ODDS
Reserve six months in advance. The best time to try to reserve a frequent-flier ticket is about six months before your travel date, not 331 days (about 11 months) before, as is widely believed. Though you’re allowed to book up to 331 days in advance, airlines generally don’t load all of the frequent-flier seats into the system that soon. If the award tickets you want are not available when you first call or check on-line, try again every week or two. Approximately one in five frequent fliers alters travel plans after making the initial reservations, putting the seats that were initially reserved back on the market.
Call after midnight. Consider checking availability when it’s shortly after midnight in the time zone from which the flight would be departing. Midnight local time is when tickets that were put on “hold” tend to return to circulation if the transactions are not finalized.
Travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. That’s when your odds of finding a seat improve by 20% to 30%. When your travel schedule is flexible, consider finding frequent-flier award seats before you pick a vacation week.
Consider connecting through an alternative airport. If your travel dates are inflexible and the award tickets you need are not available for departure from a nearby airport, consider expanding your ticket search to include departure from an airport you could fly to for a small amount of cash before you start the award portion of your trip. Example: You can’t find a frequent-flier ticket from San Francisco to Burlington, Vermont, but one is available from Los Angeles to Burlington. Round-trip flights from San Francisco to Los Angeles are available for less than $100—$400 less than you would have to pay for the San Francisco to Burlington flight.
Don’t bother with a waiting list. They often don’t exist. They’re just something customer service reps offer to get unhappy customers off the phone. And while you’re waiting for the airline to contact you, you could be missing out on newly available seats.
Check out first class. When tickets are not available for the standard number of frequent-flier miles, do not automatically resort to paying double the number of miles, which airlines often suggest you do because more seats are available at that award level. First check whether a first-class award ticket is available. First-class round-trip award tickets for domestic flights typically cost 40,000 miles—10,000 less than double-miles coach tickets.
Split the difference. “Split-award” redemption is an option on US Airways, Delta and Alaska Airlines. If you can find the frequent-flier seat you need for the standard number of award miles in one direction of your round-trip but not the other, you can opt to spend double miles for half the trip. For a domestic trip, that would mean 12,500 miles one way and 25,000 the other.
MAJOR AIRLINE PROGRAMS
The pluses and minuses of your airline’s frequent-flier program and how to get the most out of it…
American Airlines AAdvantage. It’s the largest frequent-flier program, and it is among the best at getting members the award tickets they want. The Web site lets users view availability for months at a glance. On the downside, American’s only domestic partner is Alaska Airlines, and one of its major international partners, British Airways, does not let travelers earn or redeem American miles on flights across the Atlantic. Frequent-flier tickets typically can be placed on hold for 14 days. 800-421-0600, www.aa.com.
Continental Airlines OnePass. Continental is mediocre at best when it comes to award-ticket availability, particularly on international flights. The airline’s on-line ticket-finding tools are a bit clunky to use, and the airline requires a Saturday night stay with 25,000-mile award tickets. However, Continental does have an excellent partnership with Northwest, Delta and Alaska Airlines. (The Saturday stay rule does not apply if you redeem your Continental miles on partners Delta and Alaska Airlines, which have no such rule.) Award tickets usually can be kept on hold for five days. 713-952-1630, www.continental.com.
Delta SkyMiles. Delta is toward the back of the pack in terms of ease of miles redemption but should improve now that the airline has emerged from bankruptcy proceedings. Delta offers many trans-Atlantic flights and has Northwest, Continental and Alaska Airlines as partners. Its on-line award-ticket booking system is very good. It allows split bookings if you can find a seat for the standard number of miles in only one direction and for double miles in the other. Delta’s on-line awards calendar covers an entire month at a time, in contrast to some that span only two weeks. Award tickets can be put on hold for 48 hours. 800-323-2323, www.delta.com.
Northwest Airlines WorldPerks. Northwest does a reasonably good job of making frequent-flier seats available, but its on-line ticket search technology is weak. Award-ticket seekers often are better off calling a phone rep to access any partner flights on Delta, Alaska Airlines or Continental. Northwest requires a Saturday night stay on 25,000-mile tickets. Award tickets cannot be placed on hold. 800-447-3757, www.nwa.com/worldperks.
United Airlines Mileage Plus. United has a good frequent-flier program overall. Its only domestic partner is US Airways (including the merged America West), but United is a member of the Star Alliance network, which includes AirCanada, Lufthansa and many others as partners. United’s on-line frequent-flier reservations system is not as easy to use as Delta’s or American’s, because it does not have a rolling calendar to check on earlier and later dates. Award tickets can be held for up to 72 hours. 800-421-4655, www.united.com.
US Airways Dividend Miles. US Airways is the worst of the major domestic airlines in terms of frequent-flier seat availability. Its on-line award-ticket reservations system is not yet completely coordinated with that of America West, now part of US Airways Group. On the bright side, US Airways is partnered with the United Airlines frequent-flier program—and they both allow split bookings. Award travel reservations can be held for up to 72 hours. 800-428-4322, www.usairways.com.
SMALLER AIRLINES
These three airlines make lots of seats available to frequent fliers…
Alaska Airlines. 800-654-5669, www.alaskaair.com/mileageplan.
Frontier Airlines. 866-263-2759, www.frontierairlines.com.
Southwest Airlines. 800-248-4377, www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards.
A different type of program…
JetBlue TrueBlue. Instead of award miles, you earn points—ranging from two points for short flights to six for cross-country flights. For every 100 points, you get a free round-trip domestic flight. 800-JETBLUE, www.jetblue.com/trueblue.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Randy Petersen, editor and publisher of InsideFlyer, Colorado Springs. 12 issues. $45/yr. He has earned more than 10 million frequent-flier miles and points. www.insideflyer.com
(Article originally published July 15, 2007)
Reprinted with the permission of:
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