Just got off the phone with A/F we were able to use AMEX miles, and get a companion ticket, total price on Air France was $1127.06 for both (this is for April of 07!)....I have driven myself crazy previously searching...waiting...and decided that the aggravation was not worth the $$ saved..pay, get over it, add it to the cost and ENJOY I am beginning to realise that is almost impossible to get award seats free...same problem aggro/apprehension...not worth it, I think the awards miles are a waste, only good as we used it for a companion ticket.
Daniel and Priscilla in Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 634 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 25 July 2001
I just got an award ticket from Air France for October travel from Paris to New York, return from Chicago to Paris. It cost me just 50,000 miles for the round-trip ticket, plus 150 euros in taxes and other charges.
I've found that you never get anything if you try to do it online. Often I can't get anything when I speak to a human either, but I did manage to get a first-class ticket to Paris in April/May for 100 k miles. I called about 4 months beforehand. I'm not sure how I got so lucky. Now I'm trying to use my remaining miles to fly to Hawaii and they want to send me to Salk Lake City or the Midwest first, making it a very long flight. Although I have been able to use award miles with some success, I am no longer trying to accumulate miles and have cancelled the two credit cards that earned miles. Ah, it's just not like it used to be.
Christine
Posts: 135 | Location: Portland, Oregon USA | Registered: 06 January 2006
In the last 2 years we have flown using ff miles to L.A.-business class at 40 000 mi. each,and economy to Houston at 25 000 mi. each, Orlando at 25 000 mi each, NYC at 15 000 mi. each: and in the next 9 months we will be flying to L.A. and to NYC using our ff miles with Air Canada. It is so much easier for us to book these flights on line...agents can be cranky and try to give us a ridiculous routing.
Tip: we book as soon as the flights we want open up for booking ( almost a year in advance).
I have gotten one free ticket/year to Italy over the past five years. The bad news is that it requires a bit of time to keep track of the specials, change/max out credit cards at certain times, cosi via.
We have taken many trips to Europe with miles (my husband thinks maybe 7 or 8). However, we did think it was getting increasingly harder to get tickets. We used up all of our miles and switched from a Northwest Visa to a Capital 1 Visa which buys you the ticket. We have not actually utilized it yet but have friends who accumulate many more miles than we do on their Capital 1 owning a business and they say they never pay for a ticket anymore.
I've done this through our MBNA but as soon as I book our next tickets I'm switching to Capital 1. The nice thing about using either of these cards' "miles" is that unlike tickets that you purchase with real ff miles, you can accumulate miles on the airline for these tickets b/c they're purchased.
I've found that you never get anything if you try to do it online.
I agree with this--it is definitely worth the $15 United charges. I went on line today for a May, 2007 flight for our son to visit us using miles for business--nothing. So I called and was able to get exactly what I wanted--no problem. Well worth $15. We consistently find this to be true and we fly frequently--using either miles for upgrades or for total flight. We have never been able to do it on line.
Originally posted by chiaro di luna: It is so much easier for us to book these flights on line...agents can be cranky and try to give us a ridiculous routing.
I've had just the opposite experience. Altho I keep trying to book online to avoid a service charge or to earn extra miles, I just never seem to find what I'm looking for, and eventually I end up calling a real person. Luckily most of the time I get someone who's helpful, but if not, I just say goodbye and call later.
We originally starting using our AMEX and MBNA cards to accumulate FF miles in hopes of being able to occasionally find overseas tickets. Instead, we find it easier to purchase those tickets and use our FF miles for domestic flights, car rentals, etc. I think we get more bang for the buck that way, and it's much easier for us than trying to plan a year out for our vacation. The last time I checked for a domestic flight that we were interested in, though, the price was $175 pp rt and it would "cost" us 50K FF miles to purchase it. That's WAY too much...So, I don't know what our next move will be...
We have been using ff miles on American to upgrade from coach to business class every other year for a while. But this year American began to charge for using your miles to upgrade on international flights - $250. each way! So we had to for a coach ticket + $500 each to go business class! Now I'm looking to switch airlines.
Posts: 176 | Location: Cool, CA | Registered: 17 February 2003
We had a Capital One card last year and I remembered there was a catch but could not remember what it was so I recently checked their policy on line. Now I know why we cancelled the card. They require a lot more miles than other frequent flyer programs. If the ticket is $600 then you need 60,000 miles. If you want Business Class and the ticket is 2,000 then you need 200,000 miles. Way too much. I just booked Italy for next May with American and for 90,000 miles got tickets with no cash charge. The fare for that flight would be at close to $3,000 so with Capital One I would need 300,000 miles as opposed to 90,000.
Posts: 1107 | Location: Laguna Beach, CA | Registered: 09 February 2006
It is true that you need 60,000 miles for a $600 ticket, but you can chose ANY $600 ticket. Plus now you get 1 and a quarter miles for every dollar spent. And, when you buy a ticket on Capital 1 miles, you accumulate the miles that you fly. When you fly on an airline frequent flier ticket, you accumulate nothing. (Could I do a commercial or what?)
We have lots of American miles and we prefer Business Class so Capital One would definately not work for us. I just checked the cost of our flight for next May and it is $8,000!!! Which would mean 800,000 miles!! I have already booked our outbound flight from LAX to London and then London for Milan. I will book the return as soon as it is available and all for 90,000 miles per ticket. That 1/4 mile more would never come close to makeing up the difference even if you throw in the miles for the trip so we'll stick with American.
Posts: 1107 | Location: Laguna Beach, CA | Registered: 09 February 2006
I haven't studied the Capital One program carefully, but I was under the impression that I could buy any ticket, then based on the number of miles I had, they would reimburse me for some dollar amount based on the number of points I had...did I completely misunderstand? Do I need to have the full amt of points for a ticket?
I am not aware of any part of the plan that reimburses you money. Maybe I did not understand the question. Well, to sum up, we still try to accumulate Northwest miles by flying but our credit card miles have changed to Capital 1. Since we do go overseas about twice a year, we should still be able to get enough for a free ticket now and then through those miles, and hopefully one now and then due to spending!!
The way Capital One works is that you charge the ticket (you make the reservation at the best price you can get) on your Capital One card, and then get reimbursed by a credit to your account. The rebate for travel is 1.25% of dollars previously spent using the card. You can also get a 1% strictly cash Capital One rebate, not tied to travel.
I haven't redeemed Capital One miles for about a year. The last time I did so, I called them to ask whether I needed to have enough points accumulated to pay the full amount of a ticket. The rep told me, yes I did. But then when I went online to do the redemption the web site let me cash in just the amount of points I had although that was not quite enough to cover the ticket.
So I don't know whether the rep had bad info (all too common in the "customer service" world) or whether they hadn't changed the web site to reflect some new policy.
It is true, I think, that if you can manage to book a FF flight, you'll generally get more value for the same money. But I still think the FF airline cards work best for people who fly a lot all the time on the same airline, so you can rack up points from your miles as well as money spent. I'm not one of those people, so I like the flexibility of the Capital One card.
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i havent use it lately but i did used quite a bit of free tickets; i guess the idea of online is like a public medium. the main things to remember is to call yourself the airline and do it at least 6 mos ahead. Then it should be easy. Yes it is a hassle, its your miles:you should be allowed to use easier but but there is always a catch:and the 15 USD charge welll one more penny to them; and THEY NEED IT!! practically all are in chapter 11
I just returned from a trip to Africa for which I was very grateful for the ff 1st class ticket! I booked (Delta through Amex miles) last fall for Washington DC to Atlanta to Jo'burg, to Capetown and return with a couple of detours to Botswana & Zimbabwe and return. All this for 100K miles, when the RT ticket just from Atlanta to J0'burg would have cost $7000. For the 18 hour flight across the ocean, even 1st class is a challenge. It is true that one must book for a popular destination many months in advance. There were only 2 ff 1st class seats on my flight.
Posts: 18 | Location: Washington DC metro area | Registered: 06 July 2005
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