Air Miles Seat Availability?

[bdtracey]

Alright, so I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm only 150 air miles away from getting two of our flights totally covered. I know it's only $45 to buy the extra miles but I'm also only a week away from my air miles account getting updated with the latest miles which will definitely be enough to cover the 150 air miles.

The flight is on Sept. 20, 2011 and it's on United. I also have to buy a third ticket which also complicates things.

My question is this: spend the $45 and book the air miles seats today along with purchasing the lone seat OR wait a week until I have all my air miles needed? Either way I'm purchasing the lone seat today while the price is still reasonable.

Is it too much of a gamble to wait a week when I've already got the other seat paid for?

 

[cab0899]

I was in a similar situation last week just need 78 more airmiles to get 4 tickets Wpg-Orlando, I did wait till the next week and got all 4. I think it's worth taking the chance.

We got 4 seats on direct flights Wpg-Orlando with Westjet Dec 31 and Jan 11/12. Only paid the taxes. Love those airmiles.

 

[proud_canadian]

Hey guys, just an FYI, the airmiles don't cover taxes, so last year when we tried to use airmiles for our flight they also wanted us to pay over $700 for the 4 of us in taxes.

Might be better to use the airmiles for disney or other attraction tickets instead and fly out of the US for the same price!

 

[cab0899]

The taxes were $718 for 4 of us. I've used airmiles for flights often so know about the taxes. I usually can save enough airmiles to use it for passes, airline tickets and even hotels when possible so no point in saving them.
This past winter our family of 4 went to an Mexico to a 5+ hotel for a week and only paid the taxes and that included all meals, flights, airport transport and hotels just by using airmiles. So even with taxes it's still a good deal if you can use airmiles for Disney passes, Universal passes, Seaworld passes, Disney hotels, Universal hotels and flights and just pay taxes on the hotels/flights, it's a good deal. It's much nicer to do a direct flight just a few minutes from home. No worries about snowstorms or Highway 75 being flooded.

 

[bdtracey]

So I got a little antsy and decided to spend the $40 to purchase the required air miles and book. Lo and behold the flights are gone. To add insult to injury, this happened AFTER I booked the other two flights through Air Canada. Now my option is to try and change my AC flight over to something that Air Miles has or I can book the same flight through United and just hang onto the Air Miles. I literally checked the Air Miles website 10 minutes before calling to make sure the flights were still there. The trick is that you have to call in to buy the Air Miles and then they book the flights for you from there. Super frustrated right now. Now I get to sit on hold with Air Canada to figure out if there is anything I can do. GRRRRR

 

[cab0899]

How very frustrating!!

 

[bdtracey]

Oh it gets even better!

So I book 2 tickets through Air Canada and call to use Air Miles for the other two. No dice...BUT...Air Miles had a different flight leaving Denver later on the same day that they could do. So I called back Air Canada and they're able to switch me over to the later flight that leaves Denver (if you're confused already we're flying Calgary to Denver then to Orlando) and not charge me the $75 fee. SWEET!

So I call Air Miles back...and guess what? The second flight is gone. Now I'm really starting to boil. They put me on hold for a supervisor with an approximate wait time of 30 min. The supervisors may be able to get me on the original flight that I had booked with Air Canada. So I call Air Canada from my cell phone and am waiting on hold with them as well. I get through to Air Canada and they start checking if they can get me BACK onto my original flight. Meanwhile, Air Miles comes on and they start seeing what they can do.

Air Miles is able to get me onto the original flight BUT Air Canada cannot without paying an additional $400. So I get Air Miles to check and see if they can get me on the later flight out of Denver. They can!

The part that really chaps me is that if the first person I spoke to at Air Miles could have put me through to their supervisor and then I'd still have my original flight. It's not like it's that bad. The original flight landed at MCO at 16:16 and the new one lands at 18:24. A 4 hour layover in Denver could be interesting with a 1 year old and a 3 year old though. Hopefully we can find them something to do or play them out enough that they sleep on the second flight.

Sorry for the length!

 

[chimo2u]

Oh it gets even better!

So I book 2 tickets through Air Canada and call to use Air Miles for the other two. No dice...BUT...Air Miles had a different flight leaving Denver later on the same day that they could do. So I called back Air Canada and they're able to switch me over to the later flight that leaves Denver (if you're confused already we're flying Calgary to Denver then to Orlando) and not charge me the $75 fee. SWEET!

So I call Air Miles back...and guess what? The second flight is gone. Now I'm really starting to boil. They put me on hold for a supervisor with an approximate wait time of 30 min. The supervisors may be able to get me on the original flight that I had booked with Air Canada. So I call Air Canada from my cell phone and am waiting on hold with them as well. I get through to Air Canada and they start checking if they can get me BACK onto my original flight. Meanwhile, Air Miles comes on and they start seeing what they can do.

Air Miles is able to get me onto the original flight BUT Air Canada cannot without paying an additional $400. So I get Air Miles to check and see if they can get me on the later flight out of Denver. They can!

The part that really chaps me is that if the first person I spoke to at Air Miles could have put me through to their supervisor and then I'd still have my original flight. It's not like it's that bad. The original flight landed at MCO at 16:16 and the new one lands at 18:24. A 4 hour layover in Denver could be interesting with a 1 year old and a 3 year old though. Hopefully we can find them something to do or play them out enough that they sleep on the second flight.

Sorry for the length!

WOW!! Sounds like an ordeal, I hope it all gets staightened out for you! The best "TAX" price I've ever paid was the taxes on my son's EXECUTIVE class aeroplan reward flight in FEB. Direct from Edmonton to Orlando....only cost us $64 in taxes!!! ETA: mind you, that was just a ONE way flight....I purchased us executive class going home, and Direct on West Jet Going....I still think $64 was pretty cheap for taxes!

 

[bdtracey]

$64 is super cheap for taxes. These ones weren't bad either, they were only $92 for the one way. Everything else I saw was upwards of $125-$145 for one-way. West Jet is usually the pricey ones too.