Airlines really annoy me!!!

[MELSMICE]

I am looking at airfar for March & April. We have five $75 vouchers on US Air & five frequent flyer tickets.

Airfare from my neck of the woods is about $500 for March round trip!!!!!!!!! To use the vouchers I must go to the airport & redeem them. WTH!!! They must be used prior to April.

I checked on frequent flyer availability for April 10, 11 & 12 & nothing was available for any flights on those dates in coach class. Not even one ticket!!! Of course, there was availability in first class.

We are talking almost 11 months out, & in fact, couldn't even book flights for on April trip (because of return dates) until this past Friday.

The airlines are like one big joke!!

 

[DebbieB]

I have over 170,000 miles with US due to business travel. I checked flights for early December the day they came out (331 days) and no 25,000 mile roundtrips were available, everything was 50,000. They do sometimes become available later but everytime there is one it's either an evening to Orlando or early morning from Orlando, taking 2 days off your vacation (but the same number of hotel nights). If I'm going to spend 50,000 miles I want something long distance, like Las Vegas or California.

 

[bavaria]

I posted a link to a report awhile back about the 'value' of frequent flyer miles. United scored as one of the most available/valuable of American carriers.

I have used mine this year for two trips to WDW, and a trip to Germany. Most of my trips are booked 0-14 days before departure, and each time I manage to get my desired times/dates/flights/class of service.

Of course, I use Star Alliance which gives a good variety of carriers on my desired routes.

Last year I was able to book a ticket home on Lufthansa, using miles, 3 days before departure, during World Cup.

 

[TDC Nala]

Watch out, Easter is in March next year. Do they charge higher prices around Easter? I don't travel then so I am not sure but it's a high travel time because of spring break anyway.

 

[CarolA]

I just put a FF ticket on hold on DL for June 8.... (Washington DC) There were LOTS of "cheap" options on DL. My experience has been that things tend to open back up VERY close to departure, but that probably doesn't help most of you.

 

[bavaria]

yes, Carol, you and I are definitely in the minority here in regards to how we book our leisure travel... seems that it often benefits us more, though!

 

[Maine-iac]

We are talking almost 11 months out, & in fact, couldn't even book flights for on April trip (because of return dates) until this past Friday.

The airlines are like one big joke!!

I booked our flights down for April 17th, 2008 on May 22 (Delta) and our flights back I booked today. Paid $134 before taxes and fees each way which is the same as it would have been if I had waited to book round trip.

I found US Airways is one day behind Delta and United is about 12 days behind Delta. I just do not want to wait for JetBlue or AirTran.

 

[MELSMICE]

Watch out, Easter is in March next year. Do they charge higher prices around Easter? I don't travel then so I am not sure but it's a high travel time because of spring break anyway.

It is Easter time, however, our Spring break has been changed in our school district & it is not around the Easter holiday. One Orbitz, etc. the flights are less expensive.

May main "gripe" right now is the non-availability of frequent flyer tickets on any of the days at any time & also the hassle I'll have to go through to use the vouchers.

 

[bavaria]

it's an unfortunate reality, and some airlines have more availability than others.

I receive vouchers all the time from United and can't even use them for all my vacations before they expire. Luckily I live 10 min from my local airport, and in an airport almost weekly so it is much easier for me to use them.

I do however tell United that I prefer upgrade certificates over dollar amount vouchers as the upgrades are more 'valuable' to me. I don't benefit if I end up using the vouchers to pay for business trips.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Many airlines have made a point of limiting non-rev seats per flight. Naturally, popular destinations on preferred travel days of the week go first. Often, an entire family can't use miles on the same flight without using double More often than not, it will cost you fewer miles to take the first class seats than it will to pay double for the coach seats. American has added more non-rev seat availability per flight. When we need confirmed seats for a trip, I use miles. 90% of the time I can get seats on the day/time we need. In April when I booked our September trip I was able to get the 1st choice of travel days and the 2nd choice of travel time. Looking at the booking tool now, the weekend days are sold out at 25k, but sun-thurs has availability for 5 or more flight combos per day. It certainly pays to book early, but if you can't get a flight at 330 days out, that's ridiculous.

Once a year I fly NWA in order to visit my folks in the middle of nowhere and it's nearly impossible to use miles. I gave up trying.

 

[MELSMICE]

Looking at the booking tool now, the weekend days are sold out at 25k, but sun-thurs has availability for 5 or more flight combos per day. It certainly pays to book early, but if you can't get a flight at 330 days out, that's ridiculous.

I checked availability on Wed., Thurs. & Fri. I thought for sure I would find at least one or two seats on a Wed. flight & quite possibly the Thurs.

 

[safetymom]

US Airways used to be one of the best when it came to availability for booking with ff miles. Now that they have merged they are one of the worst.

I just booked 4 tickets on US for a trip later in June with no problems.