The Extra Mile

Not All Free Ticket Offers Are Created Equal

Q&A: No Award Seats... Bait & Switch?

February 23, 2004 - As popular as JetBlue is for their roomy leather seats, inflight TV and simple low-fare pricing, sometimes it's the effect they have on other airlines which most endears them to the traveling public.

A case in point is American's current buy-two/get-one-free offer for flights between New York or Boston and Florida or California. Fly two American roundtrips on the designated routes between Jan. 7 and Apr. 15, in any class of service, to earn a free roundtrip coach ticket anywhere in American's extensive network, including overseas.

The promotion was clearly designed to counter JetBlue's recent incursions into the cross-country and New England-Florida markets, mainstays of American's business. And it was a pointed thumb in the eye of JetBlue in particular, which has no international flights to offer as incentives.

Since such major promotions are routinely matched by other carriers, this story inevitably escalated beyond a bilateral spat between JetBlue and American, at which point the tale took a cautionary turn.

When Delta responded with its own free ticket offer, it differed in only one significant respect from American's: rather than embracing all fare types for qualifying travel, Delta excluded T fares, a cheap, heavily restricted fares category. Otherwise, the offer was practically a virtual match.

But the same could not be said of United's free ticket offer, announced soon after Delta's.

Mileage Plus members who fly twice through Apr. 15 will receive a free roundtrip coach ticket to anywhere United flies. Qualifying flights are roundtrips between New York or Boston and Los Angeles or San Francisco, and between Newark and Los Angeles.

At first blush, the only apparent difference is in the qualifying flights. Since United has few Florida flights from New York and Boston, they weren't included in the offer.

But a closer reading of the fine print reveals a restriction to United's offer which substantially limits eligibility: "Qualifying roundtrips cannot include a Saturday night stay." That rules out most discount coach tickets, restricting the offer to those who purchase high-priced walk-up fares, typically business flyers.

American and Delta's are promotions for the many; United's is only for the few.

Current News & Offers

Earn double airline miles or points for stays at Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn) between Feb. 12 and Apr. 30.

Also through Apr. 30, Priority Club Rewards members will earn 3,000 points or 500 airline miles for every third night they stay at InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn or Staybridge Suites hotels, up to a maximum of 30,000 points or 5,000 miles.

And with Northwest's new Mileage Maximizer promotion, WorldPerks members earn extra miles for multiple stays at WorldPerks hotels between Feb. 15 and May 15. After registering for the bonus, members earn a 50% bonus for their second qualifying stay, a 100% bonus for the third stay, and a 200% bonus for the fourth and subsequent stays.

Readers: Miles on their Minds

Question from Sami

I was just told by Delta that they have no award seats for my wife and myself in September for 25,000 miles. However, if we are willing to give up 50,000 miles each, there are in fact seats available.

We expected 25,000 miles to be enough. Is this bait and switch?

Answer

The rules for successfully booking awards remain the same.

Book early -- up to 330 days before departure, when seats first become available in the reservations computers. Or book late -- within two weeks of departure, at which point the airlines sometimes release unsold seats for use as awards. Or book an unpopular route, on which demand for award seats will be low.

Even following the above advice, there's no guarantee that seats will be available at the so-called Saver level, 25,000 miles for a domestic award ticket in most programs. If not, the only option is to redeem twice as many miles for an unrestricted Choice award. In fact, based on the rise in the number of complaints I see on this topic, the airlines (and not only Delta) have upped the pressure on program members to redeem for Choice awards, a move which effectively amounts to an unpublished increase in award prices.

This falls short of the legal definition of bait and switch, but I can understand how you might feel misled.