Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel
We welcome reader feedback on issues related to travel generally and frequent flyer programs in particular. Please use this link to submit comments.
United Award Travel
"As a weekly reader of your column and a moderately frequent flyer, i have been concerned, due to reader comments, about trying to book a United flight with some of my 125,000 air miles. But the time came and i went online to attempt to book a flight from SFO to Lihue, Kauai, a really nice direct flight from the Bay Area, avoiding the layover in Honolulu. This is, many times, a tough ticket and can cost a few hundred dollars more than other carriers to the islands.
"Imagine my pleasant surprise when I had not only multiple flight date options available, but also numerous seats on each flight--pretty much any seat available for paying passengers was also available to me. Granted, my travel was for January, but hey, isn't winter when everybody wants to go to the islands? I book pretty much all my travel through the carrier websites and, in this case, the search, the use of miles for payment online and the final booking was as easy as it gets. Hats off to United." [Bob M. - Santa Rosa CA]
Award Pricing and Availability
"Interesting, but I wanted a business ticket from Chicago to Sydney, Australia, and the only available award for the dates I wanted was the standard non-saver award for 270,000 miles, worth $2700. Not bad, but I only have 250,000 miles in my account. Well, after weeks of occasional calls and visits to the United website without luck, out of curiosity I clicked to find out how many miles a first class ticked required. Much to my surprise, the first class saver award was available on my dates, and the first class ticket was only 160,000 miles!
"Advice, DO NOT assume you will need more miles for business class than for first class. Bizarre." [Barry F.]
Rental Car No-Show Fees
"Just a comment if you're keeping score. Have wondered for years why the rental car companies haven't imposed a 'no show' fee. I always make a point of cancelling any reservation I don't plan to use, and as early as possible. It's only fair, in my book." [Ed N.]
Disappearing Frontier Bonus
"Back in October I signed up for a Frontier credit card (issued by Barclay's) based on the offer on the Frontier website offering 20,000 bonus miles after first use and another 20,000 miles after charging $750 by February 28th. After I didn't receive my second 20,000 bonus miles, I called Barclay card services and was told that they don't have any record that I was to receive the second 20K bonus miles and the manager had never heard of such an offer. They refused to help me.
"Of course I didn't print out the web page with the offer details and now they won't stand behind their offer.
"Have you heard of this offer? Do you have any proof that this offer existed? Have others complained about this same issue? Do you have any recommendations on how best to go about getting my promised additional 20K miles?" [Tobin C.]
[FrequentFlier replies - The only thing I can suggest is that you contact Frontier and ask whether they have any documentation of the offer's existence. Small consolation, I know, but this is an all-too-common occurrence.]
American Vs. Delta Europe Awards
"American Airlines requires double miles for overseas flights between May 15 and October 15. Delta doesn't do that. So, which airlines require more miles in (approximately) that time period and which do not?" [Jerry M.]
[FrequentFlier replies - American offers restricted coach awards to Europe for 20,000 miles each way during the off-peak period, 30,000 miles during peak season. Delta's Europe coach awards are 30,000 miles each way all year-round. And United's Europe awards are priced at 55,000 miles round-trip, again year-round. More important than pricing, however, is availability: How many seats are available for booking at those levels?]
Until next week...
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