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I tried to book a round trip flight to Omaha Nebraska and back to NYC flying in the middle of the week and returning Sunday for any 5 days in May 2014 starting Wednesday the 7th and the 1st week of June, 2014. I was told by the USAIR agent that there were no seats available for USAIR dividend miles holders although there were plenty of seats available for paying customers. I have had a USAIR Dividend miles credit card for over 20 years and never had a problem until now. Obviously USAIR is reneging on its agreement since I wasn't trying to book black-out dates four months in advance to Omaha. Anyone want to tell me what's up?
I have been accumulating and using FF miles from USAirways for about 25 years now . .. as well as Hilton Honors, points from various credit cards . . . your experience is pretty much what we have seen for the last three years or so.
It is getting harder and harder to get the seats using FF miles within any sort of preferred travel date.
I just got back from a 9 day Hawaii vacay, almost exclusively paid for by a combination of USAir FF miles, Hilton Honors, credit card points, etc. The tickets were hell to book - I actually worked on that for nearly two weeks off and on, trying to coordinate times when I could use my Hilton points on rooms that were available during the same period . . . and supposedly, when I looked at the FF miles initially (and talked to the first agent) - I was booking during a lower "rate" period, but as it turned out - the "off season rates" on seats were not available so I didn't get a special deal on the airline tickets. I couldn't get the First Class seats at ANY price. I booked these tickets in June! They said there were NO First Class Seats available, period. And truly, when it came time to board (CLT to PHX) - the plane was packed.
I have also found that despite hubby's platinum status, he rarely gets an upgrade (or even the opportunity to upgrade for $$) to First Class, except on smaller commuter planes, and even then - it has become a rare event in the last 18 months.
I think USAir would like to abandon its program but I guess they can't. At least, not right away. They are not making it so attractive to try to stack up the miles the way I have done in the past, though. I cashed in these miles for our Hawaiian vacation and from here out - I am never going to work so hard at accumulating the points, b/c I don't think USAir is making it easy to use them. When I think of the effort it took to put this vacation together, I am really really glad I had a great time, b/c the hair pulling ahead of time had pretty much soured me on the whole thing -- until I actually was standing on some lava rock and watching whales, lol.
PS> Our flight back to CLT was interrupted by Snowmageddon. We were sitting in the airport, knowing full well CLT would surely close (this was last Thursday) and yet, the plane was sitting there and we were counting down the minutes to boarding. Of course, the flight was cancelled and that was no surprise. The surprise was much worse. USAir did not hand out vouchers and the flight attendants at the gate simply handed out these cards and said - Call these folks - they will help you - and they walked off. Left the gate. That left people scrambling with cell phones and running to find luggage simulataneously. It was a mad house.
I mention this b/c we tried for three hours to get through to that number and of course, we were surrounded by other folks doing the same thing -- none of us could get through. We finally gave up and just booked rooms on our own (no discount; no voucher) and then had to deal with re-booking our flight, which took another three hours. Hard to believe. We couldn't get a flight out til Saturday morning. I was mightily disappointed that USAir's customer service was that crappy - to leave us all standing there with cards in our hands and no assistance whatsoever. I guess an airline has no obligation to help with rooms but you would think with all flights being cancelled into CLT, they would have helped with re-booking.
I just don't think airlines really care about the customer service much these days. It has become more and more like a cattle call and less and less like an upscale, fast way of getting from Point A to Point B.
As I had mentioned but disappeared, there is a ton of availability for MisterMobile's trip via the USAir website.
But what you described ani can probably be said about most of the airlines...isn't it Delta where their miles are called "SkyPesos"?
I just became only a Silver on USAir, and maybe they want me to fly more but I've got upgraded probably 3 of the last 5 times I've flown, with some of them on full flights. Yes AA and US will probably combine their FF programs into one, but for now I've found it pretty convenient to be able to earn USAir miles on AA flights, and still get early boarding and choice seat selection.
I do agree about this past week though as I was also trying to get back to CLT and had 3 flights cancelled and spent hours on hold and a couple hours more trying to call and the lines were so busy that the machine said to call back later. I guess it was a very extraordinary storm, but agree that was pretty ridiculous.
As I had mentioned but disappeared, there is a ton of availability for MisterMobile's trip via the USAir website.
But what you described ani can probably be said about most of the airlines...isn't it Delta where their miles are called "SkyPesos"?
I just became only a Silver on USAir, and maybe they want me to fly more but I've got upgraded probably 3 of the last 5 times I've flown, with some of them on full flights. Yes AA and US will probably combine their FF programs into one, but for now I've found it pretty convenient to be able to earn USAir miles on AA flights, and still get early boarding and choice seat selection.
I do agree about this past week though as I was also trying to get back to CLT and had 3 flights cancelled and spent hours on hold and a couple hours more trying to call and the lines were so busy that the machine said to call back later. I guess it was a very extraordinary storm, but agree that was pretty ridiculous.
I just wish they would have given out vouchers or a LIST OF NAMES of hotels that were honoring a reduced rate. They had to know that the lines would be tied up! So it seems like they were doing nothing more than making an empty gesture for the majority of folks.
I hope the FF miles program doesn't go to the wayside b/c it is a great perk. I have flown to Europe 2 x first class via my FF miles. So I am not complaining about past experiences . . . just not so sure about the future.
I am also debating if I am going to go to the effort I have in the past -- you know - charging stuff to a FF credit card and then paying it off monthly rather than using a debit card, that sort of thing. Booking Hilton rooms at a slightly higher price than competition simply to rack up the HH points, etc. I am a bit concerned about the overall program but hubby reminded me earlier today that we have gone through anxiety about "losing" our points and changes in the program in years past, lol. He predicts I will be hoarding points again within a few months!!!!!
A good alternative to accruing miles is the Chase Sapphire card... 20% off travel when booked through their site and 1 to 1 miles on any airline.
With airmiles themselves being less and less valuable, I opted to go with the US Bank FlexCard which allows you to redeem against flight prices rather than arbitrary airline seat availability. So, if there is a single open seat, it's available for redemption. Using Travelocity as it's booking platform, you can redeem at the following levels:
20,000pts = any seat upto $400
30,000 pts = any seat upto $600
40,000 pts = any seat upto $800, etc
It's not tied to a single airline PLUS it side-steps seat quotas. Try getting that $399 flight on US Airways with just 20,000 air miles.
As I had mentioned but disappeared, there is a ton of availability for MisterMobile's trip via the USAir website.
But what you described ani can probably be said about most of the airlines...isn't it Delta where their miles are called "SkyPesos"?
I just became only a Silver on USAir, and maybe they want me to fly more but I've got upgraded probably 3 of the last 5 times I've flown, with some of them on full flights. Yes AA and US will probably combine their FF programs into one, but for now I've found it pretty convenient to be able to earn USAir miles on AA flights, and still get early boarding and choice seat selection.
I do agree about this past week though as I was also trying to get back to CLT and had 3 flights cancelled and spent hours on hold and a couple hours more trying to call and the lines were so busy that the machine said to call back later. I guess it was a very extraordinary storm, but agree that was pretty ridiculous.
I wanted to redeem USAIR Dividend miles for my daugther to fly from NYC, so yes there was tons of availablity on the USAIR website, but 3rd party tickets can only be booked through an agent and no joy although I never told the agent about my 3rd party intent since she said flatly no seats were going to be sold to dividend mile holders for middle of week flights in May or the first week in June 2014, which is four months from now, right?
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With airmiles themselves being less and less valuable, I opted to go with the US Bank FlexCard which allows you to redeem against flight prices rather than arbitrary airline seat availability. So, if there is a single open seat, it's available for redemption. Using Travelocity as it's booking platform, you can redeem at the following levels:
20,000pts = any seat upto $400
30,000 pts = any seat upto $600
40,000 pts = any seat upto $800, etc
It's not tied to a single airline PLUS it side-steps seat quotas. Try getting that $399 flight on US Airways with just 20,000 air miles.
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Tons of availablity??
