Now days, it’s gotten this bad, the father of the frequent flyer awards program who created the program more than 25 years ago, says that he’s now embarrassed by his business offspring. Airlines today are “stingy and greedy” in handling frequent flyer programs, said Rolfe Shellenberger, former project manager of American Airlines AAdvantage program. Even Shellenberger has problems as a former employee, saying that “Every time I try to redeem a trip, it’s unavailable.”

 

Among the issues that raise his ire, and many fellow frequent flyer mileage holders is the scarcity of award seats, hefty mileage requirements for awards, an array of booking fee’s, and of course moves to kill off your miles if you don’t redeem or accrue any for 18 months. Industry experts say that they are just trying to survive in a tough business environment. It may be time to divorce your frequent flyer program.

 

We just can’t seem to break up with our flyer programs, as the Airlines appear to be more interested in breaking their mileage awards vows with the American public. True, the torrid romance with mileage is cooling, and they are now getting so high- maintenance, with serious commitment problems.

 

This frequent flyer malaise has really pushed the buttons of Tim Winship, who has been publishing a frequent flyer Newsletter that is now online at www.frequentflyer.com. Tim Winship, adds “I’m not as emotionally engaged with the programs as I used to be, and adding that he’d even thought about cutting up his American Airlines credit card.

 

But miles are still free, and neither airlines nor consumers are ready to call it quits. These programs promote loyalty, experts say, while generating modest but steady revenue for company coffers from the sale of miles to retail partners, who use them as bonuses for customers. Rental-car companies, hotels, banks, grocers, restaurants, and countless other businesses offer miles. With credit cards, branded by one airline or earning miles for many, nearly any purchase can qualify. Mileage programs have become victims of their own success. They begin as a way to induce customers to fly more often with a carrier, but today they end up as rewards that appear to be more frequent-buyer than frequent flyer, per Winship. You might think of them as modern day S&H Green stamps.

 

Winship said, thanks to thousands of retailers that allow members to earn and redeem miles without even stepping on a plane. Frequent flyers have accumulated billions of miles, and no one really knows how many. But in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last year last year for instance, United Airlines estimated that its Mileage plus members held 495 billion miles. Winship says “By my count that entitles them to nearly 20 million roundtrip domestic coach tickets, at 25,000 miles each, on an airline that last year flew about 67 million passengers…that’s the problem. Demand for reward seats has far out stripped supply or of course what the airlines are willing to give program members. Want to fly standby…???

 

The two biggest problems according to Winship are as follows:

 

Award Availability: This is the No.1 complaint of frequent fliers, they always say that they can’t get seats for the dates and planes that they want, and Winship says the scarcity was “as bad today as it’s ever been in the history of the programs”. The now current president of the AAdvantage program Kurt Stache, claims it shouldn’t be so difficult. He says that although low mileage awards can be hard to get at holidays, at any given moment 7% to 10 % of American’s passengers are traveling on awards, most using free tickets, and not upgrades. To make things easier American Airlines has added a calendar on its website: www.aa.com, that shows which dates have award seats available.

 

Expiring Miles: The so-called “use it or lose it” deadline for miles, after bouncing around over the years, has more or less settled at three years. But recently some of the airlines have paired this back too. Delta cut them to two years, and US Airways and United reduced them to 18 months. BUT…. Remember: you don’t have to fly to keep your miles alive. You just have to keep your account active; for instance you might use 600 miles for a magazine subscription. (Check the airlines websites for offers). Granted it’s a nuisance to monitor these things, so be mindful that less vigilant fliers could end up losing thousands of award miles. 

 

www.frequentflyer.com

 

http://www.heromiles.org/

 

http://www.flyertalk.com/

 

 

 

http://www.redcross.org/donate/donatemiles.html

 

 

 

http://www.sellyourpoints.com/

 

Flying Coach and DVT