Donating FF Miles?
Question:
> > In the next week I’m going to book an October trip to Asia. These have all > been AC & UA Star Alliance flights… > It’s funny, when you said "In the next week I’m going to book an October > trip to Asia," I couldn’t really process the sentence because I was having > such a hard time getting my head around the idea of booking a ticket nine > months in advance. I checked the headers of your message because my first > response was to assume the thread was created in September and your message > had been resuscitated by an errant news server (honestly).
Interesting… I’ve never been to Asia, I know I want to go, I know when… So why not book it now? That way I can get a points ticket. Then I can buy the Lonely Planet / Rough Guide and start planning. Cheers, Geoff in Vancouver, Canada
Response:
>>Since it’s gotten hard if not impossible to use one’s FF miles >I praise anyone who is going to donate their mile to charity, but I’m >confused by this statement – I see it a lot. Is it that people can’t / >won’t book far enough in advance? They’re not flexible with their travel >dates or destinations? Or ? Why can people never use their miles?
Yes, that’s it. Or if you have points with airlines that may fail (US, UA), there may be a stampede to alliance partners. That’s certainly the case with US. One friend used two short trip (15,000) awards to fly from Chicago to Boston via Toronto (ORD-YYZ, YYZ-BOS) we he could not use his US Dividend Miles on US or UA, even for late January, 2005. gld
Response:
> Since it’s gotten hard if not impossible to use one’s FF miles > I praise anyone who is going to donate their mile to charity, but I’m > confused by this statement – I see it a lot. Is it that people can’t / > won’t book far enough in advance? They’re not flexible with their travel > dates or destinations? Or ? Why can people never use their miles? > In 1999 I went to the Caribbean, in 2000 Europe, in 2001 England… I’ve > also been to New Mexico, Las Vegas, Toronto in the last couple of years. > In > the next week I’m going to book an October trip to Asia. These have all > been AC & UA Star Alliance flights… > Can someone shed some light?
It does seem to vary hugely by airline. I mostly fly Europe/SE Asia/Australia and rarely use US airlines. I had a heap of Thai airlines points (Star Alliance) and found it very hard to use them – I had to book 3+ months ahead and several times had to cancel and then book another 3 months ahead – it took me over 1 year to redeem my points, just before they expired. Mostly I use Singapore Airlines FF system (also Star Alliance) and have found no problems redeeming points, taking about 4 free trips in the last 2 years. One I booked only a few hours before departure in Singapore. The FF people were surpirsed at the request but gave me an eticket number over the phone and I was in the air a few hours later. The last one I booked was for the next day, no problem and the booking people did not even comment on the late booking. Qantas were more difficult, but not as bad as Thai.
Response:
Since it’s gotten hard if not impossible to use one’s FF miles, would donating those miles in the airline’s programs be a viable alternative to cash for charities? Many people are trying to cash in their US Dividend Miles on Star Alliance carriers (United, Air Canada, Lufthansa). One friend is flying from Chicago to Boston via Toronto on AC for a medical conference in a couple of weeks. A stampede is under way from the Dividend Miles program. That was the only thing that he could find to fit his plans for 2005, so far (one week into the new year …). He’s looking at donating the rest of his Divident Miles, and I got e-mail solicitations from United, Contental, AC and America West on their FF programs. Is it legit or am I just tossing away the mileage? Airlines have trillions of FF miles owed to their members and this looks like a scam to unburden themselves. )-; Otherwise, the idea of donating miles to fly relief workers is pretty appealing when one is unable to use them, that donation is the equivalent of cash ($100 per 10000 miles). By the way, if Red Cross workers fly over on a US FF and US goes under, are they stranded or will some Star Alliance partner bring them home? gld
Response:
>> Since it’s gotten hard if not impossible to use one’s FF miles > I praise anyone who is going to donate their mile to charity, but I’m > confused by this statement – I see it a lot. Is it that people can’t / > won’t book far enough in advance? They’re not flexible with their travel > dates or destinations? Or ? Why can people never use their miles?
I think it could be the book-in-advance thing. I can rarely plan a vacation (unless it’s a long-weekend thing like a wedding) more than a few weeks in advance. I’m almost never able to use miles. > In 1999 I went to the Caribbean, in 2000 Europe, in 2001 England… I’ve > also been to New Mexico, Las Vegas, Toronto in the last couple of years. In > the next week I’m going to book an October trip to Asia. These have all > been AC & UA Star Alliance flights…
It’s funny, when you said "In the next week I’m going to book an October trip to Asia," I couldn’t really process the sentence because I was having such a hard time getting my head around the idea of booking a ticket nine months in advance. I checked the headers of your message because my first response was to assume the thread was created in September and your message had been resuscitated by an errant news server (honestly). miguel — Hit The Road! Photos from 32 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Response:
> Since it’s gotten hard if not impossible to use one’s FF miles
I praise anyone who is going to donate their mile to charity, but I’m confused by this statement – I see it a lot. Is it that people can’t / won’t book far enough in advance? They’re not flexible with their travel dates or destinations? Or ? Why can people never use their miles? In 1999 I went to the Caribbean, in 2000 Europe, in 2001 England… I’ve also been to New Mexico, Las Vegas, Toronto in the last couple of years. In the next week I’m going to book an October trip to Asia. These have all been AC & UA Star Alliance flights… Can someone shed some light? Cheers, Geoff Glave Vancouver, Canada
Response:
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