After many years of collecting United Airlines MileagePlus miles with their United Airlines Visa Card I finally called it quits and cancelled it.

You ask why? How many times can you be turned down for frequent flyer tickets because there are no seats available or it’s double miles or nothing?

How many times can you be turned down for Star Alliance Airlines partners FREE SEATS because there is a limit imposed by United on those as we have learned recently?

What’s the use of the Star Alliance if you can earn miles but can’t get FREE SEATS I’m specifically referring to you United Airlines (freezing seats on US Airways and Air Canada)

In addition more things to infuriate a consumer
-no first class NYC to LAX then LAX to Cabo San Lucas or NYC to San Francisco then San Francisco to Cabo
-only coach on above flights with not much time between flights. Of course nothing on partners using other cites
-no seats from gateway (US Airways- Philadelphia and United- Washington and Chicago )airports to London or Rome or back from Barcelona on an United or partner itinerary without 2 stops

Why collect useless miles?
Why do I need United Airlines when I can just get it from American Airlines and have no problem?

Is United Airlines becoming as bad as Continental Airlines or is United Airlines worse?
I know people get seats on Continental Airlines problem is in 15 recent different attempts I have actually gotten tickets twice and that was at the double miles rate.

I collected miles in good faith, and now they are basically USELESS

To make matters worse United Airlines and Continental Airlines are getting together in the “Star Alliance”
- How frustrating two airlines joining and from whom getting a saver ticket from is like getting blood from a stone.

When is the public going to say no I’ve had enough – then stop collecting miles, cut up credit cards and let the airlines get the message
How about a Congressional investigation?

I’m not interested in hearing about yield management or when seats are released arguments, or what special things they do for very frequent flyers – they should stop playing games.
I want to book a seat in economy or business  without this nonsense. The airlines make  money from the miles they sell to Chase Bank, just like they make money from frequent flyers who buy tickets.

So goodbye United Airlines Visa after many,many,many years.
Continental Airlines Mastercard you just may be next- I’ll give you a few more tries. My patience is wearing thin.

“Who is to blame for the recent series of frequent-flier-program “enhancements” that have made it increasingly difficult to redeem miles for “award” tickets and reduced membership benefits?

Many of us in the press and elsewhere have often attributed those changes to the troubles of the industry caused by fuel-price fluctuations and the global economic crisis.

However, a closer look at the activities of most major U.S. carriers’ loyalty schemes by airline experts suggests that the main reason for those programs’ need to tighten their belts is the way they have been run for years.

“Frequent-flier programs are major businesses, but unfortunately, in most cases, they haven’t been run as businesses,” said Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, an airline consulting firm. “There is fiscal recklessness, and the outcome for the consumer is not attractive.”

U.S. airline programs are subsidiaries or divisions of the companies that own the respective carriers. They are usually profitable, even if the rest of the company is not, and their profitability is due in large part to their co-branded credit cards, Mr. Sorensen said.

This is where the problems began years ago, he added. The airline programs “have had a windfall of cash that has landed in their laps. With that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility, and that’s what the carriers have forgotten.”

They receive billions of dollars from selling miles to credit-card issuers, but they don’t use enough of that money for the loyalty schemes’ benefit, choosing instead to “spread the wealth” and help out other parts of the company. Sometimes, the frequent-flier programs are left with insufficient funds to cover their own costs, such as mileage redemption for “award” tickets.

That’s the case with United Airlines, Mr. Sorensen said. Last year, its Mileage Plus program pre-sold miles worth about $1 billion to its credit-card partner Chase – a major chunk of its annual revenue.

As readers of this column might recall, United has been blocking access for Mileage Plus members to thousands of “award” seats made available by its partner-carriers in the global Star Alliance, making it difficult for many of the miles it sold to Chase to be redeemed for flights. United, which has to pay partners for “award” tickets, says the blocking was put in place because otherwise it would exceed the budget it has to cover those payments.

The airline hasn’t said why that budget hasn’t been increased, given the new miles it has encouraged its customers to amass – not only from Chase, but also through the recently invented “award accelerator,” which allows fliers to double and triple their miles for a fee.

Mr. Sorensen’s answer is that “the cash [from Chase] is gone – it’s been spent on fuel” and other expenses. “In a sane business, a good chunk of the cash should have been set aside for ‘award’ redemption,” he said. “There is a tsunami of miles on the books that can’t be used, and in difficult times, the consumer doesn’t always get served very well.”

Even though United increased the mileage required to redeem “awards” by as much as 40 percent earlier this month and halved the lifetime of unused miles to 18 months last year, the blocking of partner flights is still around.

All major U.S. carriers have either upped redemption requirements or are soon expected to do so. Some, such as Delta and Alaska Airlines, have created new “award” levels meant to mask the reduced availability of regular mileage seats and charge even more miles, and Delta has also introduced “award” booking fees.”( via www.washingtontimes.com  ) by Nicholas Kralev

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read more of ” Frequent fliers question loyalty schemes “

“He knew he had the miles and thought he had plenty of time.

Yet when Greg Marzolf tried to redeem frequent-flier miles early last year for a ticket to Colorado over Christmas — several months away — the Pendleton, S.C., resident said US Airways told him the return flight was off limits.

That’s a blackout date, they said. What gives, Marzolf wondered.

As it turns out, US Airways — Charlotte’s dominant airline, with more than 80 percent of daily flights — has flagged several dozen dates on which travelers can’t use Dividend Miles. Some apply to U.S. travel, while others are for overseas flights.

As the cost of tickets continues to climb, travelers who hope to cash in frequent-flier miles are finding more hurdles to getting a free flight.

Besides requiring more miles and making fewer seats available, airlines have expanded blackout dates so they can keep seats open for paying customers, said David Stamey, director of consumer and industry affairs for the International Airline Passengers Association.

“The restrictions have gotten tighter,” said Stamey, whose group promotes passengers’ rights and provides discounts on hotel rooms, rental cars and insurance. “You don’t get to redeem your miles, sadly, for the trip you would like to take.”

Policies on blackout dates vary by airline. United Airlines and American Airlines said they don’t have blackout dates. Southwest Airlines, like US Airways, posts dates on its Web site.

Travis Christ, vice president for sales and marketing at US Airways, said the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier shares those dates so customers can better plan their frequent-flier travel. The dates are off-limits for miles, he said, because US Airways can fill planes with paying passengers.

“It’s pretty simple economics,” Christ said. “Those are very high demand days, and we want to be upfront with our customers.”

If US Airways made even a small number of seats available for frequent fliers, he said, it would have to make up that lost revenue somewhere else.

“You’re pushing down on the balloon, and it’s going to pop up somewhere else,” he said. “There’s no free lunch.”

Forget Thanksgiving

Some blackout dates are obvious, such as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday afterward. US Airways also has blacked out every Saturday from June 14 to October 11 — nearly four months — for flights to and from Europe.Other dates in March and April are in high demand because of school spring breaks and the Easter holiday, Christ said, adding that blackout dates are studied by the airline’s revenue management division.” (via www.charlotte.com ) by JEFFERSON GEORGE

Pointswizard.com Spin: Read more-click here

Travelers have been complaining more often about frequent flier programs — namely, the lack of award seats on desirable flights, escalating fees for ostensibly free tickets and quicker expiration dates for miles.
The airlines counter that they are giving away more awards than ever, despite generally fuller planes, and that most programs allow members to book any open seat on any flight, albeit in exchange for more miles.

In a sense, both sides are right. But this debate misses a fundamental change that has occurred in the economics of frequent flier programs in the last decade. What began 27 years ago as a way to win the loyalty of travelers has turned into a lucrative business for the airlines.

Many airlines now earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year by selling miles to partners like credit card companies and hotel chains. Those companies, in turn, give the miles to customers as sign-up bonuses or rewards for hotel stays. That revenue is critical for the airlines in an era of escalating fuel prices. But it has also changed frequent flier programs into more complex businesses, where fliers are just one of the constituencies carriers are trying to please.
“The real change over the years has been the evolution from being a loyalty program for the airline’s best customers to today being a currency program for anybody’s best customers,” said Randy Petersen, publisher of InsideFlyer.com, which tracks frequent flier programs.
The currency is measured in accumulated miles, which consumers value so highly that thousands of companies now purchase them at prices ranging from one to three cents a mile. (About half of all miles given out these days, in fact, do not involve flying.)

One way that carriers are trying to reduce the mileage backlog is by adopting stricter expiration policies. Miles now typically expire after 18 months or two years of account inactivity, instead of three years.
Airlines are also offering more ways for members to use their miles, like bidding for things like Broadway tickets at online auctions, trading miles for merchandise or using a combination of cash and miles for air travel. (via nytimes.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin: CLICK HERE to read the whole article. Thanks to our reader Rob F. for the tip.

 

“DAVID BORAK, an environmental policy analyst fromWashington, has 300,000 frequent-flier miles with United, but for five months now, he hasn’t been able to use them for a family vacation in Rome next summer.

While his dates are flexible, he said there were no seats available for the so-called Saver price of 50,000 miles.Exasperated, he posted a message on FlyerTalk.com, a Web site where travelers share tips about getting the most out of loyalty programs, venting his frustration: “I could not even find one lousy award ticket (economy or business) for IAD-FCO for the next 12 months!” he wrote, using the airport codes for Dulles and Leonardo da Vinci Airports. “What gives?”

There are similar gripes about nearly every frequent-flier program. “I’ve been looking for standard coach seats IAH-HNL for the 1st week of August since last October,” a Continental OnePass member recently posted, referring to the airports in Houston and Honolulu. “No luck whatsoever.” A Southwest Rapid Rewards member who couldn’t find any award seats from Virginia to Denver asked in a post last December, “Is this a trend?”

In a word, yes. Travelers have long complained about the difficulty of booking frequent-flier tickets, but now it’s becoming even harder. One issue is the airline load factor. Seats filled with paying passengers averaged 80 percent in the year ended October, up one percentage point from 2006. The industry considers that level a near-capacity load factor, and as a result, airlines have less incentive to offer award seats on planes they can easily fill with paying passengers.Meanwhile, airlines are issuing miles on credit card payments for everything from groceries to rent, resulting in a glut of miles competing for a shrinking number of seats. On top of this, airlines have been tweaking their frequent-flier programs, making miles both harder to redeem and cheaper in value.”( Via NYtimes.com)

Pointswizard.com Spin:  Click here to read the complete article from tomorrows Sunday N.Y. Times travel section

“Autumn is one of the best times of the year to use miles. Airline load factors drop after Labor Day, and less crowded planes mean more available award seats. If you’ve been frustrated in your attempts to use your miles for winter or summer travel, you may have better luck with a fall getaway.

Fall travelers can also make their miles go farther if they book award travel in the American AAdvantage or US Airways Dividend Miles programs. Both airlines offer special off-peak awards at discounted prices. You can save between 5,000 and 20,000 miles off the regular award rates.

During the month of September only, US Airways offers award tickets between the U.S. or Canada and the Caribbean for 25,000 miles in coach and 50,000 miles in business or first class. Regular peak-season prices are 30,000 and 60,000 miles, respectively.

American has a more robust off-peak award program. Here’s how much you’ll pay for flights from the U.S. and Canada:

25,000 miles to the Caribbean and Mexico between September 7 and November 14 (regularly 30,000 miles)
30,000 miles to Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela between September 7 and November 14 (regularly 35,000 miles)
40,000 miles to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay between August 16 and November 30 (regularly 60,000 miles)
40,000 miles to Europe between October 15 and May 15 (regularly 60,000 miles)
50,000 miles to Japan between October 1 and April 30 (regularly 65,000 miles)
Other destinations may be off-peak at other times of year, so don’t forget to check the American AAdvantage site again. With the miles you save on your fall off-peak travel, you may be able to afford a second trip courtesy of American or US Airways. That is, if you can find an available award seat during the rest of the year.” ( via smartertravel.com )

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Check award availability today for best selection.