SOUTHWEST AIRLINES VACATIONS SPECIAL

Valid booking dates: 8/14 - 9/24/08 at 6 pm Central Time
Valid travel dates: 9/28/08 - 12/23/08
Five-day advanced purchase required.

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“My wife’s grandfather, Sam Valencino, had a wonderful saying that he’d repeat often with a deep Southern drawl and a large scoop of sarcasm: “Everything’s up but wages.”
The thing is this, however: We all know it’s true. When it comes to travel, it seems no fuel surcharge is high enough. No rental-car tax is too high. No hotel “resort fee” will go uncollected. Never mind fares. Now we’re seeing the same upward creep in frequent flyer mileage plans.
So here’s the nagging question: Now that we’ve spent our way to the poorhouse to build up this big bank of miles, why can’t I find “saver tickets” for the family to fly from Anchorage to Miami and back? Huh? Inquiring minds want to know.
Welcome to the hide-and-seek game of frequent-flyer redemption.
I spend most of my time trying to game the system over at Alaska Airlines, since that’s where I have most of my miles. In fact, I just ordered a bunch of magazines with the remainder of my Delta miles, which were set to expire. My choices included Men’s Health, Nursing Week, Teen Cosmo and Spin. Woo-hoo.
In case you didn’t notice, the cost to call in to Alaska Airlines and book a mileage ticket went up by 5,000 miles. If you can massage the Web site, www.alaskaair.com, you still can nab some of those saver awards for 20,000, plus the obligatory taxes. But this is one example where Alaska is able to offset the millions and millions of miles people are earning by charging up their credit cards.
Oh, don’t worry too much, though. Alaska and partner Bank of America actively push the credit-card deals, including having Alaska flight attendants hawk the cards on every flight.
The credit cards, the phone tie-in with GCI, the groceries at Carr’s and the partnership mileage arrangements with other airlines all add up to a mileage-churning machine that adds thousands of people into the qualifying pool of travelers that have 20,000 miles and want a free ticket on Alaska Airlines. There are tie-ins with mortgage companies, wine clubs, florists and most hotels and car rental companies.
In fact, Alaska Airlines is offering 20,000 bonus miles if you sign up for one of its credit cards on their Web site. That’s a free ticket. If you can find one.
Many travelers, myself included, have struggled to find the 20,000-mile tickets during the busy summer travel season. On two occasions this summer, I pulled the trigger and booked first class on Delta, which cost me 45,000 Alaska Airlines miles each.
But as we ease into the fall, more of these seats tend to open up. Just today, I found 20,000-mile tickets in August and September from Anchorage to Orlando and Newark. To Chicago and Boston, the total went to 25,000 miles because at least one segment was on Delta or American, two of Alaska’s partner carriers.
If you’re having trouble finding the right date weeks or months in advance, you might have better luck waiting until the week before you travel. Personally, I hate to play “chicken” with travel reservations. But it’s true that more mileage-redemption inventory appears just a few days before departure. And since there’s no advance purchase requirement on mileage reservations, that’s a real option for flexible travelers.” [Via Anchorage Daily News]

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